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Would love to know the species of these spirally shell fossils. I think they are from the late Miocene but not sure. I'm also curious if the oblong rock intrusions in the first pic might be fossils as well? The location is the East Bay Hills in between the San Francisco Bay area and the Central Valley of California, USA. Thanks!!!

Found these along a creek bed about 30 miles inland at about 500 ft. elevation. Any ideas?

Found this rock at half moon bay in California. It leaks out a black tar substance and I have no idea what it is. It has 4 little prongs that look like tooth roots and it’s shaped like a molar. Any help would be appreciated.

Saber-Toothed Mammal Fossil Unearthed in California Sci News, Mar 16, 2022 Paleontologists Uncover the Oldest Sabertoothed Predator Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, March 15, 2022 The open access paper is: Zack, S.P., Poust, A.W. and Wagner, H., 2022. Diegoaelurus, a new machaeroidine (Oxyaenidae) from the Santiago Formation (late Uintan) of southern California and the relationships of Machaeroidinae, the oldest group of sabertooth mammals. PeerJ, 10, p.e13032. Yours, Paul H.

Does anybody know of some decent hunting sites in California? I know of Latham shale, but I'm not sure if it's very beginner friendly.

Hello all. I found this on a beach in Santa Cruz, CA earlier today. No idea what I'm looking at - all of the similar teeth that I looked at online didn't have a base like this one. Thank you for any help.

Found this today, which I think is a fossil of leaves? Thanks! Location: Monterey Formation shale, Monterey County, California (Miocene) Outside of Carmel Valley, near Garland Ranch, among pea crabs (Pinnixa sp.) Description: About an inch and a half in length (I could get exact measurements). It looks like they have a complete margin(?) with a central midrib and veins that alternate. From a single split, so, positive and negative sides.

Found on beach north of San Francisco. Area has Merced deposit fossils, mostly marine sediments Pliocene-Pleistocene but I believe there are also terrestrial fossils in the area. What is it? It looks vaguely like lichen. or possibly a seed? Part of the attached rock was very black and shiny and flinty and had a sulphury/smokey aroma.

Hey guys new to the forums and thought I’d make a post to have you guys help identify some possible fossils that i found in a local creek after heavy rains.There are lots of mission era ranches so there is a possibility of them being old but not fossilized cow bones. Let me know what you guys think

Not sure if this is anything. Could it be a fossil? Found in Southern California yesterday.

Found on my last trip to the Marble Mountains Latham Shale. I found this when just a little bit was sticking out of the hillside surface. Took me most of a day to extract. As you can see, it didn't as they say "come quietly" I used a couple little tubes of super glue to hold it together as much as possible before extracting it but it still came out in more then a few pieces I spent about a week getting it back together as much as possible (I mean really, who doesn't have some bolts and screws left over when putting their car back together ) I have a lot more advanced prep to look forward to (scribe and abrasion). That will be much further down the road as I'm just getting that set up going and will be a long time before I'm going to be comfortable enough to tackle something like this. Mostly what is found are a few scattered cephalons and a rare complete trilobite once in a while. This slab happens to contain 31 cephalons (from partials, partially buried and complete) and 1 partially buried complete. Plus 1 I have no idea? When I get better photos of that I'll post for ID help. So, the photos follow the order from in-situ find to finished. I finished it as 2 large parts instead of 1 bigger piece. A little extra item in the upper right corner.... my Secret Santa gift waiting for me to open on Christmas Eve Here is the 1 partially buried complete. I think it's an upside down Olenellus clarki This was the most repair by far I've ever had to do. Now, in the distant future I'll start the harder prep to finish it off

I am not sure where to start looking, but this looked interesting. Not sure if there would be fossils in it, but like I said I have no clue. I am near Forest Falls CA.

OK, on my few trips to the Latham Shale in the Marble Mountains of Southern California I have found a few things that I'm just not sure of. I will include any info before each photo. Scale: little marks are 2mm, bigger numbered marks are cm 1: Ok, first I will include 2 photos of what I question as maybe trilobite hypostome. I haven't found any good illustrations of Olenellus hypostome. I've found probably 10 of these. They all look the same shape though many different sizes. 2: Next, I find a few of these each day. The cephalons from the trilobite species of this age tend to stay in one piece but this reminds me of the anterior lobe of a glabella. I have no other idea. It is round and inflated (about 4mm high) and will pop off the matrix. 3: This one I can't nail down at all. Is it a worm or what???? 4: This is a ? Looks kind of tooth-ish but I have no idea. I might try to get better photos when I find it again (still packed from my flights and driving) That is it. I've found at least a few of each of these except number 3. Thank you for your time and help.

In October of 2021 I made a 4 day trip to the Marble Mountains of Southern California to look for trilobites. The order of note is Redlichiida. The biggest percentage is Olenellus followed by Bristolia then Mesonacis. The vast majority of finds are just cephalons followed by thorax pieces. Last year I hunted here about 8 days. I probably found over 400 cephalons (could be a way higher) but only 2 completes with 3 maybe's as there are buried. With all that I've only found 1 pygidium on its own. There are a few other fossils to be found at the site. A couple brachiopods, a hyolith, and a few other invertebrates along with trace fossils are also among the possible finds When I'm visiting family in Arizona this is my new go to spot..... mostly because it is the closest with trilobites (which of course are the best fossils out there ) It takes me about 6 hours to drive there so it makes sense to spend some time on the site. I usually end up hunting well into the night to make my time count. There are a few sights to see along the way as well, the Amboy Volcano National Monument and the ghost town of Amboy. Both are along the Historic Route 66. Scale shown in the specimen photos is: little marks are 2mm and the numbers are cm Amboy sunrise The site is near the old town of Cadiz. Here is a sign near the turnoff for the site. Once onsite you have to pick a spot and start digging. There is about 2ft of very broken and fragmented shale overburden to deal with (between the red lines) Bring a mask! This stuff kicks up a TON of dust and it's not really that healthy to breath in. This spot has been know for decades and as such the overburden from the upper digs is burying the lower sections. Would be nice if we were allowed to bring in some bigger gear to remove a lot of it to make accessing the lower areas practical. But, being on BLM land, only regular hand tools allowed. After picking my spot to play, and digging the overburden out of the way, it was time to break rock. My spot for the next 4 days So, as I stated, the vast majority of finds are lone cephalons. They range in size from a couple mm to over 10cm! Unfortunately the large ones are so hard to find intact. With the rock being so fragile / fragmented sometimes they are in dozens of tiny pieces making it about impossible to fix. So, you keep digging and splitting to find more. Mesonacis fremonti cephalon And, sometimes the preservation is weird or just awful And then you find a nice large cephalon that isn't broken (and stays that way when you try to remove it) Olenellus nevadensis cephalon (I think) One of the best large ones I've found yet. There are quite a few smaller ones to be found in decent shape. Sometimes they are really little if you keep you eyes open Olenellus clarki cephalon (I think. The smaller ones are harder to tell for me as I have not found a good reference) Sometimes you get lucky and find a multi plate with nice examples I believe this is a Olenellus double (not quite sure of species yet but it appears to be 2 different species. I really like this multi. 4 individuals all right side up. It appears to be 3 Olenellus clarki and one I haven't ID'd yet (still wrapped from travel) Double Olenellus clarki with one ventral and one dorsal (positive and negative) My only pygidium after looking at thousands of trilo - bits It appears that when they molt that the parts are barely held together. As such they tend to fall apart quickly. That is part of the theory as to why so few completes are found here. As such I did find this large thorax section. I'm hopeful that the rest is buried but it doesn't look promising (positive and negative) But after 8 total days of digging I only have a few complete. Most are partial buried. BUT, I finally found one that popped out just great! It's missing a tiny bit of cephalon but I can live with that. A little prep would uncover the hidden pleural. And maybe clean up the extra cephalon. Olenellus clarki Since this is my closest accessible spot I'll keep going back. There are a number of other species I can still try and locate complete ones, or at least nice cephalons of the different species. My dream is a large complete one. And now that you have (or I have in this case) collected your finds a word of note: since this is US government land you are allowed to collect BUT no selling or trading of specimens. You may give them away but no compensation. Speaking of this, in the future I will have some to give out once I figure what I've got and pull out my keepers. There is more to come but my computer and the internet aren't talking well at the moment so I can't download more photos. To Be continued

Sorry if this is the wrong topic category, I don’t have much experience with this forum. I recently found out that there are Cambrian fossils in the Marble Mountains in California, and I’m wondering what the laws are for collecting there. I’ve always wanted to collect Cambrian fossils and that’s the closest location to me, but I don’t want to break any laws. If it is legal, what tools and equipment should I bring? Thanks!

This was found in the Pliocene marine Pico Formation of Southern California. I'm leaning towards a marine mammal but I'm not even sure if this is bone or part of an echinoid test.

I am just going through some miscellaneous pieces that I have in my collection. I received these 3 pieces from my fossil mentor Walter Lietz, about 30 years ago, he received them in a trade with a fossil dealer from California named Judy Owyang. I met Ms. Owyang a couple of times when she would come up to the Chicagoland area and meet at Walter’s house. All 3 pieces are to have come from Maricopa Brea and are supposed to be bird fossils. I was wondering if someone knows what type of bird the claw belongs too, it looks like a raptor to me. This next piece is supposed to be a bird foot bone. This last piece is supposed to be a bird neck Vert. Any help would be appreciated.

I found this scallop shell while walking on one of the hiking trails at El Moro Canyon in Orange County in Crystal Cove State Park, but I wanted to ask what species of scallop this specimen represents, because the marine Vaqueros, Topanga, Monterey, and Capistrano Formations are exposed in Crystal Cove State Park.

So I found this rather large specimen embedded in rock near the cliffs of half moon bay on redondo beach, California. Found amongst barnacle scallop and clam fossils as well. I’m thinking ammonite or nautilus, or something of the like.

Found this on 11/11/21 hiking near the shore of Lake Camanche in Amador County, CA. Camanche is a reservoir fed by the Mokelumne River and is pretty low this year, exposing some good rock hunting spots. Last year a ranger with EBMUD discovered fossils of mastodon, camel, horse and more in this watershed. We found lots of petrified wood and this one item that to me looks like a tibia or fibula because of the ridges that slowly spiral around it. All of the petrified wood was much lighter on the outside I believe from calcite. This item didn't have any of that on the outside, was much darker and splintery looking, like a chicken bone. Inside there does seem to be some calcite and there was some sandstone that I sprayed out before the picture. It is 6" long and 2" wide and is hard as a rock and heavy, just like petrified wood. The center is hollow on one end but solid on the other. I would think a branch or root would be hollow more consistently from end to end. And the hollowness is quite wide, if this was a branch it would be very weak. It was near the shore of the lake with a bunch of other random rocks. Further away from the shore are lots of sedimentary rock cliffs that I believe are caliche. I am very new to all of this so I may not be observing things correctly, most of what I just said I've learned just in the last couple days researching online. Would be great to know if it's a bone or not, and even possibly from what animal! Lake Camanche satellite view and spot where item was found attached as well.

Hello, I’m new to this site. I found this fossil in my backyard. Is it a claw or bone? thank you for your help in advance !!!! Emilie

I found this in the front yard of a house in Oakland, California. The owners are having there property landscaped. Just a muddy blob yesterday. Well folks any ideas?