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Howdy folks! I haven’t posted a hunt in a long time, and I got a chance today to go to a very productive location I’ve discovered. This was the first time I’ve had any amount of time to look, so I ended up pleasantly surprised by what I found. Unfortunately, I don’t know the species of brachiopod, but I suspect they might be Pulchratia, though you’re welcome to correct me, I don’t know invertebrates very well yet. The site was created from being a man made pond, where the removed soil was then dumped a ways from the pond and after many years it has eroded down to expose some really nice stuff. While I’ve had a few occasions to look for things for only a couple minutes, this was the first time I found any complete brachiopods. I’m the first to have searched the site due to it being private land of a friends, and there’s a lovely variety of stuff on the site. It was about 35 degrees Fahrenheit with 45 mph wind gusts, so it was pretty bitterly cold, but a rewarding experience. My favorite discovery of the site was the inside of some of the brachiopods. Many of the inner section have become entirely quartz, and are quite striking. I apologize for the dimness of the specimen photos, my camera isn’t focusing so I had to resort to my phone. View of the embankment, where most of the fossils were found Edge of the man made pond Brachiopod on the ground Very old shell, still with the bullet, I left it well enough alone just in case. (While I know it would need the hammer of the gun to go off, I preferred to be safe since it had been in the elements a long time ) Though I will add, at this site, one needs to have some sort of personal protection due to the over abundance of feral hogs. There are hundreds on the property and they react aggressively to people. Complete Brachiopods Cross section of a broken Brachiopod with a quartz crystal Bryozoa Hash Crinoids and Bryozoa Loose Crinoids, Brachiopod pieces and Bryozoa Other/Unsure My favorite find of the day was this brachiopod in matrix, which had a lovely surprise when I looked at the broken end.

Beltzville State Park is one of those rare parks where collecting is allowed. The adjacent federal land, owned and operated by the Corps of Engineers to operate the dam there, is accessible ONLY WITH A PERMIT. It is a functioning spillway and there is a gun range for the local police, so you and USACE need to make sure you are safe. With that important disclaimer out of the way, here's the good stuff! Beltzville is a very productive Middle Devonian site which includes the PA State Fossil, the trilobite Eldredgeops rana. Although no one in the group found any definite complete buggies, a lot of froglike trilo faces went home in our buckets! It wasn't all trilos, though. We found bryozoa, corals, pteria oysters, gastropods, crinoids and probably a dozen kinds of brachiopods. I led this trip for the Natural History Society of Maryland. The trip director made this lovely video of our day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdB5atWQmeQ Yes, I realized about 20 minutes after she took that video of me showing off the pop-outs that I was holding the fronts of the cephalons of one species, not the eyeballs of the other. This is what I get for not looking with my reading glasses first! Most of my finds I gave to whoever was sitting closest to me, but here are a few I kept.

On July 1st, 2021, I went for the first time to a public, personal site and was very pleased with the results of my fossil excursion. The locale consists of several exposed formations, namely the Liberty formation I was hunting in. In my region of southwestern Ohio, that's known to be one of the best fossil-hunting formations due to its remarkable preservation of particularly fragile Ordovician life, even when compared to the excellent fossil preservation quality of other formations in the area. The thirty-three degrees Celsius heat was rather hot by itself, and as the sun's rays made me question my latitude, the rainwater in the ground from the rain several hours prior was evaporating and creating a blanket of humidity-saturated air which prevented my body from transpiring. That was lovely. On top of that, this was above a very tall cutaway, so there was this constant updraft of hot, humid air coming from the bottom. Needless to say, conditions were extremely hot and humid. A thermos filled to the brim with refreshing, ice-cold cranberry-grape juice was a lifesaver, as otherwise I would have certainly overheated and becoming a sizzling omelet atop a frying pan of Ordovician fossils under that laser of a sun! With that being said, this is my first post regarding a fossil hunting trip in three years! While I have not been active on this forum, my paleontological trips have been ever more numerous. I remember you all, as I have been secretly watching in the meantime. I am a fossil sniper, after all. I should mention that I am an adult now, and I would prefer to have the "Youth Member" tag removed from my name. I plan to conduct a full survey of my entire collection before attending university, so look out for that. My collection is considerably sizeable now, having nine years of fossil-hunting under my belt. Here are my finds! Best & rarest for last, though all of them are incredible in their own right. Every edge of a square on the grid is half a centimeter. Assorted rugose corals. Gastropods. Branching bryozoan. The central branching bryozoan specimen in the prior figure under 200x microscope magnification. The skeletal cavity wherein individual zooids once resided 440 million years ago are evident, each 0.2 millimeters in diameter. The sheer level of detail in the preservation is as mind-blowing as this fossil's age. This photo is the product of using a computer to compile 140 photos focused at different layers of the specimen, as microscopes have a very narrow depth of field. I'm sure you all find as this fascinating as I do, so I compiled a photo for you guys. Assorted brachiopods, with two bivalves on the top left. I collected some superb Rafinesquina alternata, which don't tend to come with both fragile and thin halves intact, together, and out of the matrix. There were also some Leptaena that I did not photograph, but were lovely and undulating. The rest are common genera here, except for the fourth one from the right in the bottom row and the partial one of the same species immediately northwest of it, which I would like help identifying. Expect to see it soon on the ID forum. Assorted associated, straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopod septa. A larger example of associated, straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopod septa and a partial living chamber. Calcified straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopod. I always love the crystals on these. Flexicalymene meeki on the left and right. The left one is perfect, and is a very large example of what I generally find--my largest self-found complete trilobite, in fact--so I'm very happy with him. The right one is heavily weathered along its left and right, but the medial length of the pygidium, thorax, and cephalon are all present in some way, and the pleurae and glabella are resonant with Flexicalymene meeki, and I'm very happy with him, too. Adorable, curled little finger hugnuzzles of the ancient sea. Drum roll please! Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 This is a huge living chamber of a straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopod! Unlike the septal segments, the living chamber is very fragile with its thin, unsupported walls. This means it is very rarely preserved. Hence, in my near-decade of fossil hunting, I have never found a complete living chamber with its outer shell included until now. Let alone of this size! The only reason this one survived is because of the encrusting bryozoan that grew over its walls and thus strengthened them after the animal died--Figure 5 demonstrates the layers of the bryozoan well. This is also demonstrated on the side without bryozoan strengthening it in Figure 4, and how it simply crumpled due to the weight of sediments that accumulated on top of it after the animal died. Interestingly, one side has much more encrusting bryozoan than the other--this suggests that immediately after the animal died, part of the shell was resting on the silt of the ocean floor, preventing bryozoan from growing on it. The contrast in the thickness of walls of the living chamber & encrusting bryozoan growth on opposite sides of the fossil is evident between Figures 1 and 2, where in Figure 1 the walls of the living chamber are quite thin (one can tell from the thickness of the dark cracks on the bottom left), whereas in Figure 2 the walls are visibly significantly thicker (and layered from the encrusting bryozoan, upon zooming in). Deducing all of this is so cool. Additionally, Figure 3 zooms in on the bottom left fraction of the visible living chamber in Figure 2, and it actually shows the bryozoan growing around the edge of the living chamber walls and into the living chamber. This means that's the very outer rim of the living chamber! (In Figure 3, the white line is the living chamber wall, and the layers around it are the encrusting bryozoan. The light tan stone inside is just limestone.) On top of the sheer rarity of a fossilized living chamber, especially of this enormous size, having the edge of the living chamber preserved with enough detail to show the bryozoan that that grew into it over its rim—almost half a billion years ago—fascinates me. To finish this post off, there really is a mystery in every fossil. With the encrusting bryozoan only growing one side of the living chamber in the final specimen, and the subtle, hard-to-spot detail of how it grew around the rim and into the living chamber, it's like every fossil is a murder mystery (literally) and we have to be Sherlock Holmes and figure out details about how the animal died. Considering this was 440 million years ago, we're all some pretty hardcore forensic scientists!

I wonder what we can see in this limestone with a lot of microorganisms displayed together. Some is obviously coral, but there are more things. The rock is from the Upper Ordovician in the Oslo field in Norway. The size is indicated by the distance between the two blue line being 1 cm. You can enlage the picture a little to see more clearly the smaller things.

Atactotoechus fruticosus (Bryozoa) Kashong member, Moscow formation, Middle Devonian, New York Found 4/09/2021. Size - 6"x 4.2" This turned out better than I thought it would. When I find these bryozoa colonies, I have no idea how complete they are or what they will look like until I start piecing them back together. This colony is missing some pieces but a lot of it was saved from erosion/oblivion. The base of the colony was uneven so I used some modeling clay to help display it in its upright position. The last photo was my attempt to bring the colony back to life Happy Collecting

There are fossils in the background gray sedimentary, but so much better preserved in brown! Why? Almost like this pile of creatures is on display, a 7 inch blob just laying on top of gray stone. I'm more interested in how these were preserved than what they are.

This is an odd little rock that I found at my son's land in Franklin County today, near Lost Creek (Alabama). I am seeing what I think is an area of bryozoan fossils of some sort on it, but then I saw this tiny little shape that is encased inside of something else. I thought it was a brachiopod at first until I looked up closed with my trusty macro lens and saw teensy dots along the edges. Is this another type of bryozoa? And, if so, why is it encased inside of something? Thanks!! Ramona

A few months back I won an auction from @sixgill pete and part of the lot was a bag of matrix from the Waccamaw Formation in Columbus County North Carolina. The Waccamaw Fm. is a marine sand and shell hash that has been correlated numerous different ways with a varying range of ages applied to it in the past, but as it is currently interpreted, it is Pleistocene in age (Gelasian and Calabrian Stages or Upper Blancan to Irvingtonian if you prefer the NA names) and found in South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina. The bag was chock full of molluscan goodies and I am steadily working through the identification of those. One thing that caught my eye amongst all the shells were these little saucer shaped bryozoans similar to Lunulites except that most had a little grain of sand at their center. They are small (generally 2-3 mm in diameter, largest one is 7 mm across), but there were several hundred of them. After staring at them under the microscope for long enough, I recognized that there were at least two different types in here. Here is a shot of my sorting tray with all of them in there. A quick check of the two great publications I have from the North Carolina Fossil Club gave me some excellent pictures but three different names. A check of WORMS showed me that only one of those names was currently accepted so I began my search to see what was what knowing full well that bryozoan identification can be difficult and involves a lot of terminology that I am not well versed in (I have to admit, when ID’ing my collections, I am prone to lump the Paleozoic bryozoans from a given locality in one container and just be satisfied with that). A search of threads on the Fossil Forum led me to a couple where they were mentioned, but no defining pictures or ID’s. Here are a few pictures of what we are dealing with and I will apologize right from the start for the poor quality pictures. I really have to get a better setup for taking microfossil pictures since I tend to deal with small stuff a lot. I have decent microscope where I can look at them, but it is not set up for pictures. These are the two more easily identifiable forms, the picture on the right shows two of the same species but in one you can see the sand grain that is the starting point for the bryozoan, it sometimes gets covered or lost in growth and/or fossilization. So, after gathering and reading through a bunch of references from the early 1900’s onward I think I have the correct ID and most current name, but am open to any suggestions from those familiar with these little creatures. At the very least, hopefully this can serve as a helpful guide to someone who may have come across these, but struggled to put a name to them. There is a great publication by Canu and Bassler (1923) called North American Later Tertiary and Quaternary Bryozoa which provides lots of information, plenty of descriptions and enough illustrations to find both of the forms I had recognized. Specifically, they identified a species called Cupularia denticulata from the Waccamaw Fm and its description matched the form on the right above (just to make things interesting, there was another genus of similar bryozoa called Cupuladria, yes, just one letter different – ugh!). From this publication I had a potential name for the two types, could see where the names in the NCFC publications were coming from, and just had to track down what had changed in the intervening almost 100 years.

Hello folks! In Kaliningrad dark and cold time. Even colder on beach. So this last trip report in this season. For first it's search places. This is Svetlogorsk.

I hope this is allowed in the Fossil ID portion of the forum. I have learned so much here that I just want to "give back" for a moment. I am a photographer by trade and I want to share a few photos that show the beauty of bryozoa - trepostome bryozoan fossils in this case (thanks to the help from folks on this forum!) These are not huge and monumental discoveries, but the more I study them, the more I am fascinated by them. The more I learn, the more I NEED to learn. These creatures are beautiful in form, color, and substance. I have no questions in this post - just wanted to say THANKS in the way I know best - through my photographs! These are macro photographs - up close and personal with a very large, bryozoan loaded rock from Pulaski, TN. I am not reducing the resolution as much this time, so this will take a few posts. Blessings! Ramona

I am on a mission to determine if I have different types of fossils in the bottom of our creek bed than I do in the rocks in our yard. This is the first rock I have photographed and I saw a bryozoan fossil I didn't recognize! At least I think it is bryozoan... I have learned not to make assumptions... I recognize the fossils on the right of the photo as fenestellate bryozoans. The portion on the left is what I am not sure about - the honeycomb like part. It has some of the characteristics that I am used to finding in the fenestellate bryozoan fossil rocks, but it also reminds me of the trepostome bryozoan, since it has the appearance of being encrusted. I also read about Monticulipora bryozoa and lamellar cyclostome but I don't have the depth of knowledge to know the difference. And then there is coral? Honeycomb coral? Seems like this is too small? The small rock on top was part of the rock at first but it fell off when I was cleaning it. with a toothbrush and water. Also, as a bonus question - I get those, right?!! - what might the two types of lines on the side of the rock be? There is one type that is a single dashed line but the other one is a pair of dashed gray lines that separate and then come back together. There are quite a few of each of these on the rock - I can provide better photos if needed for identification. For those who have not been bored by my bryozoan posts yet, LOL, this rock was found in Huntsville, AL. Thanks!! Ramona

For the Columbus Day weekend my girlfriend planned a three-day trip down to Southwestern Virginia as a birthday present to me. The plan was to do a little sightseeing, go on some hikes, enjoy the fall foliage, and, most importantly, collect some fossils. Unfortunately Hurricane Delta had other plans for us. As the weekend approached it looked like the entire weekend would be soaked with rain. We tried to change our reservations, but we were not allowed to postpone. Not knowing what to expect for the weekend, we made our trip. Sunday was to be my big day of fossil collecting. It was also the day that Hurricane Delta was expected to pass through Southwestern Virginia... Lucky for me, luck turned out to be on my side (at least in part). I had an all-day fossil trip planned, but due to the weather, I had to cut the trip in half. After a later start to the day than I had hoped for, we headed towards two sites that I had identified for the day. Both were exposures of the Middle Ordovician Benbolt Formation. A few showers on the drive but for the most part the rain held off while we collected. Our first stop was a large, open road cut. The limestone there is just covered with brachiopods, trilobite pieces and bryozoa I thought the number and orientation of all of the bryozoa in this hash plate were very cool There were a lot of bryozoa at this site. Some small and some large, like these pieces of Mesotrypa sp. and Batostoma sevieri My favorite bryozoan found here though was Ceramoporella sp. This piece of Corynotrypa inflata comes in a close second. This bryozoan is encrusting and was often found on the inside of loose valves of Strophomena sp. I am still trying to identify all of the brachiopods. I believe the left and bottom center ones in the second photo are Rafinesquina champlainensis while the right most one is Multicostella platys Another really interesting fossil was this undetermined sponge One of the unfortunate things about this site is that because it is so exposed, the fossils there weather very quickly. This is most apparent on all of the trilobite pieces. Here are two cephalons and a pygidium of Illaenus fieldi I think this is a right cheek and eye of Eoharpes sp. Here is an additional mystery trilobite piece

Recently I have taken interest in fossil hunting after discovering a plethora of fossils from some farmland in Southern Indiana. It is my understanding the fossils are from the Devonian period. My grandsons (5 and 6 years old) and I have collected several specimens I’ve the last couple of months. I have been searching the Internet for weeks trying to correctly identify our finds and just when I think I have something identified —I find other possibilities. I would like to make displays for the grandkids and label our other collections appropriately. I am in hopes this community would help identify the specimens, and provide advice on how best to label the fossils. I appreciate any assistance that can be provided. Thanks. —Bill Shingleton PS: All the fossils depicted are from Jeffersonville, IN.

Hello, FFers: I'm wondering if anyone can tell me anything about these filamental fossils from the U. Ord of Kenton County, Kentucky. Given the structure under the mike, I'm guessing bryozoan, but I'd never seen anything quite like this before. Can anyone tell me more? Including, maybe, an ID? (Or a different direction, if I'm wrong about their being bryozoa.) The scale in the first pic is in mm. Thanks!

Last weekend I got a chance to do some fossil hunting in a creek in Greene, New York. I am a unsure if the exact formation I was in but I know it was upper Devonian. Brachiopods were quite abundant, especially spiriferid ones. I also found a couple nice bivalves and some bryozoans/corals.

I was able to get some much needed "me time" yesterday. With all the worries of the world I have been in a foul mood lately, but I am happy to report that my mood has brightened significantly. . There is nothing like crawling around on a road cut, and hunting fossils, to really lift one's spirits! I spent a couple of hours at an upper Ordovician road cut that has been on my list to check out. It is an exposure of the Grant Lake Limestone. Shortly after I arrived, I realized that I was in for a real treat! This particular exposure is more fossil than limestone. Brachiopods are everywhere! Vinlandostrophia dominate the exposure; with Hebertella coming in a close second. Other brachs are also found, but less abundant. Orthoconic nautiloid fragments are frequently found and bryozoan encrusting is a common sight. I also found a few gastropods, and one trilobite piece that I am excited about. Unfortunately I did not take pictures in the field. It was a conscious decision. I just wanted to enjoy my time, relax, and focus on the hunt. I'll get some next time as I will definitely be going back. I did take a few pics of my better finds at home. Enjoy! First up are the Brachiopods. I found some nice whole Vinlandostrophia, and Hebertella, and what I think is Rafinesquina ( @Tidgy's Dad ) . I also took home a few single valves for study of the internal structure. I think with a little bit of clean up these will look great! I was happy to find some orthoconic nautiloids. They have been sorely lacking in my collection. I will have to research what species are found in this formation to come up with an ID. I have a few ideas, but need to confirm. Here are a few gastropods and bryozoans. I can't resist the alluring whirls of a gastropod. They seem to be uncommon in the areas that I hunt so I grab them whenever I see them. I believe these are new species of bryozoa that I will be adding to my collection. Which is exciting! Here is a tril-o-bit that I found. I'm very happy with it. Typical trilobite fragments from this area are not usually identifiable. Except to say they are possible trilobite pieces. This is a cephalic doublure of an Isotelus. Thanks to @piranha for help with the ID. All in all it was a great time. I got to relax a bit, forget my troubles, and brighten my mood. I also added some nice pieces to my collection. It was a good day!

My first attempt here. I'm having a great time exploring the Mogollon Rim area near our home here in Arizona. The Kohl's Ranch area near Payson is famous for its Carboniferous brachiopods, but I have a piece that has obvious bryozoans. But in this photo there are two pieces that are "fern" shape. The longer of the two is about 1/2 inch long. They have me stumpred.

Help request! I am putting together a tool for judging rock age based on very crude, whole-rock, hand-sample observations of fossil faunas/floras -- the types of observations a child or beginner could successfully make. I view this as a complement to the very fine, species-level identifications commonly employed as index fossils for individual stages, biozones, etc. Attached is what I've got so far, but I can clearly use help with corals, mollusks, plants, vertebrates, ichnofossils, and the post-Paleozoic In the attached file, vibrant orange indicates times in earth history to commonly observe the item of interest; paler orange indicates times in earth history to less commonly observe the item of interest. White indicates very little to no practical probability of observing the item of interest. Please keep in mind that the listed indicators are things like “conspicuous horn corals,” purposefully declining to address rare encounters with groups of low preservation potential, low recognizability, etc. Got additions/amendments, especially for the groups mentioned above? Toss them in the comments below! Thank you..... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tVm_u6v573V4NACrdebb_1OsBEAz60dS1m4pCTckgyA