Search the Community

Found in my backyard in southern california. Hard to get a good pic of it, but the center of it is a cone shape. Circular and wide at the top, with the pointy part towards the inner/center.

Found this while digging in my backyard in Southern California. More specifically, Cerritos, which is just a few miles north east of Long Beach. I uncovered a whole layer of interesting rocks, a huge chunk of breccia, shale, sandstone, and even a ~2 in. long quartz, but this one actually looks like a coral to me. I can add close ups if necessary.

Hi everyone, I have a few teeth that I have always wondered about. I found another one the other day looking through washed matrix. Let me know what you think. Largest tooth is 18mm smallest is 9mm. I have only these three from all the years of collecting.

Hey everyone! This was found in Southern California in Plio-Pleistocene and Pliocene loosely consolidated gravel and was wondering if it was bone? The area it was found in produces a bunch of petrified wood and possibly some Coprolite. What do you think? Thanks in advance!

Over the weekend, I decided to take a trip to the Santa Monica mountains for a hike and a fossil hunt. There was information about the site in "NEW UPPER PALEOCENE SPECIES OF THE BIVALVE PLICATULA FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA" by Richard L. Squires and Louella R. Saul, which contains Late Paleocene marine life. This is probably a good opportunity to warn fellow hunters that it is not a smart idea to go quickly up a canyon in near 100 degree heat. Under the early afternoon sun I walked too quickly and made the mistake of not pacing out the hike! Despite plenty of water intake I was still lightheaded by the time I found the site, and a little dizzy. I rested in the shade immediately and ate the lunch I had packed while cooling off. Then I got to work examining the scree for a while before heading down the canyon to my sweet AC. The spot: Unfortunately, not much caught my eye this time. Marine fossils I took home: While splitting, these concretions popped out. Anybody know what they are? I've been enjoying rearranging them. Lower left may contain a fossil, I'll send closer pictures if anybody wants to see. As well as this, which I believe is one of the above split open. It has a ringed, deviled egg quality. I found a similar piece in the Badlands of SD and was surprised to come across this here. If there's a technical name I'd really like to know it! Do pack plenty of water if you hunt around here for the next month or so, you'll be doing yourself a big favor. And go slow!

I'll preface this with that fact that this was my first time fossil hunting so these are probably just be random rocks haha. These were all found at Agate Beach, CA, where some petrified bone and shells are known to be found. Pencil is for scale

Hello, I found these shale fossils on sulpher mountain hiking trail in Ventura california. I think one might be a fish scale and I have no idea of what the other could be. Any ideas? Thanks for looking

We found this specimen (there was another one next to it with slightly smaller diameter) at Bolinas, California. Too many kids playing nearby and one of them took the other specimen and it was tough to collect with care. Going back to dig for more and asking for the second specimen, once we do I will share a more complete photo. For now, can anyone shed some light please.

Last year, to celebrate finishing my undergraduate degree, my girlfriend and I went on a long (9,000+ mile) road trip around the western US and at long last (a little over a year since their discovery) the last of the fossils we found are out of the refrigerator and I’ve finally gotten all of them photographed. Here are some of the highlights and best fossils we found. A rough map of the route of the trip While the trip wasn’t entirely fossil centric we wanted to hunt at a few cool spots along the way. We chose to visit 5 fossil locations, the first of which was Clarkia Fossil Bowl in Idaho, a fantastic location for Miocene age leaves (Langhian Stage, ~15Mya) tucked behind a motocross track. These poor fossils have been through it all in the year between when they were found and when I finally got them dry. They’ve been soaked several times, gone mouldy twice, frozen at least once and flown across the Atlantic Ocean, all before spending the last 8 months in the refrigerator. Amazingly all but two of them survived perfectly including one of my favourite finds, a tiny flower. A maple leaf (genus Acer) still partly covered in matrix but with the stem intact. At some point I hope to get this one prepared. The best leaf find of the trip, with beautiful red coloration and mottling from fungus. A partial leaf, with beautiful vein preservation. The next spot was the American Fossil quarry in Kemmerer Wyoming to look for Eocene fish (Green River Formation, Ypresian Stage, ~53-48Mya). Splitting though the material left out by the quarry we found a few fish, primarily Knightia and Diplomystus. The best Knightia, including the best fish of the day with its head still partly covered. Some of the Diplomystus. The first needs some repair as it broke through the tail. The second has a counterpart as well and I’m hoping to frame it soon. And a mystery fish, I don’t know what species this is, it could just be Knightia or Diplomystus but it doesn’t look like the others we found. The star find came close to the end of the time at the quarry, a section of a puddle layer packed full of Knightia, at least a dozen fish piled on top of each other. The quarry manager was kind enough to let me take the blocks without splitting them thinner since the material is full of fractures and likely would not have survived. The layer as it split in the quarry (US size 13 hiking boot acting as a rough scale). The three pieces I managed to recover. The blocks are currently in a storage unit in Washington until I can figure out how to get them prepared. I am hoping the first two pieces can be reunited and the part and counterpart can be mounted side by side but I’m unsure about how to accomplish this. If anyone who prepares Green River fish has any ideas please let me know. The third locality we visited was Westgard pass in Inyo California, hunting for Cambrian archaeocyathids (Poleta Formation, Cambrian Stage 3, ~ 520Mya). We were only there a short time as there was a lot of driving to do that day, but I still managed to find one example in cross section. My girlfriend was more lucky, finding four examples. These are our favourites, particularly the third, which exhibits some dimensionality in addition to the cross-section. I’m absolutely thrilled to find anything Cambrian, and to make things even better the fossil locality is just down the road from the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, home to living trees more than 4,000 years old and one of my favourite spots on the whole trip. We also visited Capitola Beach to search for rolled cetacean bone. I found two examples with one clearly showing the cancellous internal bone texture. To cap off the trip I wanted to do a fossil hunt in my home state of Washington. Since I still don’t know where to go to look for the elusive Pulalius crab, we decided to search the West Twin River site for shrimp concretions (Pysht Fomration, Oligocene, ~22-33Mya). We found over a dozen of these containing partial shrimp. I think they are all Callianopsis clallamensis since this is a common species at this locality. The first concretion that I found after identifying the right material. Another shrimp nodule containing a large section of claw. The head of a shrimp. Two non-crustaceans, a gastropod internal mould and a beautiful white bivalve in a small concretion. A mystery concretion with something eroding out from both ends. And last, one of the strangest concretions I have ever seen. The outside is hardened but the inside is a soft clay consistency with several bits of shrimp shell, completely the opposite of the hard in the middle concretions I’m used to. In all, it was a fantastic trip. I would love to go back to all the sites we visited, and there is so much more to explore next time I’m stateside. I’m looking forward to getting out hunting again. Stay tuned for the next big trip to celebrate finishing our masters. Benton

Thought I would show some of the Fossils I have found locally. These have actually been setting in my garage for over 20 years, on a shelf. They are from the Modelo Formation, late Miocene. I am familiar with the Modelo Formation as one finds it in many road cuts or eroding out of hills sides all thru the Santa Monica Mtns; the Simi Hills and the Santa Susana Mtns. I use to spend a good deal of time splitting pieces of Modelo, looking for the fish fossils one can often find in them. a Friend of mine from years ago & myself just called all the fish we found Herring, though I am not certain that's what they are. Some look like Herring, but others look like Sardines and even Anchovies. They run in length from 1 inch up to 9 inches, possibly 10 inches. I think we just liked the fact we found cool looking Fish Fossils. It is fun splitting along seams as you hear this sound not unlike that of ripping a piece of Cardboard slowly. We knew we were likely to find fish fossils when we'd hear that sound... a number of the Fish we'd find came out headless or the head was disarticulated and hard to figure what we were looking at. But it didn't matter - it was just Fun looking at an 18 million year old plus fish. two of the photos are of the body and partial tails. , which is usually what we would find. the third photo is what i call a 'Puke', it looks like some other fish puked the remains of a smaller fish they had ate.. I am not 100% on that , but it seemed to fit nicely as a description.. These pukes are interesting in and of themselves. I have never unearthed a larger Fish fossil in the Modelo, but I know where there is one you can go look at, it's in Gaviota State Beach near Santa Barbara. The boulder it's in is on the Beach back towards Santa Barbara, the fish is probably 18 inches or more in length (Hard to tell as the back end is still covered in Shale), It looks like a Kelp Bass (Calico Bass) to me. .. I haven't visited it since 1989, I do hope it's still there.. These fossils don't look as awesome as many posted here, But I like them myself.... Thanks for your time, DEAN ~~~~

Hi, First time on this site and in need of advise. A BF & I found this sand dollar fossil at Stinson Beach a couple years ago. I want to make an effort to ensure I’m storing it right. I’m also curious how to clean at least the sand off, but maybe separating the large broken chunk from the (fingers crossed) undamaged sand dollar attached. Would that be detrimental to the fossil? thank you for all time & help, I can confidently say I know nothing. X Jake

Hey everyone, I found this rock, which looks like a chunk of petrified wood to me in Southern California. This piece was found a mile or less away from an area where I know petrified wood has been found. I'm not sure what the formation that I found it in is. Any response is appreciated. Thanks!

San Diego, California NBC News San Diego, California Channel 10 News CalTrans Press Release Publications about Otay Mesa San Diego County, Robbins-Wade, M.J., 1990. Prehistoric settlement pattern of Otay Mesa San Diego County, California Master's thesis, San Diego State University Kennedy, M.P., and Tan, S.S., 2008. Geologic Map of the San Diego 30’ x 60’ Quadrangle, California Kennedy, M.P., and Tan, S.S., 2008. Correlation Chart Kennedy, M.P., and Tan, S.S., 2008. San Diego 30’ x 60’ Quadrangle Pamphlett (Description of Geologic Units and Geology) Tan, S.S., and Kennedy, M.P., 2002. Geologic Map of the Otay Mesa 7.5’ Quadrangle, California California Geological Survey Regional Geologic Maps California Geological Survey Preliminary Geologic Maps Yours, Paul H.

While spending the holiday weekend at Lake Almanor, I decided to take an afternoon trip out to Taylorsville, California to look for some fossils. According to a geologic map I found, this site is located within the Jurassic hardgrave sandstone. I’m not very familiar with Jurassic marine invertebrates so I’m not able to identify any of my finds. But I figured it might be interesting to some to show some fossils from an out of the way site in Northern California.

I wanted to ask if any fossils have been found in Coastal Canyon Park in Newport Coast, California, because most of the sediments in Orange County are Cenozoic in age (for example, the fossil otariid Eotaria and the fossil walruses Gomphotaria pugnax and Titanotaria orangensis have been found in the Miocene of Orange County).

I did not collect this. Found in a box of miscellaneous fossils at a rock show.

Took this photo of an unnamed eschrichtiid from the Pliocene San Diego Formation of San Diego County in March 2019. Until the 2000s, the fossil record of gray whales was confined to the Pleistocene, but thanks to the work of Michelangelo Bisconti, it is apparent that gray whales emerged about the same time as the oldest rorquals (Eschrichtioides was long considered a balaenopterid, but eventually recognized as a gray whale relative).

The balaenid specimen SDNHM 43880 I photographed at the San Diego Natural History Museum in December 2017 was once referred to Balaenula, but Churchill et al. (2012) recovered it as sister to the bowhead whale rather the right whales and Balaenula, and recent erection of Archaeobalaena dosanko for the one balaenid specimen from Japan previously referred to Balaenula makes clear that the previous referral of SDNHM 43880 was untenable. However, it is unclear whether SDNHM 43880 is a new genus and species or alternatively a new Balaena species due to the cladistic position of SDNHM 43880 obtained by Churchill et al. (2012). Churchill, M., Berta, A. and Deméré, T. (2012), The systematics of right whales (Mysticeti: Balaenidae). Marine Mammal Science, 28: 497-521. doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2011.00504.x

Hi all, just found this on the beach in San Clemente, California, USA. I assume it’s a rock, but the bottom shape is so toothy, I wanted to check. It’s 4 inches long by about 2 inches wide. I included photos of the front back and side. Any help is appreciated, thank you!

I found this sticking out of the dirt on a hiking trail in southern California, Palos Verdes area. It was on a hill where there are a lot of rocks and I have found some other fossils in the general area (mostly just small plant fossils and a couple of tiny fish fossils). I am trying to figure out what it is. The top is domed, like a half cynlinder, and it has a hole in the middle. The length is about 3 inches. The hole is exactly 1 cm and perfectly round. There is a lighter color to the outside compared with the core (see photo that shows in interior edges of the hole) leading me to think it might be a fossilized bone. One end has a scoop in it that looks like another hole, but is very shallow. The bottom looks more like a regular rock. I read that one way to identify a fossil compared to a rock is to touch your tongue to it. It sticks to the tongue, as would be expected from a fossil. I am thinking it might be a branch with an insect burrow hole in it, or a bone which had a hole carved into it. The hole goes about half an inch in and then stops.

Hi all - in the hopes of attempting to reach a wider audience, and anyone who has collected possible sea otter fossils, I'm sharing the first two posts from my blog "The Coastal Paleontologist" in a short series on sea otter paleontology and evolution. The first one is mostly a bit on sea otter biology, and the second is the first one that really deals with the paleontology aspect. The third (and fourth?) posts will deal with what the limited fossil record can tell us about sea otter evolution. The sea otter fossil record is quite poor, and I'm hoping that some of you may have found some fossil specimens and might consider making them available for scientific study. Anyway, here's part 1: https://coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-terrible-fossil-record-of-sea.html And part 2: http://coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-terrible-fossil-record-of-sea.html Part 3: will update as soon as I get it finished! And a teaser - the left mandible of the holotype specimen of Enhydra macrodonta from the Crannell Junction locality right off of Highway 101 near Arcata, California. I spent about 3 years emailing various curators about this fossil, if they had it on loan, and I finally got a response from Dr. William Miller III at Humboldt State University in Arcata that he didn't remember such a specimen existing there. The paleontologist who named it, Dr. Frank Kilmer, who was retired, mailed me a letter indicating that the mandibles had been given back to the private collector (!!!) after the species was published - but nobody at HSU knew their name! One former student did, but would not return my phone calls. I visited HSU in 2008 when I was an undergraduate student and rifled through their teaching collection and found A mandible, but I didn't think it was THE mandible, because of Kilmer's letter, and a misplaced label suggesting it was from a different locality (and therefore a duplicate specimen rather than the original). Dr. Miller indicated I should arrange for the fossils to be transferred to a larger museum, as he was certain that the collection would be thrown in the garbage after he retired! I visited again two years later and set aside all the specimens that should be transferred and secured an agreement from HSU for the material to be transferred to UC Berkeley, which finally happened about five years later. I did not realize that this mandible was in fact THE mandible, or at least half of the holotype (the right mandible is still missing, presumably in that private collection) until I was able to download a much, much higher quality scan of the photographic plates in Kilmer's 1972 paper, and I was able to match barnacle scars between the published image and the fossil. So, we may not have the more complete of the two mandibles, but at least we have one of them, and it is my hope that there is more material in private collections and that more can be discovered in the future.

I’ve received a chunk of what I believe to be a marine mammal bone from a diatomite mine in the Monterey Formation in Southern California. It is from the late Miocene but I’m not sure what mammal or what bone it is. I know this is a long shot as there isn’t much to go off of but anybody have a clue?

Hi, I would really like some help to ID this fossil shell. Is it a brachiopod ? What time would this be from? I found this in the quicksilver almaden county park in California. There were quite a few similar shell fossils, Parts of them are visible in this piece of rock itself. Thanks a lot !

Is this bone from a porpoise or dolphin? it came from Palo’s verdes California and was found on the beach there. If so any idea on the age?

Hey everyone just wanted to check in with you all and see how you are doing. I also wanted to inquire about these Worm Borings/Concretions, and what our members consensus might be. Maybe our resident concretion collector @Ruger9a would be able to help me out. Anyway, here are the pictures: Here is a photo of the excavation site: