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An acquaintance of mine bought this at the Tucson gem and mineral show two years ago. He is now interested in selling and I am interested in buying. The price seems fair but of course the big question....is it real? I may add is it all real, is it a composite of different pieces, or is it a fabrication/replica? The whole piece is close to 15 inches at the tallest point, and close to 13 inches at the widest point. Thank you for your help.

I have been fortunate to hunt Mazon Creek fossils for nearly 40 years. I have collected Many tens of thousands of concretions. I have also purchased premium specimens from other collectors. In the past, I have posted many of these specimens on the forum. I have decided to start posting more in depth descriptions of some of the amazing animals that can be found in the MC deposit. All specimens that I will post are from my personal collection. The first animal that I will highlight is the holothurian or sea cucumber Achistrum sp. Sea cucumbers are a common animal in today’s oceans but quite rare in the fossil record. The Marine (Essex) portion of the Mazon Creek deposit is one of the few places in the world where complete body fossils of these animals can be collected. These worm like animals are actually a type of echinoderm and show 5 radial body elements that run the length of the animal. Well preserved specimens will show a sac like body and an oral ring preserving approximately 15 calcareous plates. Occasionally the intestinal tract and other internal features will be preserved. Just like modern sea cucumbers, Achistrum sp had a leathery body covered in “J” shaped sclerites or Sigmoid hooks. Often times, detecting these under a microscope is the best way to identity poorly preserved specimens. As the animal dried out, the skin would crack and these cracks were eventually replaced by calcite. This gives the body of Achistrum sp a septarian like appearance. While modern sea cucumbers have retractable tentacles surrounding the mouth, none have been observed in Achistrum sp. The animal can reach length of over 15 centimeters however most found average under 10 centimeters. Achistrum is relatively abundant and are occasionally found in masses of multiple individuals. Despite many thousands of specimens collected, Achistrum has never been formally described. At one time it was believed that there may be as many as a dozen different species of sea cucumber found in the Mazon Creek deposit. This has been reduced to one or possibly two different types. This first image shows an exquisite specimen that I collected at Pit 11 in 2017. it is a complete animal and preserves evidence of some unusual muscular structure in the esophagus area that I have not seen before.

Hello there! This past Saturday, I went on a "field trip" to Hungry Hollow near Arkona, Ontario (mid-Devonian in age), and I found one weird item. It's an echinoderm of some sort, but which sort? A crinoid holdfast? Something else? Please see the photos below and let me know what you think. (By the way - I didn't make it home from work in time to take photos in natural light today, so I apologize for the fairly poor photo quality - if it's sunny tomorrow I can get better pictures then. And I also apologize for my blue finger in the photos - my students and I were looking at cheek cells under the compound light microscope today and some methylene blue got on my fingers - oops!) One end showing the pentaradial symmetry: The other end not showing much: Side photos: Thanks for your help! Monica

Hi all, It's been a while since I posted a trip report but I was feeling like posting last evening as well as testing out my new photography rig. I moved houses two years ago and lost my lovely brick wall backdrop (the exterior of back of the house) which allowed photography in natural light. The new house is all vinyl siding outside and I have more shade so less opportunity for good sunlit pictures. However, one corner inside the house has a bricked area where a wood burning stove used to be so I have decided to set up some lights there. The pics came out ok so let's proceed with the report. I recently went up to the St. Mary's quarry in Bowmanville, Ontario on a scheduled trip with the local Scarborough club and also stopped off at Arkona while in Canada. I did pretty well at Arkona where I found four Eldredgeops trilobites and two Blastoids among other finds. Nucelocrinus elegans from the Hungry Hollow member of the Widder formation. Sorry, no pics of the Trilobites due to some back spasms but I got these pics of a nice Atactotoechus fruiticosus branch also from the Hungry Hollow Member of the Widder formation. Then I went to the St. Mary's quarry on Sunday where I took a tumble down the rock pile and hurt my ribs. Lucky for me my hard hat took the brunt of the impact my head made with the rocks. With nothing broken and still able to move around, I stayed closer to the ground and found this partial, eroded Isoltelus sp. that is inverted and still shows the Hypostome in place. I also found a plate with Graptolites but that was too heavy to hold and photograph last night. I'll post it tomorrow maybe. Finally, I drove home on Monday and stopped off at a place in New York where some of the Kashong Shale member of the Moscow formation is exposed and found these two surprises. A cephalon of a Dipleura dekayi with some of the shell material eroded away. I think the eye is intact and waiting to see again once some rock is removed. And here is a closeup of the shell on top where you can see the stippled pattern where sensory pits used to be. Lastly I found a pygidium that I am not sure of the genera on. Possibly a Basidechenella sp.? So not a bad trip at all, despite the injury. Good news is that I am healing nicely but still have some soreness and muscle spasms. I'm looking forward to my next trip up in the spring and hopefully will avoid the health scares.

I have found 2 invertebrate fossils that I haven't found before. They appear to be five-sided and one shows a star fish pattern on the top. The bottoms are curved and smooth. The dimensions are about 0.5 cm in diameter and 1 to 2 mm in thickness. Any help in identifying would be greatly appreciated as usual. (The rocks from the lake are from the Pennsylvanian period). Are they a type of echinoderm? The shape and characteristics of the underside seem a bit odd-could it be a central part of an echinoderm? Another question that comes to mind is why are they so similar yet one lacks the five radial lines visible on the other?

I don't know whether I should have put this in the ID section instead, as I'm looking for some info and for help in sorting out what I've got, but not necessarily IDs per se. But it's also a sort of show-and-tell, so here goes. The info I'm trying to sort out has to do with the locations and formation/stages of some of the items. To help, I'll post the Ordovician correlation chart from the ICS and this other one from a paper on the Valongo (Portugal) site recently posted in the Documents section, showing the known soft-bodied sites of the Ordovician... The latter seems a little too tidy, with the deposits fitting exactly within the given stages, but maybe it will be of some help:

A family of amateur fossil hunters from Utah -- the Gunthers -- found this fascinating fossil in the Spence Gulch shale part of Utah in 1992, and shared it with Richard Robison at the University of Kansas. The mystery of what it was went unsolved for nearly 30 years, until a team at Ohio State uncovered the telltale circle that showed the creature had attached to a shelly surface via a basal disc. It's the earliest/one of the earliest known specimens of a mat-sticker making the evolutionary move to attaching to a harder surface--a leap that makes some of our modern-day echinoderms, including sea cucumbers, possible. They recently published their findings in the Bulletin of Geosciences but this discovery wouldn't have been possible if the Gunthers hadn't found the fossil in the first place. Just fascinating stuff. (story here: https://news.osu.edu/scientists-discover-evolutionary-link-to-modern-day-sea-echinoderms/),

Hi everyone, I was out on a collecting trip this weekend around the Fern Glenn Fm, St Louis, Missouri. I came across this which I think is Crinoid related but I've never seen one with the little spikes sticking out. It's about 3/8th inch diameter by about 3/16 inch thick. Can anyone give me any ideas of the species. Thank you

Is this an echinoderm?

I have had this sand dollar in my collection for forever, I alway keep it with a modern one. I have no info on it and it was given to me from a friend. Any ID and possible location would be appreciated.

Deer season has ended so I figured I wouldn't bother the hunters or get shot if I went back to the creek. Clearly others had been working some of my favorite spots, there were new pieces of screening rolled up and deposited nearby. Most kids are looking for big, but seem to be few interested / obsessed (more interested in games on their phones). The day was cold (the cold water, which is up, was warmer than the air. Lots of tiny freshwater shrimp/ mysis and bright red (freshly shed?) crayfish. Found the usual, though not many drum teeth, lots of sand shark (one seems a bit thick and heavier than usual?) and lots of broken angel shark, spikes and ecphora pieces. No cowshark, will try again! There's a broken tiny sand dollar-like piece near the penny (I had posted a whole one before). Will post a picture on the ID section along with a broken tooth I don't recognize.

This was found tumbling in the ocean waves at Myrtle Beach, SC, USA. I think it is missing some distinguishing characteristics. Can anyone help us age or identify? Thank you in advance!

this is 1/2" across, the opening is 3/8" sandstone matrix, calcite thingamacallit found in Meade Co, KY about 300 feet above the Ohio River. Thanks for help

Finally, I have a fossil with some geological information associated. This piece is from the lower Ordovician Wah Wah Formation, specifically Section J in the Confusion Mountains in western Utah. I believe it might be an echinoderm scale. I would be thrilled if anyone could verify that and/or add any additional taxonomic information for me. Thank you so very much for your thoughts, and please let me know if you need additional photographs and I will do my best!

Need help to identify the following fossil. It was found in Milos, preserved in volcanoclastic sediment and diatomite. Data from a study in the area suggest late pliocene to early pleistocene. Looks like an echinoderma, but unlike any I've ever seen, since it's test appears to have layers and no apparent mouth (unless it's on the bottom part). I have even considered it being a cystoid or some coral, but I haven't had any luck researching my theories. Units on the pic with the ruler are cm and size is about 4.5cm. Any suggestion would be much appreceated!

I am hoping someone on the forum is familiar with Ordovician carpoids. i collected this specimen at a roadcut in Claremont Iowa. it is from the Maquoketa Formation. Any information on what species it might be would be greatly appreciated.

While on vacation at a (rented) beach house last week, I noticed that the (marble?) kitchen countertop had some interesting shapes contained within the stone. Many of the shapes have the appearance of cross-sections of crinoid stems. I know that marble is a metamorphic rock, so if the original rock had contained fossils, could there still be recognizable remnants of the fossils? Please let me know if I'm thinking along the right lines, and whether these look like crinoid stems to you. The reference coin has a diameter of 21 mm; I have no idea where the countertop rock was quarried.

This is a retcon of an earlier post I had. Cambrian fossils aren't something one thinks of when they think of Maryland fossil hunting, and perhaps for good reason. The Cambrian rocks of the state are poorly exposed, those few areas where they do outcrop usually being gobbled up in urban sprawl. Compared to sites elsewhere like in Utah or York, Pennsylvania, the Maryland Cambrian is also rather barren. You could probably count on both hands the number of macrospecies in the entire early and middle Cambrian section of the state. But this rarity only makes collecting in it that much more interesting! Luckily for me I'm pretty close by most of these formations, so I have a decent knowledge of the area and outcrops, but even then it took a decent amount of time researching and scouting to find a site. The most recent formation I visited was the Araby Formation. Up until the mid 20th century the Araby was considered part of the Antietam Sandstone further west in the Blue Ridge, but after some more studies done on the formation it was found that it's lithological character was distinct enough to warrant it being a separate unit. Whereas the Antietam is a white quartz sandstone (much like the Oriskany I posted about yesterday) deposited in a beach-like environment, the Araby was deposited in deeper water (compared to the Antietam) and is more a mixture of siltstones, shales, phyllites, and slates. Together with the Antietam the Araby has some of the oldest fossils in the state dating back to the early Cambrian period some 540 million years ago. This makes it the oldest formation in the Frederick Valley. For those that don't know the Frederick Valley is a predominantly limestone syncline in west central Maryland (I consider it western Maryland, but most people probably wouldn't). At it's core is the early Ordovician Grove Limestone (which has practically no fossils), and on it's flanks are the late Cambrian Frederick Limestone (fossiliferous in parts, but those parts are very rare) and finally the Araby Formation. The Araby takes up positions along the far flanks of the valley, and it's eastern boundary with the metamorphic rocks of the Westminster Terrane marks the Martic Fault (no Washingtonians you don't need to worry about a San Andrea, from what I've read the Martic has been inactive for a long, long time). Due to it's sediment type and that of the surrounding rocks, the Araby is also a minor ridge forming unit, holding up the series of hills that flank Frederick Valley's eastern edge. These hills are nicely visible from the grounds of Monocacy National Battlefield, which is also of interest for marking the site of the northernmost Confederate victory (July 9, 1864 for those who're curious) in the Civil War. This ridge forming aspect means that, although very thin and covering a very small area, the Araby Formation has multiple exposures throughout the Frederick Valley. Some of the better ones are visible along I-70 just east of it's crossing over Monocacy River (an MGS team found some trilobites there) and MD-355 as you drive through the woods before hitting Araby Church Road (I believe the namesake for the formation is actually the Araby Church). In terms of fossils the Araby is almost exclusively dominated by the trace fossil Skolithos linearis, an annelid worm burrow. Other fossils found in it, however, include echinoderms and Olenellus sp. trilobites. As another aside the Cash Smith Shale, once held as an independent formation, also has trilobites and I believe inarticulate brachiopods reported from it, however it is no longer considered an independent formation but rather a member of the Araby Formation. Almost all of my fossils were the worm burrows, still cool but for everyone's sake I won't constantly repeat what they are this time around. Image 1: The largest burrow I've found. I originally thought it was a genal spine from a trilobite due to it's size. Image 2: Cross section of a burrow, outlined by the iron oxide stain. Image 3: Another burrow, this one roughly outlined by the iron oxide. Image 4: The large tubular structure covered in iron oxide (you might be noticing a pattern here with the oxides and burrows. I can't say definitively if they're connected in some way, but oftentimes you'll find the one with the other).

Hello. I'm attaching two photos: #1) an image of a "Rare Primitive Echinoderm (Edrioasteroid) from the Upper Ordovician of Ontario, Canada," from the following fossil website: https://www.fossils-uk.com/product/new-rare-primitive-echinoderm-edrioasteroid-from-the-upper-ordovician-of-ontario-canada-sku0918-isorophuella-incondita/ #2) a fossil that I found that looks similar and is about the same size as the Edrioasteroid from #1. Is it possible that my specimen (#2) is this Edrioasteroid? Thanks for any assistance! Camille

Hello friends and TFF family! Another little palaeozoic problem. This was given to me back in the mid 1980s and was said to be from the Pentamerus Grits of Newlands, Girvan, Ayrshire, Scotland. Brrrrrrrr!!!!!! I have it marked down only as "Cystoid?" and it may well be. The hexagonal patterned bit down the edge of the rock including the smooth shell like piece is 2.2 cm long. Bad picture. Here is a better close up. You can kind of see above that the hexagons are lying on the surface of the smooth bit, which i once thought was a bit of Pentamerus oblongatus but now think it may be some sort of inner layer of the fossil to which the hexagons are attached. Clearer below : Any ideas would be most welcome! @piranha @TqB

Could use some help on these 0.5cm - 1cm invertebrate(?) conical spines in the well known Salem Limestone, a marine limestone of the American Midcontinent. They appear to be solid calcite but do not quite match up with the shapes of crinoid spines and echinoid spines that I know from the Mississippian. I have looked at umpteen Salem Limestone samples but have seen these spines at only one small locality. Any insights appreciated! but please provide your reasoning or evidence.

I picked up this weird fossil at the quarry in St Paul, IN last year, found as is: on the ground, split in half. It seems to be studded with crinoid holdfasts and bryozoan encrustations. Any ideas what it is? Under magnification it is a beautiful specimen. Also, I'm tempted to sand/polish one of the halves to possibly bring out some details. Would this be advisable? Thanks for any help.

All specimens come from the Devonian aged Arkona formation. 1. Echinoderm, possibly a blastoid Tried taking another pic...still not quite sharp 2. Unknown, possibly bryozoans (remainds me a bit of Evactinopora) 3. Unknown, probably the inner structure of ostracods With these being the outer shell: 4. I posted these about a month ago but I don't think we figured it out. Now I am pretty sure they are scaphopods.