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I suspect this is a stromatolite (and not a stromatoporoid) after reading up on both, but seeing as I’ve never found either before, I wanted to put this past the experts. I do see some structures that could possibly be “pillars” but I’m just not convinced that’s what I’m looking at. Any opinions shared are very greatly appreciated, thanks!

After a 3 month dedicated search (coughSisyphean) to figure this out on my own, I still can’t find anything that remotely looks like this. I’m a longtime SE LA/SW MS creek gravel rockhounder and I’ve never come across this before. I’ve shown it to some other area collectors-no luck. This was found in a creek running through the upper terraces of the (pre-loess) La Citronelle formation not far from the Amite County, MS border. *I should also mention that Louisiana gravels within the (Plio) Citronelle contain much older rocks/fossils that are believed to have been transported by glaciers, as well as ancient interbraided streams. Frequent flooding subsequently washes these out of the upper terraces. To my eye, though, this piece doesn’t appear to be rounded or very worn. If I had to call it, I’d say table coral/freed piece of reef, but that one side having the appearance of muscle attachment grooves has me wondering about that. I greatly appreciate your time and opinions; thanks for giving this an eyeballing for me.

Requesting assistance identifying the dark slug-looking forms, these look like they were once soft-bodied so I'm pretty lost. I haven't the foggiest idea what these are and my fossil reference books don't have anything that looks like this in the photos or illustrations from what I can see. This was a creek find in southeast Louisiana. Your time and expertise are very much appreciated by this fossil newbie, thanks.

I have another smaller piece of this black (coral?) with this vivid yellow in it, and it also has those yellow dots around the edge. This specimen has those interesting whorls in the yellow that remind me of beetle wings for some reason. Ideas?

Here are 3 bizarre agates in my collection, all from the same small creek bed where I regularly find Paleozoic fossils and lovely druzy chunks of agate. These 3 are atypical finds, and I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light as to what type of agates they are, or provide me with the proper descriptive words to be able to learn more about them. I'm also VERY curious as to how these are formed, as the two agates without the quartz seem to bloom in an outwards fashion; all of my other agates appear to all come from geodes. Anything would be helpful, really, I've tried to research them myself and come away with more questions than answers. I think I'd have more luck if I knew the proper way to describe them in a search query. Thanks~caroline The second pic is of the backside of these agates.

Photo: top left Found in a small (10ft wide) woodland stream near the LA/MS border, (East Feliciana Parish, LA/Wilkinson County, MS) within the Citronelle Formation; formed during the Pliostene. While the Citronelle is oft noted to contain fewer saltwater fossils than expected for an ancient coastal plain, this stream has provided probably 95% of the marine fossils in my collection. As a longtime rockhounder but fresh off the boat newbie to fossil identification, I've struggled to find a match for this fossil. (The photo is one I had on hand, am preparing to paint and the fossil is buried in chaos right now.) Betting this ID likely is child's play for most of you, any light you can shine on this fossil would be so very much appreciated. -caroline

I have been collecting chert gravel fossils from the Bogue Chitto river near Franklinton, LA off and on for the last couple of years. These fossils come from the Citronelle Formation, which is Pliocene in age, and contains mostly unconsolidated sands and silts, as well as rounded chert river gravel which contains paleozoic fossils. The age is poorly known, as far as I am aware, and probably contains fossils of very different age. The most reputable source I have found on the subject was mentioned in an earlier post in the Louisiana section of the forum: (http://www.msgravel.com/assets/1312/Rocks_and_Fossils_Collected_from_MS_.pdf), but I'd be happy to learn more on the subject. According to the link, they range in age from the Devonian to the Mississipian. From my experience, crinoid fossils are the most abundant. Tabulate coral, horn coral, bryozoans, and brachiopods are less common. I just posted some of my finds to the Louisiana section of the forum: (http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/39199-paleozoic-chert-gravel-fossils-from-bogue-chitto-river-washington-parish-citronelle-formation/) I have two finds in particular, however, that have stumped me. The first looks like a shark tooth, but is just an outline, and has been worn down. I think this one may be a pseudofossil. The second is more interesting. I will post a couple of pictures and then a higher quality one in a second post. Superficially, it reminds me of a cross section of a tree seed, but I don't think that's a possibility, considering all the other fossils are marine and paleozoic in age. It is bilaterally symmetrical, so perhaps a chordate or arthropod? I really have no clue. Sorry for the picture quality, I need a better camera Let me know what you think!