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A short but informative article about concretions up to 4 meters in diameter. Also a photo gallery of the area they are found in. http://www.geologypage.com/2016/10/valley-of-balls.html

Hello all, My friend gave me some odd shaped concretions, and I was wondering if anyone has experience preping any like these?

I bought two crab concretions from a guy about 3 weeks ago. Not happy with these concs, but if you don't gamble you don't win. In this case, I lost. These will be b-grade crabs. Simply not good enough to make it into my crab collection. In the second picture you can see what I see when I sit back and just look at what ive done. In this case, Im sittin back and lookin at how im doing with the 'rock smoothing'. Lookin purty good for a b-grade piece of cow poop. Im also very spoiled. Belive me, with what I payed for these and the amount of time spent,,,, after I sell these dang things I will hopefully make about $10 an hour!!! Just letting you know that there is no moneys to be made on prepping fossil crabs. Oh, these are Pulalius vulgaris from the Lincoln Creek Formation in Washington and Eocene in age. RB

Found this in the city of Tbilisi, Georgia. It was discovered while digging a foundation, under 6 feet of ground. I also found a smaller version of the pictured one, only 1/2 this size. That one was found in kobuleti, Georgia. Also found aproximately 6 feet underground. Both have a prolate spheroid shape. Could not find any flat areas on the surface. Size: 14" ×16" Weight: 38.8 pounds.

Is this a flat concretion? I found one like this out on some property my son is building on. I thought it was an artifact because of the hole. The land is virgin and a known area where Native American had a village. There is a historical plaque by the land. It is in Virginia.

Exceptionally preserved fossils: critical evidence of the history of life, December 8, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8WEdTbPNnM Derek E.G. Briggs Department of Geology and Geophysics Yale University, and Director, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History One interesting comment that Dr. Briggs made towards the end was that the Herefordshire Lagerstätte is still unique for soft bodied animals in carbonate concretions in bentonite. He felt that there surely must be additional lagerstätte of this type is just nobody has systematically and specifically looked for them. This seems like a project where fossil hunters, who know of carbonate concretions in bentonite bed(s) could make a contribution to paleontology. A description of the Herefordshire Lagerstätte is at: The Exceptional Silurian Herefordshire Fossil Locality By Marc Srour, June 11, 2012 http://bioteaching.com/the-exceptional-silurian-herefordshire-fossil-locality/ and Siveter, D.J., 2008. The Silurian Herefordshire Konservat-Lagerstätte: a unique window on the evolution of life. Proc. Shropsh. Geol. Soc, 13, pp. 58-61. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.542.3450&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://www.shropshiregeology.org.uk/sgspublications/Proceedings/2008 No_13 009 Siveter Lagerstatte.pdf A related online paper is: Parry, L.A., Smithwick, F., Nordén, K.K., Saitta, E.T., Lozano‐Fernandez, J., Tanner, A.R., Caron, J.B., Edgecombe, G.D., Briggs, D.E. and Vinther, J., 2018. Soft‐Bodied Fossils Are Not Simply Rotten Carcasses–Toward a Holistic Understanding of Exceptional Fossil Preservation. BioEssays, 40(1). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321379006_Soft-Bodied_Fossils_Are_Not_Simply_Rotten_Carcasses_-_Toward_a_Holistic_Understanding_of_Exceptional_Fossil_Preservation_Exceptional_Fossil_Preservation_Is_Complex_and_Involves_the_Interplay_of_Numero https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luke_Parry2 Yours, Paul H.

Found these recently and thought they were interesting.

Thought I'd share this strange concretion. Found 50 miles southeast of nipple mountain. Has anyone ever seen anything like it?

I think we have all seen the crabby beauties that @RJB and @Doctor Mud have revealed from their Stony Concretion prisons. Now I want to get in on that action, but I don't (currently) have a passport for a trip to NZ. Any sites in the US anyone knows of?

Any thoughts?

Im starting to run out of room in my crab display case so i put some on my desk. Quite nice for me. I do have two guys who want to buy a Tumido from me, but I have a really hard time letting these go. I seem to fall in love with them while prepping? And its really hard to get a really good Washington crab. I guess the collection will just keep on growing. I dont think i will have a problem with that. Life is good. RB

I have really been itching to go out and get some crab concretions from the Lincoln Creek formation. I am not l looking for any extreme high quality specimens I just want to be able to get my hands on some concretions, so if anyone has locations that put out quantity over quality (preferably public land) please reply below or pm me. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I was watching the Clint Eastwood movie “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” recently and it made me think about collecting Mazon Creek concretions and how the movie title applies to them. Let’s start with a couple of the “Good” things: -Over the years there has been numerous books and articles written about the Mazon Creek area and concretions and they provide outstanding information for the collector of all levels. -With about 400 species of flora and about 320 species of fauna that are found in these ironstone concretions plus the remarkable preservation of so many soft bodied animals, I feel that it rivals the fossils found in the Burgess Shale and Solnhofen.

Hi everyone! I’m not a collector or even a hobbiest (yet!) but I came across this forum looking for a way to start learning and to help me ID some interesting things I found the other day. I was walking with my dog in Cranberry Township PA (20miles north of Pittsburgh) and noticed a number of darker, reddish, oddly shaped stones that stood out against the hillside of crumbled gray shale that had been pulled out (possibly from as far as 50 feet down or so) in digging a drainage pit for a new development. Most of what I saw just looked like concretions formed around river stones or something like that (some were split in half so they almost resembled clams) but in one area there were pieces that looked different, some with fairly conspicuous tooth or bonelike shapes. I rinsed mud off of them with warm water and started scrubbing a bit with a brush but I noticed that the lightest areas on a couple pieces are fairly soft (I can scrape them with my fingernail) so I thought I'd better stop until I figured out what was what. I don’t really know anything about this stuff yet, but I loved looking for ferns, etc and even found a trilobyte once as a kid and so I was kinda thrilled to have maybe found something interesting. Of course, they could just be a pile of neat rocks too, haha... So what do you think I have here? Just organic looking concretions or something cooler? Thanks! (note: I embedded the images instead of directly attaching them, so if you click on them you'll be able to see higher-resolution versions)

Hi, I'm new here. I'm a retired geochemist with an ongoing interest in fossils - I love the hunt, I love to imagine the amount of time elapsed between when the animal lay in the sediments and died and when I picked it up. Mind blowing. Would like to connect with others to learn and share. I have found some, what I think are concretions, in some debris from the Chinle and/or Moenkopi Formations in the Indian Creek area of Utah. I've been going there for 30 years and have never seen anything like it. I have found dinosaur bones in the area. What's the defining difference between dinosaur eggs and concretions? These are definitely not made of SS - probably silt? cracked surface (like mud cracks), gray, inside one has the "septarian" look, others just plain. Anybody else find these in the area?

I see these quite often embedded in limestone. I am just curious what this mineral is. Rusty in color and sometime in a molten shape rather than round.

Hello everyone, I recently purchased a lot of Mazon creek concretions for an extremely low amount of money. From this and the picture I assumed it meant most were just concretions, but I could see two ferns so I bid for it and easily one. I'm not familiar with Mazon creek flora and fauna, so I decide to ask all of you if they are just rocks or fossils, and if they are fossils, what type. There's sixteen so I'm going to post two a time (perhaps two a week depending on how fast they are identified) as to not overload all of you. First up is the two I know are fossils, both of which I think are ferns. Species or genus might not be possible to find out, but it's worth a try.

I've tentatively identified a number of Mazon pieces in my possession, and I was wondering if I could get some confirmations or corrections from those of you (all of you) who are more knowledgeable and experienced than I. The first (#1) based on length, fossilization curvature, and the pyritized mouth and throat slit, I believe to be Gilpichthys greenei.

Ok This wall had me looking at it for some time, do you see anything fossil related? location 2km north of amathus ancient city, limassol, island of cyprus and on the opposite hill :

Here it is, the tail end of winter and I find myself composing a "trip report" from way back in May!!!! Please excuse the tardiness, but it took 9 months for me to pick away at the concretions I collected and extract the fossils within. It was a learning process and I must admit, I DESTROYED the nicest ammonites that I had found. Instead of learning techniques on my lesser specimens, I jumped in and "prepped" the biggest and best first. What I ended up with were many bits and pieces of crumbled ammonites. And super glue did NOT fix the problem. The issue at hand: the matrix is very hard and the ammonite very delicate. Not a good combination for not knowing how and hastily prepping something. It was Memorial Day weekend, time for an extended road trip after a long winter. My wife and I had never been west of Minnesota in the 30 some years since departing Ohio for the Gopher State. So we thought the time was right to experience what our next door neighbor, South Dakota, had to offer. I must say, we were thoroughly impressed with the state's variety of landscapes and great people. Our excursion actually extended into a bit of Wyoming. From Devil's Tower, we worked back through the Black Hills/ Mount Rushmore/Black Hills Institute and the Badlands National Park, each with it's unique topography. I recommend visiting these sites to anyone that has not. Well worth the trip!!! As our vacation was drawing to a close, we again crossed the grassy plains (though we envisioned amber waves of grain, not grass) and overnighted in the town of Mobridge. The next morning, I was to meet up with Grady (gradycraft on the Fossil Forum) for a little fossil hunting in the Fox River Formation while my wife relaxes with her books at the motel. Though I was totally impressed with the state of South Dakota, I was not impressed with Mobridge's accommodations. Here is a view from our hotel room!!! Nothing to see but a large car wash out your window. Now I was going to leave my wife to this, while I was off enjoying myself. I did honestly feel guilty, but not guilty enough to stay behind! Grady met me in Timber Lake and from here, our adventure began. Shortly after exiting Timber Lake, the vastness of this landscape became apparent again. One could honestly feel what it was like for the indigenous Indians before European settlers arrived. One could envision herds of buffalo taking advantage of the lush grasslands around the area. A spectacular place!!! Here I am following Grady on the way to who knows where. Fifteen miles on gravel roads and we turn onto a "path" leading through a few rickety wire gates. Then off we were again. Still flat as a pancake, NO rocks in sight. Where are these fossils I kept asking myself. If it wasn't for the great scenery, I might have worried more that we were on some "wild goose chase". Another 10 miles off the beaten path and I was really beginning to wonder about Grady!!! Finally, a little variety in the landscape showed up and then we dropped into a small valley with a stream running through it. I was ecstatic when I saw Grady's brake lights. We must be there.

These have been a long time coming but they arrived just yesterday. These are fish concretions from Morocco. Ive never had any experience with these and have only seen about 3 fish from Morocco that are any good, so this is truly a gamble. But if you don't gamble, you cant win. Im going to go on the prep attack on one of these today and see what happens. im excited and nervous at the same time. Wish me luck. RB

Its been almost a year sence I went on a fossil hunting trip. A bit early too. My youngest son decided he wanted to go visit an old school buddy who lives in Oregon and wanted to know where all my fossil crab locals were, so I decided to go along for part of the trip and just show him. Sad that lots of crab sites are closed now, and not only that, but found another site just recently closed too! Brand new gates everywhere! Anyways, it took us 2 full days of driving and hunting to get the first 4 sites done, then we said our good bys and he went onto Oregon and I went back up into Washington to do some trading with some crab guys. I took along about $1600 worth of trading material so I was quite prepaired for some wheeling and dealing. Got rid of all of it and turned it into more crab concretions. Now ive got about 2 or 3 years worth of crab balls to play with. Here is a picture of my son way up on a cliff side that I would not intertain myself nowadays. RB

I was just sent a bunch of fossil lobsters, Thalassina anomala (mud lobster) from Queensland where a mate finds them walking the inland mudflats. I'm wondering if they are worth prepping and how long this would take? I havnt got an air scribe but am in the process of getting one. My mammal fossils don't require one. I'm thinking that these would be great to start with when I get one. I know many of you are concretion experts but these are my first and look brutal to work with. Any advice? Also, does anyone have a prepped fossil lobster? I'd love to see one.