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Many, many times people new (and old) to fossil hunting post on TFF asking for advise about where to collect. Constantly, advise to join a local fossil club is given to them. This is always a great recommendation. But what I would like to point out is to forget the word "local". My experience is that every location that I have ever vacationed at since the fossil hunting bug hit me has had a fossil club. And every time I have contacted a non local club, they are more than happy to include you in their activities/ hunts. So, yes, by all means, JOIN your local club, but also take full advantage of other clubs when venturing outside of your area. I took advantage of the Tampa Bay Fossil Club's hospitality while in Florida by attending a field trip with them. They were very gracious hosts and were willing to educate me, being a novice to their type of collecting. We were to enter the Cemex Quarry in Center Hill at 8 am. Not sure where the heck Center Hill was, I left plenty early and was the first to arrive and was greeted by this site. A nice way to start the day. Cemex was nice enough to deposit plenty of new rock for us to pick through. I believe this is Ocala limestone. Going was initially tough for most. Unfortunately, this new material was very powdery making it extremely hard to see the echinoderms lurking within. Once a rain washes the fines away, someone will find its treasures, but not for most of us. I did discover that if I split the harder "concretions" in this new material, they contained wonderful plates of scallops, but no echinoderms. My wife adores scallop collecting at the beach, so I brought her some ancient ones to add to her finds.

I found a nice colony of Crinoid fossils in a chunk of limestone here in central Iowa. Could someone tell me what period they are likely from?

Please excuse my lack of knowledge yet on many types of fossils, but are these Crinoid plates? These were found (in abundance) in Post oak creek and Choctaw creek in Grayson Co. Texas. I think it is from the Woodbine group, but please correct me on which group or formation of a group if I'm wrong. I'm still wet behind the ears on formations. I really need to get that geography book..

Hi fellas, I´am Thorsten,a fossilnuts from near Hannover,northern Germany. After about 30 years rockhunting in the surrounding country I may think of myself as someone experienced in the local geology and the fossil inventory of most of the deposits (formations?).With the Harz-Mountains nearby with the exception of the early stages of the palaeozoic we have almost all ages and lithologies at hand i.e. within an hour drive at max you are on the spot (Autobahn ).Unfortunately more and more quarrys and claypits had been shut down over the last decades.It may seem consequential to think outside the box... In the past years some hunting trips lead me to Texas (Brownwood ,Rocky Creek [Dallas]) and Wyoming (Morrison FM.,Green River) My hometown has been built over lower cretaceous sediments.so when I pick up a nodule here and beat it with a bat,chance is that it will hit jurassic ground.Another hit from there and it might land on triassic due to the extreme tectonic features,caused by the halokinesis that formed our landscape.The geological diversity is really awesome,well,at least I think so ;)but its also a burden for the fossil geek: In consequence my collection resembles more a patchwork of a fossi-messy.its hard to find a frame. .As a preparator with passion I´ve learned quite some methodes to handle most of the material:excavating,chem-prep,sandblasting,cutting,displaying. Maybe some of my favorite hunting grounds are known to one ore another of you guys: Alverdissen ,Triassic,Crinoids Resse,Lower Cretaceous, heteromorph Ammonites Misburg,Upper Cretaceous,giant Ammonites,Cidaris,Porifera Harz,Kupferschiefer (Permian),Vertebrates,Lagerstätte Hildesheim,Posidonienschiefer (Lower Jurassic,Vertebrates etc....same as Holzmaden only 3D),Lagerstätte Göttingen,Triassic,Crinoids So far my profile I´d love to share informations on all issues and matters regarding our geology.And of course,you are very welcome to join me on a fossil-safari at my stomping ground. Best regards Thorsten