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Hello all, As promised we are just starting to post the huge photo pictorial of our recent work in the Bright Angel Shale south of the Grand canyon in Arizona. I have over a thousand images that go with this write up, however for now Ive posted the starting page and the first photo page - Key fossils. Most paleontologist are led to believe that the Lower Middle Cambrian Bright Angel Shale can only be found in the depths of the Grand Canyon National Park, and therefore is not open to collecting for the general public. After much research spanning years pouring over old - and nearly unobtainable geologic maps, professional papers and Bulletins, we found that this is not the case. There are half a dozen small areas far outside the Canyon (south), and isolated outcrops in the Juniper Mountains in Northern Arizona. We spent over a year finding and evaluating these outcrops - when accessible, and found two in particular that were highly fossiliferous. Besides hordes of Cambrian trace fossils, we found a plentiful but low diversity of fauna similar to the Burgess Shale in British Columbia, and the Chengjiang Fauna in China. Phylums include at least half a dozen species of Trilobites, Hyolithids, inarticulate Brachiopods, a colonial hydrozoan like animal, and trace fossils from arthropods, mollusks, and annelids. So here is the new photo pictorial page itself: http://www.schursastrophotography.com/paleo/Fossilfotos-4a.html And if you want to see the planned future pages, this will be the BAS jump off page: http://www.schursastrophotography.com/paleo/Fossilfotos-4.html Thanks for looking. We have so much more to write up at this point, but the material is very exciting to us! Arizona Chris

I'd like to buy these three trilobites on eBay and the auctions ends in less than 30 mins. Here are the photos. Are there any resorations on the, both? The seller says that they are both 100% natural and wants $27 for the first two and $24 for the last one. Is that a fair price? Thanks!

Hello. I went on a long hike a few days ago and stumbled upon this in a large Cambrian rock. I believe most of the outcrops in this area are very early Cambrian as I find a lot of Archaeocyathids. Is this structure somehow related to the Archaeocyathids? It's about 6 inches in diameter. I have an average sized hand. Another fossil I'm trying to figure out is this.... Sorry the pic is a bit dark. I'm thinking maybe it's a priapulid with the bottom section broken off? The probiscus appears retracted on the upper right hand side, and the segmentation of the organism is clear. Thanks. Hat.

Today I spent a couple hours along the Conasauga River in Murray County, Georgia collecting trilobites at an exposure that I believe is Upper Cambrian. The trilobites are found in tan to olive colored mudstone. The trilobites are quite abundant at this location and I believe the ones I collected are all Aphelaspis brachyphasis. Below are some of my finds and a pic of the collecting area.

Hi, My family co-owns some property along the Cacapon River in West Virginia, and we often find small fossil shells in great numbers along the roads and creeks. Here are a couple pictures for reference, I think they're Brachiopods? https://i.imgur.com/C3D0QUU.jpg https://i.imgur.com/dWgZ617.jpg There are tons of rocks like this in the area, most of which are brittle shale. You can find them just about anywhere, but they're most common on the banks around small creeks. The shell impression on the bottom right of the second image was the largest fossil we'd ever found there, but within a few minutes we stumbled across something similarly sized that we've never seen before. https://i.imgur.com/NbYwr9R.jpg It's about four inches long, segmented, and tapers toward the end. Up close it has a very fine texture pattern that reminded me of coral. A volunteer at our local library seems confident it's the impression from an Orthocone shell, but I wanted to be certain. Can anyone give us an ID? Thanks very much!

Anyone here have any Anomalocarididae fossils? I do realize that if anyone did they most likely wouldn't be on this site but just wanted to know. I also realize that they are extremely rare but that I've seen things on here comparable when speaking about rarity. (Kinzers Formation PA has confirmed - anomalocaris pennsylvanica.) Thanks;

Yesterday morning my cousin Matt picked me up at my in-laws in Alpine, UT at 6:30 am and we travelled down to U-Dig south of Delta to dig for Cambrian trilobites and other marine life. It was a three hour drive and we came into the quarry at the perfect time. Robin (Rob), the helper on site brought out some very neat finds including an ammonite hash, ammonite, and an Asaphiscus wheeleri with a green tint to it. Rob guided us to a spot that had been ripped up the previous day by their onsite bulldozer. There were large slabs of shale everywhere for the splitting and we where the only ones out there besides another early riser who's name also happened to be Matt. I'll call him M2 (Matt the second). To my utter shame and disappointment I did not take any pictures of us or the quarry we where digging in because I was having so much fun splitting shale open and going through large slabs of shale as fast as I could. My arms and hands are very sore today but it was worth every second. Towards the end of the day Rob came over and let us split some shale in their 15 foot layer which is famous for containing large Asaphiscus wheeleri. These trilobites are much harder to find than the ever so common Elrathia kingi and the layer is usually off limits to the public. Within about an hour at the 15 foot layer I pulled out 3 complete A. wheeleri along with 3 large A. wheeleri molts and some E. kingi's. There were molts everywhere. It was a really good day and despite getting very sunburned I walked away with a large bucket of about 25-30 complete trilobite molts and complete trilobite remains. Unfortunately because I flew out to Utah I was only able to bring home about 5 nice ones from the trip. The rest are in the bucket and shall just have to wait for when I'll return to reclaim them. I might move out to Utah soon so hopefully they won't be in my parent-in-law's garage for to much longer. Rob showing off a large and nearly complete A. wheeleri. I swapped M2 a ryolite nodule from a nearby location for some shark teeth. He was more than happy to do the swap and Rob used the onsite rock saw to slice the nodule in half revealing the inner crystals. The bucket full of trilobites (Asaphiscus and Elrathia) in my in-laws garage. The other half of the nodule. Large E. kingi that needs some more polishing. I'm not certain that this is an Elrathia nor is it an Asaphiscus. The pygidium on an Elrathia is much wider. There's a slight chance that this could be an Alokistocare because a Bolaspidella's axial lobe would be much thicker. I would be happy if this was a Alokistocare because they are very rare. Regardless of the species this appears to be a molt. To bad it's not the real deal but I still like it and Rob did a good job at prepping it out of the shale. Rob puts mineral oil on the tops of the trilobites to give them a dark black coating. @Fossildude19 please call in the trilobite experts to assist in the identification of this one. It could be a compressed Elrathia but I'm not certain. This is a large Asaphiscus I found a few years ago and it has a greenish hue. About 6 diggers went through U-Dig that day and I found the largest Elrathia kingi. Doesn't that merit some kind of free dinner or gift card? ;-) Large Elrathia kingi. Another decent sized Elrathia. Rob showing off his green Asaphiscus from his own personal dig from last week. M2 showing off some topaz on a piece of ryolite. Rob gave me a little baggy to place my large Elrathia in and it had this cool info sheet in it. I'm very impressed at the way U-Dig has gone above and beyond to get everyone in the family involved in the thrill of paleontology and geology. Rob showing off a compressed ammonite he found a few weeks ago. I absolutely love the color on this rare (for Utah) fossil. The entrance to U-Dig. Really wish I would have taken a before and after photo of the quarry because we tore up so much shale that day. Here's a nice multi-plate of two Elrathias. One is a real specimen the other the molt. Perhaps the real specimen was buried shortly after it shed it's exoskeleton. I ordered some Riker cases a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised to see them at my door step upon arriving home from Utah today. Here's some of my nicer finds from U-Dig in a smaller Riker case.

In case the label is a little hard to read: 11x7 mm, 22 segments, collected in North Valley, House Range, Weeks formation. I'm not at all sure what this species is. Any help would be much appreciated. I'm thinking it is a Modocia, but could easily be wrong. It is from the buff layers, but I did not collect it in the quarry, but up on the hill side. Not that that probably matters too much. Thanks, Tim

Anyone have any information on tectonic activity during the Cambrian Period? I am writing a report on tectonic activity on Earth and am going to use the Cambrian to explain the location of the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang formations. So far I have a good idea of what I am doing, just wanted some input from others. I'll reference anyone that responds. Thanks.

Ancient arthropod with gnarly claws discovered in Burgess Shale Calgary Sun - ‎April 26, 2017‎ http://www.calgarysun.com/2017/04/26/ancient-anthropod-with-gnarly-claws-discovered-in-burgess-shale Paleontologists identify new 507-million-year-old sea creature with can opener-like pincers, University of Toronto, April 26, 2017‎ https://www.utoronto.ca/news/ouch-u-t-paleontologists-identify-508-million-year-old-sea-creature-can-opener-pincers https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170426131024.htm This 508-million-year-old sea predator had a remarkable mouth Washington Post - ‎April 26, 2017‎ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/04/26/this-508-million-year-old-sea-predator-had-a-remarkable-mouth/?utm_term=.770085e2838c The paper is: Aria, C., and J.-B. Caron, 2017, Burgess Shale fossils illustrate the origin of the mandibulate body plan. Nature (2017) doi:10.1038/nature22080 https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature22080.html Yours, Paul H.

Last week I had the intentions of going fishing. Unfortunately just as I got to the boat landing, it began to rain so I decided to unhook the boat and run over to a road cut 20 miles away to see if winter had brought down any new rocks to bang on. I spent about 15 minutes at the site and learned quickly NOT to look at sandstone in the rain. Samples turn to sand in your hand!!! This site is Eau Claire formation / Cambrian strata. Trilobites are what I was looking for. Here are a couple of typical hash plates from the site that I was able to save: What I have questions about are these "cephalopod like" structures seen in this photo: Any info on these structures would be appreciated. I have never ran into these at this site before. They taper like a cephalopod, but no obvious septa, might be because sand does not preserve the chambers well??? Hope to hear from you. Mike P.S. The rain eventually quit and I was able to fish.

I read a book called In the Blink of an Eye not long ago where the author claimed that the development of the eye is what led to the expansion of biodiversity. I've also heard the development of hard parts, changes in environment, and genetic causes. I honestly don't have a feeling on this one. Do you?

Hi everybody. Yesterday I've found this specimen, but I have some problems. What do you think? Maybe is a trilobite fragment? From middle cambrian of the north of Spain. Regards Juan.

Hi all... One of our students found this in Cambrian Gros Ventre Fm of Wyoming. Wyoming trilobites are pretty rare. I plan to make this the Fossil Of The Month for out Tate Museum newsletter but I need help IDing it. All of you who help me ID it will get credit in the Newlsetter. It is about 2cm long. I know there are some trilofolks on here who can convince me it is a so-and-so. Thanks, y'all.

Hi all, A few months ago I was hunting in a hill that had been split for construction and found an abundance of fossiliferous limestone. I could identify most species, which consisted of mostly bivalves and brachiopods. I was thinking these were a type of brachiopod, but I haven't been able to place my finger right on it. Help is appreciated, and thanks as always!