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Hello everyone! I found this specimen also in a creek on a walk through a local park north of Pittsburgh. Thinking it may be a burrow fossil, but if it is, was wondering if there is an actual scientific name for it, so I know how to file it away accordingly under the proper name. Found the term Cruziana online, and wondering if this would qualify. Does anyone have any opinions? Or, if it is a burrow, is there any way of narrowing down what might have made it i.e. trilobites/arthropods etc? Details: 1) Found in isolation/there were no other similar pieces nearby. 2) Measures about 8-12 inches long. Burrow notches are about the width of a penny. 3) Again, found in Carboniferous territory in Western Pennsylvania found in a creek. Thanks everyone!

Just reassembled, crinoid stem with a bit of character. Probably Poteriocrinus sp., or maybe Rhabdocrinus, 20cm long, 10-12mm diameter, in a high energy deposit full of crinoid, bryozoan and brachiopod débris. It's unusually well articulated for this bed which mostly contains smaller broken bits of stems, arms and plates. There's a probably pathological swelling towards the top, above the radices. Last photo shows it as collected - very fragile and the main stem had largely broken into calcite cleavage fragments. Prepping so far was just a matter of letting it dry, then gluing, poking off shale with a needle and scrubbing (wet again) with a toothbrush. I'm letting it dry thoroughly and will then consolidate the sides and base of the block with thin paraloid solution. I might then air abrade a bit. Brigantian, Co. Durham, UK.

I had a hunt for some shark teeth the other day in the Lower Carboniferous/Mississippian of Scotland and found an interesting Petalodont I havent been able to identify, its very similar in shape to Petalodus acuminatus but has no imbricated basal ridge between the crown and the base and the ornamentation on the crown is also very different from P. acuminatus. Any thoughts on what it could be would be greatly appreciated!

I found it near Chelyabinsk limestone quarry

So I finally have an answer to the identity of this fossil I found in a rock quarry in Crescent, Iowa back in 2015... it has been identified as the back half of a eurypterid with the telson attached and nacre. This is a very unusual find for the location and the age of the shale.

In situ fossil (?) in roof of the UK cave. Carboniferous limestone. Anyone know what this might be. its around 18 inches in diameter. thanks

Last Weekend, August 18th and 19th 2018, was the annual Canal Corridor Mazon River Fossil Field Trip. The weather was perfect! There was a great presentation by Andrew Young on August 18th and Dave Dolak on August 19th. Afterwards, the dinner was excellent, as usual. It was a very productive outing for all involved. I have a couple buckets of concretions to freeze/thaw throughout the winter. It's always a fun trip, can't wait for it again next year! Saturday's lecture before collecting A perfect day! An amazing Alethopteris serlii, which was brought by one of the participants. I believe this was collected from the Dresden area, as it was known for large concretions. Concretions Everyone was tired at the end of the day! A few examples of what was found...

Just finished the prep on this guy. When i first found this i thought it was a jaw. Now after it's finished it looks more like a possible pectoral girdle or gill plate/skull element from a lobed finned fish/tetrapod. What do you guys see? I can not find anything like it on thee ol' interwebs. It's late Carboniferous and i have found everything from micro to large fish scales, flora, Orthacanthus teeth and other bone chunks in this same layer. Also there is a neat impression of a Lepidodendron on the underside of this piece. Kinda a nice touch when fish were evolving to walk on land. And pictures really don't do this thing justice. It's very detailed and three dimensional. As Found After some prep and still thinking 'jaw' Finished prep. It's not a jaw. Haha Lepidodendron Any help or direction is much appreicated! @Fossildude19 @Archie @jdp @Carl any thoughts?

Good afternoon everybody! During a fieldtrip in Silesia (Poland) last year I visited a rather large spoiltip looking for plant fossils. The spoils left behind by the mining company indicate they still use (or used) the old method to separate the coal from the surrounding debris, allowing the coal to be 'baked' (e. g. the presence of pyrite that turns into sulphuric acid -h2so4- under the influence of wind and rain, ...) something typical for the majority of spoiltips I visited in Western Europe. Unfortunately I have no detailed geological data on the age of the debris in the spoiltip but there is no doubt this is Silesian (upper Carboniferous) in age. I even tend to think this is Westphalian in age based on the fossils found, but let's keep it to upper Carboniferous to be sure. I found several species of Lepidodendron, some Eusphenopterids, both Stigmaria ficoides and S. stellata, etc... And this never-seen-before 'thing'. My initial thought was that this could be some sort stem/branch but, in my 20 years of collecting Paleozoic plants, I have never seen the repetative triangular pattern that covers the branch (or tube if you like). Perhaps this could be some sort of tracefossil? Since my ichnofossil-knowledge is extremely limited someone here can help me out? The height of the 'tubes' varies between 2 and 3mm. Have a nice day! Sven

I found this large fish scale from the late Carboniferous. When i originally found this i thought it was a shark crush tooth, but after more and more prep it turned out to be a large fish scale that i can not identify. Any help or direction is much appreciated. The scale is about 21mm x 24mm As found with a bit of prep. After prep under 10x stereoscope

HI, as some of you knows i went in the South of France, at Graissessac and found some fossil of plants (French Carboniferous). I believe some of them are Pecopteris : (or Alethopteris for this one ?)

An unknown I found at Braidwood, IL, Mazon Creek material. Forgot scale but about 2" wide and 1" long. It was in a marine area.

I was a lucky recipient of a wonderfully CRAPPY package from @Nimravis a couple of months ago. Now I need some educating. 1. The only recognizable inclusions in this coprolite are plant fragments, most of which appear to be woody debris. There is one relatively intact "leaf?" that may be recognizable to some of you experienced Mazon Creek folks. My educated guess is it is from a lycopod. Can anyone confirm this. From what I have read, the only herbivores large enough to have produced a mass of this size are Arthropleura, the giant millipede arthropods. How exciting is that!?! 2. This one looks like some sort of stem fragment. Would this be from a lycopod as well?

Lovenechinus lacazei (Julien) (most likely this species but I'm not sure if there's really enough diagnostic detail). Lower Carboniferous, probably Tournaisian. Very rare anyway but of especial interest as it is from the Jurassic Doulting Stone (Bajocian, Inferior Oolite) of Somerset, UK. This is a limestone full of Carboniferous detritus, formed when the Jurassic sea was washing up against the Mendip Hills Carboniferous high ground. (Just acquired via a dealer from an old collection that included Carboniferous coral and crinoid fragments from the same location. No other echinoids though!) 2.3cm across

Does anyone know much about the edestus? Ive always wondered about their teeth as they age. All sharks and fish(and animals), when they're young their teeth are also small. Edestus are supposed to never lose their teeth, like their buddy helicoprion(right?), and just have their jaws continue to extend out from their mouths over time. That being the case, how are the oldest teeth, from when they were little young things, full sized, or almost full sized, as they always are? The jaw bone starts off small at the tip, but quickly thickens, but the teeth start large. Also, does that mean that they are born with just a single tooth on the top and bottom, and grow new teeth at an unheard of slow rate?

WHAT WE LEARNED IN OUR FIRST FOSSIL HUNTING SUMMER This is a short recap of what we learned on our fossil trips this summer, in our first 3 months as very new fossil collectors. This week, Nancy and I gave a slide presentation on our summer fossil hunting experiences, to the Delaware Valley Paleontological Society. We didn't realize it ourselves but in 3 months we visited 8 sites in Pennsylvania and New York including: Antes Creek, Deer Lake, Red Hill, Juniata County, McIntyre Mountain, Montour and St. Clair in Pennsylvania, and a very productive trip to Tully, NY. We visited St. Clair 4 times, which has become our home site. At St. Clair, we were astonished by the diversity of species - we collected well articulated samples of more than a dozen species including: Alethopteris, Annularia, Asterophyllites, Cordaites, Cyclopteris, Eusphenopteris, Lepidophylloides, Neuropteris, Odontopteris, Pecopteris, Sphenophyllum, Sphenopteris, and numerous Seeds, Bark, Roots. Most notably - I learned to pronounce all of these without stuttering! At St. Clair, we spent one trip looking exclusively for seeds trigonocarpus), and one trip looking just for roots (stigmaria). Our most significant finds have included very large (2 foot long) display pieces covered with well articulated orange ferns, an alethopteris seed attached to a leaf stem, and many Carboniferous leaves that have different shapes from traditional ferns. What we learned this summer has really helped us find some interesting fossils - here are a few things we did that helped a lot: 1. DOING OUR HOMEWORK. It helped to study each site in advance using Internet websites and books on fossils (Dave's "Views of the Mahantango" and "Louisville Fossils" are among the best, imho). Several universities also have great educational sites that bring each era to life in very creative and interesting ways, with lots of illustrations and photos. I like the UC-Berkeleyand University of West Virginia websites. 2. LEARNING FROM TRIP REPORTS. We read trip reports from other groups and individuals to see what they reported - sometimes this helps us stumble across new places to visit such as the site at Tully, NY and Deer Lake. 3. SETTING GOALS AND TARGETS FOR EACH TRIP. For each trip, we establish specific goals - for example we may look for seeds, or roots at St. Clair, or trilobites or shell assemblages at a Devonian site. Our interest right now is in looking for things that are scarce or rare, and fossils that are extremely well articulated (which is also rare!). We also like solving puzzles so eventually we would like to find things that help add to the fossil record in areas where there are still questions or missing links. 4. DISPLAYING WHAT WE FIND. Personally, Nancy and I like collecting larger fossils that we can display in mounts and frames, and we are also looking for larger pieces that we can display like sculptures - we have a few pieces that we drilled holes in, inserted wooden dowels that we stained, and then drilled/inserted the dowels in wooden trophy bases - all available from a craft store. This allows us to display thicker fossils esp. assemblages, like sculptures, and you can turn them around and look at all sides when they are mounted like this. 5. WE AVOID FOSSIL HORDING. We both agreed that we would NOT become "fossil horders" putting hundreds of rocks in boxes and sticking them away in the basement or garage - instead, we focus on finding display-quality items, and rare or scarce finds which we are slowly putting in frames. 6. DOCUMENTING OUR FINDS WITH CLOSEUP PHOTOS. We photograph everything we find as soon as possible after returning from a trip, using a digital camera with a closeup attachment - many times we find new discoveries while taking closeup photos and some of our best finds came AFTER we returned from the trip and inspected our fossils. I usually put the finds on a white background on an ironing board and use window light, nothing fancy, but it works. 7. FOSSIL ID. We post anything we can't identify on the Fossil Forum and are EXTREMELY grateful for the terrific response from our friends on the site! We are also accumulating a growing library of fossil books (some modern, some from the 19th and early 20th century) so we can identify more fossils ourselves without having to post on Fossil ID. 8. WRITING ABOUT OUR EXPERIENCES GIVES US NEW INSIGHTS. We report everything that interests and excites us about fossil hunting on Fossil Forum to share our experiences - and we find that writing about what we're doing helps us learn more and gain insights, just from writing about it. We have also started videotaping some of our adventures and are thinking about the best place to post some of these. 9. WINTER PLANS: COPING WITH CABIN FEVER. Our winter plans are to visit one or two more sites, then go into "fossil hibernation" and organize, identify and label fossils we haven't processed yet. We have a Dremel to do some light preservation work where needed. We are not planning to become "chemical conservators" - using chemicals to dissolve limestone and so forth - that's a bit too ambitious for us at this point. We may get involved in some interesting activities by local universities that are using 3D printing to process and replicate large dinosaur bones. We are also planning to provide an exhibit (on Carboniferous plants and trees/coal swamps) at a fossil fair in April. 10. RECOMMENDED READING: I enjoy reading fossil books - I'm currently reading with great interest a small book entitled "Leaves and Stems from Fossil Forests" by Raymond E. Janssen (1939) which I bought last night at the DVPS meeting, and a textbook entitled Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record by Benton and Harper (2008) (excellent book). The book that has been the most useful to me so far is the classic book "Fossil Collecting in Pennsylvania" by Hoskins et. al. (3rd ed. 1983). I am constantly re-reading the Hoskins book and find something new each time as my knowledge grows. A book that impressed Nancy and me is a large beautifully illustrated book entitled "Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth" (published by Dorling Kindersley, 2012) UPDATE (Oct 11): Nancy is taking some college courses which are prerequisites to enter grad school, so I am doing most of the fossil reading and ID. I read several books at the same time and other books I purchased that I am currently reading are: Paleobotany: The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants (second edition) by Thomas Taylor; and Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record by Benton and Harper. I guess you can tell from this that I'm reading up on fossil plants - my main interest is not just to understand the evolution and fossil record, identification tips, etc. - but also to try to figure out where the missing links and gaps are so if we come across something that adds to the fossil record, we will be able to recognize the value. What is most surprising is that there is a lot missing from the Carboniferous record - partly because after this period, many of the oceans and swamps apparently dried up and there were ice ages and other factors that caused mass extinctions. Here are some interesting things I have learned this summer about Fossil Plants and Trees: 1. More Carboniferous insect fossils and evidence of insects are needed (by the way, there are some GREAT current discussions about insects on this forum!). 2. Many categories of lycopsids and other Carboniferous trees and plants do not have verified associations between the leaves and seeds, or leaves and trunks/stems. Many trigonocarpus (fossilized seeds and "fruits") are found with leaves, but examples of seeds actually ATTACHED to leaf sprigs are rare (we have found one example of a seed attached to Alethopteris). 3. More Leaf and Bark Verifications are Needed. Another interesting thing I learned is that there are more than 30 different types of "scale tree" patterns but only half a dozen leaves for these trees - suggesting that a lot of different species had the same leaves - or - there are a lot of missing leaf types or the existing leaf types have not been matched to the bark patterns yet. 4. Another peculiar revelation is that most Carboniferous leaves that do not fall neatly into classic fern shapes seem to be lumped together as "sphenopteris" - we have many "non-traditional fern" leaf fossils that are VERY different from each other and obviously different species, but when we go online to ID them, they all seem to be grouped as "sphenopteris!" Maybe some of these leaf types match up with the bark patterns I mentioned. 5. Last but certainly not least is the insight that fern trees could have 2 or 3 different types of leaves on the same tree! This was really interesting. Also, some leaf types can come in different shapes - for example, Neuropteris can be round at the base of a stem and elongated along the stem and at the tip...AND...some paleobotanists now classify cyclopteris - the round fan shaped leaf - as a form of Neuropteris. This definitely adds to the confusion. I'm still reading and trying to understand all of this and these are only my initial impressions, which are still forming and there may be explanations for some of these questions that I haven't discovered yet but these are the questions that I am trying to answer by reading, and of course, by fossil collecting. I hope that many of our new friend (and I should add, VERY COOL new friends!) on the fossil forum will help clarify some of these interesting questions. Hope this is helpful.

Does anyone have a PDF copy of this paper and are willing to send it to me? If so, please PM me. V. E. Ruzhentsev and M. F. Bogoslovskaya. 1971. Namurskiy etap v evolyutsii ammonoidey. Rannenamyurskie ammonoidei. Akademiya Nauk SSSR, Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta 133:1-382

Just wanted to share the beauty of this recent carboniferous find. I just sliced this yesterday. It still needs some work and i need to finish the other half, but take a look at the vascular cell structures of this fern tree (psaronius sp.). There is pyrite throughtout this piece, giving it a real luster (it's hard to see in the pictures).

I need some help with a pit 11 unknown. Reminders me oy a “Y” but it has bulbous ends on the appendages. Any thoughts? Pat

We went up to Terre Haute, IN for a wedding this past weekend. I was looking forward to us being able to actually hunt for some fossils of our own as I had read online about Fowler Park/Griffin Bike Park and its nodules. I decided to check out the park rules after we got up there and lo and behold, Vigo County doesn't allow fossil collecting. I didn't want to set a bad example for my daughter so we refrained, much to our dismay. On the way home we stopped at an antique mall and happened to find someone selling jars of split nodules! So, we didn't come home empty-handed after all. Below are the better pieces that were in our jar. I used this guide and decided we had some pecopteris and macroneuropteris, but I'm not sure what all of them are, especially the blobby thing on the upper right. See detail photos of blob.