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Hello all! So I’ve been messing around with my collection lately and I came across this piece. It’s from the Onondaga Limestone, probably from Onondaga County. I was wondering if there’s any chance it’s a weathered piece of a Terataspis Grandis? Or if it’s something else entirely. Thanks for the help! Owen

I finally got back to Syracuse to visit family and got some fossil hunting time in. I started the day at Cole Hill and after getting completely skunked (not to mention hot sweaty and frustrated), I went over to Briggs Road to cheer myself up with some guaranteed E. Rana bugs. When I got there, I found the site much different from previous visits. The whole thing is torn up and there is a ton of fresh exposure. I would say the pit is now at least doubled in size. Based on my experience with the weathering rate of Briggs material, the excavation isnt too old. Partials and rollers were lying around everywhere like it was an easter egg hunt. I found a handful just glancing around on the surface. It was the easiest fossil hunting I've ever done. Most of the trilobits I found were on the lower bench and in the spoil piles- I had hoped that the excavation would expose a new trilo layer on the upper bench, but apart from scattered material that didn't seem to be the case. I left the partials and rollers behind for others to enjoy and took home two bugs that I hope will prove complete after some prepping. Safety Note: There is now a lot of loose material along the rim of both the upper and lower benches. I recommend bringing a hard hat or helmet if you're going to dig or sift through the material along the quarry walls.

For a year, I've wanted to collect large rugose coral, sometimes known as horn coral. My girlfriend has one that was given to her by someone who lives on Skaneateles Lake, and in researching, I found that there is a lakeside exposure known as "Staghorn Point" because the plentiful coral resemble antlers, they are so large. This locale is accessible only via water, and unfortunately I am boatless and none of my boating friends are fossilers, so I put this dream away and dug into research. Last summer I found one huge (5") horn coral in the Tully Limestone (Mid-Devonian/Hamilton Group), which was graciously ID'd by Rick Batt on the Devonian FB page as Heliophyllum halli. I did some research into the Bellona coral layer and found plenty of candy-sized corals, but the true bonanza of the "big ones" eluded me. This winter we joined the Gem & Mineral Society of Syracuse and heard about a creek in the area with plentiful large horn corals. Unfortunately, we weren't able to pinpoint the location with the several feet of snow cover that overstayed its welcome (it's all just about gone now), so it wasn't until this month's meeting that we received more detailed directions. In the mean time, I researched more and found that the coral from Skaneateles and the coral from this location (some 9 miles northeast) are supposed to be part of the same horizon. It's hypothesized that at this point in the Devonian, the area abounded in huge coral reefs, based on the thousands/millions of extant specimens that have been found for the past 150 years. What's interesting to me is that the elevation of Skaneateles Lake, with its shoreline exposure is several hundred feet lower than the locale we hunted. Of course, the couple million years of glacial cover (which only retreated 12,000 years ago) certainly messed with the strata... So, here's a good selection of today's rugose & tabulate Mid-Devonian (all found loose in a creek) corals... (inches)

Hello all! It's almost spring, and that means it's time for @Kane and me to alter the geography of New York state once again! Current plans are to start at Penn Dixie on April 26th, then off to the DSR area on Saturday. Sunday is a mystery still, but we're working on it. As always, anyone is welcome to come out and join in the destruction, er... fossil hunting. Last year was a heck of a thing, lots of good stuff was found, and I think everyone had a pretty good time. @Pagurus, @JamesAndTheFossilPeach , @Fossildude19 , @Malcolmt, @Jeffrey P (I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting off-hand.)

I found this guy in a lump of Tully limestone that had broken and weathered out… the rim was visible above the matrix, so I knew it was a big one, and on the other side it was peeking through, though there was no way to tell for sure it was the same fossil. At home, I tapped lightly on it with the handle of a screwdriver and the matrix slid off. I flaked as much as I felt comfortable off, but the remaining piece sticking out is much harder than the rest was and I have neither the confidence nor the tools to take it off at the moment. But it looks pretty cool to me as is I thought it may have been Strophodonta demissa, but Steve P on the FB Devonian group was kind enough to point out the dimensions better suited M. concava. Megastrophia concava Mid-Devonian Hamilton Tully limestone (way at the top of the exposure per Baird/Brett) from Tully Center NY location 2.75" by 2.25" (with matrix 2.5") right profile "head" on

Several weeks ago my daughter found an awesome hashplate in the creek at Tinker Falls in Tully, NY. The matrix is shale as opposed to limestone but other than that, I can't place the particular horizon. As I was reinspecting some finds in order to think about displaying them, I noticed this piece and thought that the long crinoid stem may lead to a calyx in the matrix. Upon closer inspection, I saw a small fault and wedged it with an old steak knife I had at hand. Instead of finding a calyx, I found... The negative is flipped over and displayed next to the positive. I can clearly see that it is an ammonoid, and looking at Linsley, I see Agoniatites vanuxemi? This one I found last week in a different creek in Cortland County, and it is in limestone. Linsley has an unspecified cephalopod that looks most like this. I'm having a blast this summer creek walking and finding all kinds of fossils. Thanks to everyone on TFF, I'm thinking more about origins and prep for display.