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Holidays in Charente Maritime France 2023.The Pointe du Chay with my friend Alexandre, (a real local expert!) to guide me first hunt in the pointe du Chay.

Hi everyone! 3-part excursion in the Cretaceous (Aptian) of Central Bulgaria, ~50Kms West of Veliko Tarnovo. 1st one reconnaissance with my girl on 18th of March. We did not stay a lot, poor finds mostly brachs and some echies. 2nd one, 24th-26th of March with friends. The majority of the finds are from this date. 3rd and last on 27th of May with one friend. The Urgonian complex of Bulgaria is a huge formation that extends many Kms around the cities of Veliko Tarnovo, Sevlievo and Lovech uninterrupted. The first findings were published during the Communist time, when lots of construction took place (road and rail infrastructure, a couple of huge water reservoirs, mining activity). If we would have to say something that stands out there and probably is known to people outside Bulgaria, it's well preserved regular echinoids. Many of you might have seen some being sold in Facebook groups for echinoids or some marketplaces. However, the Aptian Urgonian complex is not just echinoids; there is a huge variety of brachiopods preserved with their original "nacre". Even if you are not into them, trust me there you will start gathering them like cherries. Here we are parked on the first visit. The weather was pretty nice, ideal for such an excursion. Here is the main outcrop, on the second visit. I am nowhere in this picture; you see bad habit of not taking in situ. I will start with the brachs and leave the echies for another day since I am still cleaning them with KOH. On the other hand, the brachs were cleaned easily with ultrasound bath. Tried to group them in families, I am not even sure I am correct but anyway here we go: Terebratulidae: (The pictures are wrongly inverted, so the front side of the 1st on the upper row matches the last one on the lower row). Plate 1 Plate 2 Plate 3 Plate 4 Plate 5 From this picture and onwards, each side is a separate picture Plate 6 Plate 7 Plate 8 Here I believe they are Tetrarhynchiidae And a large one with amazing colours I decided to keep on original matrix for the main showcase. This one is still not cleaned. @Tidgy's Dad This post is for you!

Seems that it's about a year between my Echies of Texas posts now, because it's getting harder and harder to find something new!! So far I have collected : Cretaceous: Macraster - texanus, elegens and washitaensis Heteraster - mexicanus, obliquetus and texanus Phymosoma texanum Goniopygus - zitelli, whitneyi and sp. Leptosalenia - mexicana, volana and texana and possible sp. Pliotoxaster - whitei and comanchei Hyposalenia phillipsae Pygopyrina hancockensis Holaster simplex Tetragramma texanum Loriolia - rosana and possibly whitei (if that is considered a viable species) Polydiadema travisensis Anorthopygus texanus Heterosalenia sp. Paraorthopsis comalensis Coenholectypus - planatus and ovatus Pseudodiadema aguilera Plagiochasma texanum Goniophorus scotti Hemiaster - calvini and bexari Washitaster sp. Diplodetus americanus Echinothurid sp. plates Balanocidarid spines Not Cretaceous Eocene Protoscutella mississippiensis Pennsylvanian Archeocidaris plates and spines Pronechinus plates and spines So I am happy to add a few new ones to my list! A not recent find (from last year) but newly prepped and all kinds of pretty ( it's actually kind of scrappy but I love it!!) is one of my absolute best finds: Codiopsis stephensoni Next up is kind of a heart breaker because I only found a fifth of it. When I saw it in the dirt, my heart skipped a few beats, thinking it was a whole one! It's so beautifully preserved and while I do have a very nice Paracidaris texanus in my collection, it was a gift and not self collected. SO I am happy to have at least found on my own....a fifth of a Paracidaris! And speaking of cidarids - I was super excited to find not one, not two, but three Balanocidarid spines in close association - all within 18 inches or so of each other. (Only two in the picture because my hunting partner actually found the third one, so she has it in her collection) Perhaps a test will reveal itself one day?? If I am to understand correctly, only spines have been found in Texas. Weird. Next up was a total surprise find (again, pretty scrappy, but hey, I'll take what I'm given) while walking a creek that I have found some good stuff in....just wasn't expecting to find a nice little urchin! It's a Globator whitneyi! And finally, from the Eocene - what are affectionately called BB Urchins....a tiny Fibularia texana from the Eocene. This was a gift as well. I didn't get to go on the East Texas field trip, but apparently lots of these can be found and so my friend Melvin gifted me one! It's about 1/4 inch well, and I just wanted to show off an absolute beauty of a Leptosalenia mexicana.....I have a few but this one is beautifully preserved and has amazing color!! Thank you to @JohnJ for my first L. mexicana....I was trying SO hard to find one and just couldn't so he gave me a tiny one. I have since found....quite a few. SO just keep looking....those critters are out there! PS...still trying to find that dang Tetragramma taffi.....

I found this sea urchin recently and figured I would share it with the forum. Not sure if it's a newly discovered species but it's a pretty nice piece. It looks like it got partly smashed somehow before petrification. It was found just outside the city limits of Uvalde, Tx near a slough that runs into the Leona River. So far I only have one picture to post but I will get a shot of the underside when I find the right lighting.

OK guys I will accept nonfossil reality if these are not reconized ...thank you gentlemen and ladies for excusing my amateur posts 20230116_091752.mp4 20230116_092339.mp4

Hello everyone! I have been picking through microfossils from the Whiskey Bridge locality on the Brazos River in Texas. I used the hydrogen peroxide technique to separate the fossils from the glauconite matrix, and I have spent hours at the microscope, picking through the material to find the really tiny stuff. Here are a few batches that I've separated... My reason for posting this in the identification section, however, is that I have been running across a large number of echinoderm fragments and spines... The largest of the fragments are approximately 8 millimeters across, while the longest of the spines are 6-8 millimeters. Does anyone have any information on echinoids from this locality? I'm sure others have run across these before. Any information is much appreciated! Daniel

A follow-up/continuation of my previous post, here are some of the fossil invertebrates from the Pleistocene Waimanalo Formation of Oahu, Hawaii, USA. First the echinoids. I haven't speciated these yet

Several months ago I took a summer vacation to road trip through several states while collecting fossils along the way. I’ve finally managed to organize, clean, and photograph my finds and figured I’d share some pictures and info about my trip here. My first stop was Venice, Florida. I started with some sifting at the beach and was able to collect a variety of teeth and other fossils. Here’s a sunset at Venice Beach: And the finds: I had good luck with finding a bunch of nice burr fish mouth plates

Recently got back from a trip on Holden Beach, and just WOW. Words can't describe the uniqueness of being able to find Mosasaur teeth next to Megalodon teeth. The recent Hurricane brought in many new fossils and I had quite good luck. Here are some photos of the trip, I will post a picture showing all of my best finds shortly, but for now enjoy! First, here are some of the Squalicorax pristodontus teeth I collected. These were relatively common.

So this trip report is a little late in coming, but it's because the week before last was a lot to process! Just saying it was amazing would be an understatement. The Sunday before last I found the Xiphactinus with @Jared C that I've already posted about (and plan to provide an update on as soon as I'm done writing this). On Tuesday I had a job interview at the Waco Mammoth Site, and on Wednesday I got the job! Then I spent the weekend in Glen Rose, joining other volunteers from the Dallas Paleontological Society in helping Glen Kuban clean and map the dinosaur trackways recently uncovered by the horrible drought Texas has been experiencing this summer. Each of these three by themselves would be a huge highlight on my path to (hopefully) becoming a professional paleontologist, but to have all three happen in the same week? The stars must have aligned! I got more experience doing real paleo work in one week than I've had at any other point in my life, and with the new job and the fish excavation seeming like it'll be soon it looks like there's a lot more to come and I couldn't be happier about it. On to the trip report! As I said, last weekend I made the trip up to Dinosaur Valley State Park to help with the dinosaur footprints before the rain finally decided to make its way back to Texas and covered them up again. I left before sunrise on Saturday morning so I could arrive before noon while also leaving some extra time to make some stops along the way. I was hoping that I'd have some luck in the Glen Rose formation as my only experience with it before was in exposures of the lower half of the formation in Austin. Unfortunately, I didn't quite do enough research beforehand and ended up skunked - apparently the Upper Glen Rose is notoriously lacking in fossils aside from the famous dinosaur footprints. For once I was glad that I couldn't help myself when it came to making stops at every good-looking roadcut I saw. The slightly older and much more fossiliferous Comanche Peak formation is exposed almost everywhere you look closer to Waco and I had much better luck there. Here's a decent-sized Oxytropodiceras I found at one spot but ended up leaving behind since none of the fragments were very large on their own. I still want to find a complete one! By the time I got to Glen Rose I had a nice assortment of irregular echinoids (all Heteraster texanus I believe), gastropods (Tylostoma tumidum and Turritella seriatim-granulata, the latter represented by both external and internal casts), and one bivalve that could be Protocardia that I decided to keep because one side preserved both upper and lower valves and retained the original shell material which isn't very common. Of course, even though I told myself I wouldn't be tempted I did wind up taking home a different Oxytropidoceras fragment. What can I say? I'm a sucker for ammonites! I was hit with a flood of memories when I arrived in Glen Rose. I used to spend a week with my grandparents every summer at their house near Tyler when I was growing up, and they knew how much I liked all things dinosaur-related. When I was seven they took me to Glen Rose for the first time and it completely blew my mind. I liked it so much, in fact, that we went back every summer for the next five years. I hadn't been back to Dinosaur Valley State Park or the town it calls home in a while before last weekend. A lot was just as I remembered it: the Dairy Queen with its dinosaur mural, the Stone Hut Fossil Shop, and Dinosaur World with its array of concrete (and charmingly inaccurate) dinosaur statues. Even the woefully fossil-barren roadcut that I had begged my grandparents to let me explore once upon a time was right where I had last seen it. What I definitely didn't remember was the over half a mile long line of cars bumper-to-bumper trying to get into the park! It seemed like the national news coverage of the newly-exposed dinosaur tracks had been bringing people from all over - I saw more than a few license plates that were from out-of-state. As soon as I realized just how long of a wait I was in for I understood why the DPS had asked for people to begin arriving at 9 - both to beat the heat and the lines to get into the park. One fifty minute wait later and I was finally rolling up to the visitor's center. A sign out front that looked like it had just been set there said that the park was at capacity for the day, and unless visitors had prior reservations they would have to be turned away. I'm sure there were more than a few exhausted parents that were not at all looking forward to the difficult explanation they were going to have to give their dinosaur-obsessed children. After explaining to a ranger that I was there to help Glen Kuban and the DPS with the track clean-up a very friendly park ranger directed me where to go. On the way to the track site I passed the famous T. rex and Brontosaurus statues that the park was given after their debut at the 1964 New York World's Fair as part of an exhibition put on by the Sinclair Oil Corporation (their logo has been a sauropod for over 100 years!). While many of the tracks at the park are from theropods and sauropods, the park staff are keen to remind visitors that T. rex and Brontosaurus were not the trackmakers. Since their discovery the long-running theory has been that the theropod tracks were made by Acrocanthosaurus and the sauropod tracks by Sauroposeidon. The most famous tracksite is that first studied by American Museum of Natural History paleontologist R. T. Bird, showing a lone Acrocanthosaurus pursuing a herd of Sauroposeidon across the Early Cretaceous coastline. There are also other tracks made by an ornithopod similar to Iguanodon. Following the ranger's direction took me through a bumpy stretch of dirt road winding through a pasture on the western side of the park. The track site where I was headed, the Taylor Site, is easily accessible by hiking along the riverbed from the center of the park, but driving there was a lot more difficult. When I finally arrived I could already see crowds of people down in the river. I had never visited this spot before in my previous trips to the park since there were so many other track sites that were more well-advertised, but it seemed like the news coverage was drawing people out to the less-visited areas. As soon as I made my way down to the riverbed I was blown away. The DPS volunteers had clearly been busy the previous weekend. A huge pile of mud and sediment was stacked to one side, revealing a neat line of giant theropod tracks so pristine it looked like it could have been made only hours before. Thankfully there wasn't an Acrocanthosaurus lurking nearby! Ripple marks were also preserved alongside many of the tracks. I made my way over to the EZ-Up tent some DPS members had set up and introduced myself. It was surreal to meet Glen Kuban, as I remembered reading an article of his when I was only 12 and curious about the "human footprint" controversy. The Taylor Site is actually the exact spot where the misidentifed human trackway is located and so Mr. Kuban generously offered to give me a short guided tour. He was quite the character, full of obvious passion for the tracks he's spent over four decades studying and willing to answer any question asked of him by interested passerby. I asked him to set me to work and he directed me to the spot where you can see a bunch of people standing in the picture above. It turns out that there is a separate set of tracks preserved very differently from the rest at this location. The tracks were also made by a theropod, but instead of appearing as indentations in the limestone they are instead raised "casts" - the result of infilling with a sturdier sediment than the other tracks close by. When the river eroded away the layers of rock covering up the tracks it also eroded out the weak sediment that had filled many of them; however, the opposite happened to this particular set. The sediment that filled them in after they were first made over 113 million years ago is actually stronger than the limestone that makes up the river bed and is thus much more resistant to the Paluxy River's currents. As Mr. Kuban explained to me, the orange-ish coloring you can just barely see in the picture below is the result of iron present in the sediment that's slowly been oxidizing as it's exposed to the air. I joined several other DPS members who were diligently scrubbing the tracks so that Mr. Kuban could get better photos of them for the grid map he was planning on making of the site. I was told that that was the real reason the effect of the drought had been so significant: all of these footprints had been visible at some point or another, but it had been many decades since they had all been visible at the same time. No "new" tracks were discovered recently despite what the news had been saying. After several cycles of dumping buckets of river water on the tracks, then sponging them, then scrubbing them, the tracks were finally ready for their headshots, which was then followed by an hour's worth of measurement-taking and documentation. Below is a picture of the dream team at work! From left to right: Joe (a graduate student from Columbus who knew Mr. Kuban and who flew down just to work on the tracks), me, Murray (a DPS member and volunteer fossil preparer at the Perot Museum in Dallas), and Mr. Kuban, with grid paper and trusty clipboard in hand. I felt guilty not doing much more than scrubbing limestone and holding a tape measure for the rest of the day (not that I wasn't having the time of my life doing it!), as I could imagine just how much work had gone into shoveling and sweeping away all the mud that had been covering the main trackways. Major props to the hard-working members of the DPS that spent the weekend prior doing all that labor in the Texas heat! The tracksite looked amazing, and many of the visitors to the park passing through where we were working agreed. I had to deflect more than a couple of thank yous - what I was doing didn't hold a candle to the mini-excavation that had been done before I ever showed up. I ended up spending the night in town at the Comfort Inn (behind which forum member @LanceH actually did discover new dinosaur tracks). Although I tried to see them the next morning before I drove back to the park, it seems like the elements haven't been kind to Lance's discovery. The footprints are in a drainage ditch and were preserved in marl that is far weaker than the limestone in the river and so were probably only visible for a couple of years at most. Sunday was spent sweeping away some of the sediment that had already been moved just in case one of the dinosaur trackways extended to the area underneath it. As it turned out, it did! After that was done I went to another spot in the park with some other volunteers to see if the tracks there needed cleaning as well. This was the tracksite I remembered visiting with my grandparents. It's called the Ballroom because unlike the Taylor Site the tracks here are a mix of overlapping trails that don't form clear pathways. Maybe the Early Cretaceous was characterized by frequent dinosaur dance-offs. The scientific community may never know. Here's one of the largest Acrocanthosaurus tracks with my size 12 shoe for comparison. The clawmarks at the end of each toe where the theropod dug into the silty earth to keep its balance are still visible after all this time. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the sauropod tracks, but there were several nice ones at the Ballroom made by a juvenile that showed each of the strange curved toes very clearly. Speaking of sauropods, the last thing I did in town before I headed back to Waco was try some of the best good old Texas barbecue Glen Rose had to offer at a local joint named Hammond's (not a Jurassic Park reference, but I like to think it was ). Out front was a statue of a sauropod complete with horns, cowprint, and a brandmark that made me ask myself what they would have tasted like if they were still around. And that was it for my weekend! It was incredibly fun to visit one of my favorite places in the world again after so long away, and even more rewarding of an experience to get to do some real paleontology work with people that I was able to learn a lot from. Hopefully it won't be the last time- I think I'd like to make a habit of this sort of thing. Now to get to work on that fish update! - Graham

With time running out before the start of the school year, I decided to spread my attention across three DFW formations to get a little taste of what each has to offer. Instead of shooting out a handful of smaller topics, I've decided to combine my trips into a single larger post. I wouldn't say any individual find is a jaw-dropper or museum-worthy, but they, all together, give a nice glimpse into what each formation can yield. In order from oldest to youngest: Goodland This adventure took place in Oliver Creek with the Dallas Paleo Society. It's a regular spot for the group on private property. The site is well known for its plethora of echinoids and highly sought after Oxytropidoceras (still working on the pronunciation) ammonites. A huge crowd of hunters arrived in Justin for the meet-up. I was worried it would be too crowded for the creek, but there was plenty of elbowroom and something for everyone. I'd say about half of the people spent the morning scouring the gravel beds whereas the others got to hammering away in the limestone ledges. Once my brother and I found the good layer, we were nonstop working out urchins and ammonites. The echinoids (A) were literally everywhere and preserved in great condition. We came out with a baggie full of them, but left many more behind. It was pretty easy to find ammonite fragments too. However, finding a complete ammonite with at least a little structural integrity was a tougher challenge. Luckily, fortune was on our side and we came away with four decent Oxytropidoceras's (B). The two pictured below are the largest and prettiest ones. Prepping them will be a challenge though. They are too fragile for the hammer and chisel, but a little too tough for my new dental pick (I bent it a bit already ). Along with these, we also got a neat selection of gastropods and bivalves (C). The Society continued on to a second location, but we decided to call it a day early since my brother was a bit tired of the heat and rock dust. A). Several Holaster whitei from the Goodland Limestone. The ones straight from the ground have amazing preservation. One urchin is covered in oysters (Plicatula?). A coating of b72 gave them a nice sheen. B.1). An Oxytropidoceras ammonite. B.2). The best Oxytropidoceras of the bunch. Its got an interesting feature that I am curious about. There seem to be some fragments of the original shell still attached in a couple of locations. These "shell fragments" have reddish orange splotches on a white base and have a distinct texture to them (I'm not sure if porous is the right word). I wonder if the red coloration is just staining or if they could be indicative of the shells original coloration. When I first noticed them I immediately thought of the red striped shells of modern nautiluses... but I am probably getting ahead of myself . C). An assortment of bivalves and Tylostoma snail. The two smallest clams appear to be Protocardia texana while the scallop is, I assume, Neithea. The largest clam is smooth and difficult for me to ID. Denton Clay Took a trip to a construction site. Didn't find anything and then got my leg cut on a rusty post. Got a tetanus booster and no lockjaw thankfully. 0/10 would not come back! Pawpaw I've been poking around a couple of construction sites located on the Pawpaw formation west of Ft. Worth. They've both been decently productive, though I wish I could've had more time to really look through them thoroughly. It's a really interesting layer with some notable dinosaur finds and shares some visual similarities with the Woodbine in my opinion. The sites I went to cut through I variety of levels in the Earth. I think they are all still within the Pawpaw, but I am honestly not sure. In a more elevated cut, I found the specimens shown in (A). I was super excited when I pulled my first Coenholectypus only to realize that it was very poorly preserved and covered in lots of matrix. I tried some vinegar on it which cleaned it a bit, but the way it's shattered and degraded on the other side makes me think this is as far as I'll go with it. In a lower layer, I found some really interesting fragments of purple ammonites and a bivalve (B). I tried hard to find something complete, but the best I could come away with was the tiny purple heteromorph I added additional pics of. I think the sites needs some rain as many of the fossils were covered in dust and hard to spot. Definitely places I will check out again when I'm back home. Lastly, I decided to include an updated pic of the micro Engonoceras that is seen in my pfp (C). I only just recently acquired paraloid b72 and have been enjoying it immensely. After applying some to my micro ammonite, it has obtained that beautiful "wet" look that really brings out its color and details. I've got some older pyrite ammonite encased in paraffin wax that I may try replacing with b72. I have a feeling they will look much better. A). Bivalve and damaged Coenholectypus urchin. B). Purple fragments of typical ammonites, heteromorphs, and a bivalve. A complete ammonite of this nature still eludes me despite my efforts. C). My Engonoceras with a fresh coat of b72. Eagle Ford Despite the fact that I've been actively fossil hunting for about a year, my experience with the Eagle Ford is focused mostly on only a couple of brief visits to Post Oak Creek. I decided that now was a good time to finally jump in and try to figure this famous formation out. I hit up a few spots at a local creek with huge exposures of bluish shale. Despite the urban sprawl immediately surrounding the area, the tranquility of the creek made me feel like I was out alone deep in the wilderness. There was plenty of foliage and animals to populate it. Something about the place made me wonder if I had somehow traveled back in time. I was quick to get to work, scanning the shale and splitting open some slabs. The matrix was loaded with tons of fragile fish parts. Every slab contained a smattering of scales (I think) and other miscellaneous fish parts. Most of the small things were so delicate they would poof away when exposed to the air. The bigger things were a bit stronger and I was thankfully able to stabilize them before they were mostly destroyed. Early on, I got lucky with a beautiful little Enchodus jaw (A). I believe it's a piece of the lower one. To go with it I always came across a couple of jaw sections with larger fangs (B). Unfortunately, the tips of them immediately popped off and disappeared into the ether before I could preserve them. One slab surprised me with a broken shark tooth that I assume is Cretoxyrhina mantelli (C). It was the only shark tooth I came across that day, but it gives me hope for future expeditions. Of the thousands of fish scales I found, I decided to try and preserve a larger one (D). These guys were very fragile so I'm happy he made it out mostly in one piece. Once again, a slab surprised me... this time with a tiny ammonite, something I don't usually associate with the Eagle Ford (E). And to round off the day, I noticed some protrusions jutting out of the shaly bank. When removing them, I noticed they were rounded orbs containing a concentration of fish parts. I assume that these are coprolites. I don't know much about these sorts of ichnofossils so please inform me if I'm wrong. If they are coprolites, are they from a fish or a reptile and how can you tell? A). Lower Enchodus jaw? B). Some Enchodus fangs and jaws. Tips broke off when revealed. These guys are both consolidated in b72 and were originally in multiple pieces. Reattaching the fangs was some tedious work. C). Cretoxyrhina mantelli? D). Fish scale preserved in b72. E). A tiny ammonite in the shale F). A crappy ending with some suspected coprolites. In Conclusion I had a nice summer break with plenty of time spent exploring the world of fossils surrounding where I grew up. It was a lot to take in, but I truly learned a great deal about the oceans that once swept over North Texas. The diversity of marine creatures is astonishing and it impresses me every time I split open that next slab of shale. With the school year starting up again, I am moving back to Austin. It's been a hot second since I've traveled to my usual Ozan spots and I am excited to get back into business. I'll take the sudden burst of rain today as a sign of good things to come. I can't help but think of all the freshly revealed marine fauna that have finally gotten the chance to take their first gulp of water in roughly 80 million years.

The 1st few may be the strangest rocks I have found. Appreciate any input. Thanks! Rock 5Rock 6 & 7: could these be fossilized tree roots?Rock 7 - external surface Rock 7 - close up of internal side (smooth) side Are the following specimens too weather worn to make a general ID? I know they are pebble-ish, but on some, there are potentially ribs (very worn), etc. I’m wondering about echinoids, ostracods, possible small brachiopods. Potential bivalve?

Recently went to Catoma Creek on my way through Montgomery and these are some of the better finds. I was hoping someone could help me out out with IDing everything since I’m not from the region. Let me know if you need more pictures. Thanks!

Finally getting round to identifying some finds from over the years at different sections of Big Brook, NJ. I'm going to try and post them in separate topics. The white sea urchin spine is distinctive, but what are these other things? They have similar dots in lines, but the lines are much more spread apart. See that they have pointed ends and one has a wider end. They are about 2-4mm in diameter. Also, any idea or pointers as to what species the Sea Urchin spine could be? I haven't found an easy identification guide on the web yet.

Our Moroccan trip from 19th-23rd February 2019. Day One; Locality One IFRANE Here we are near Ifrane, a village built by the French in the 1930's in a Swiss chalet style so there are pointy roofs instead of the usual traditional flat roofs of Moroccan buildings. This is wifey and Anouar, a Moroccan tour guide, old friend and one time student of English, his brother, our driver Abdullah, is taking the photo. Anouar paid for the trip, accommodation and food in return for me teaching him a little about the fossils, crystals and minerals that we encountered. The trip was mainly an exploratory voyage for me to discover where was worth revisiting when i was alone and had more time to spare. Somewhere in this area are outcrops of Pleinsbachian (stage of the Liassic/ Lower Jurassic) rocks that are stuffed with terebratulid brachiopods including more than a dozen species and subspecies that were first described from this locality, many unique to the site. Unfortunately, it's well off the beaten track, but I think i know roughly where now, so will return another day. Not time today! The area is covered in loose rocks, ploughed up in fields and roadbuilding, eroded from outliers or washed into the area in the autumn rainy season floods or spring melts. The ones behind us look Middle Jurassic to me, yellowish limestones, some with iron staining. Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks are also in the region. The high ridges in the background are basalt intrusions as the Atlas mountains were formed as Africa began to collide with Europe throughout the Palaoegene and Neogene and this resulted in a lot of volcanoes. We moved on north of the village and stopped where we saw a group of the local fossil huts. These are all year round businesses, but in the season, from May til October you will find little stalls selling local fossils and minerals all the way along the route through the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara. But the temporary stalls are all closed at this time of year, as it's pretty chilly and there are few tourists. Top Tip : Always pop into a couple of different shops and check out prices. Tell the next shopkeeper how much the previous one had stated and see if they'll undercut for a similar item. Always, always haggle! Top Tip : Ask which fossils and crystals are local if you don't know already; most of the shops in Morocco have local fossils and others from all over the country. Local fossils will usually be much cheaper, wait until you get nearer to the localities of other fossils and see the prices come down! Top Tip : If you have the time, ask the purveyors of local fossils to show you where they came from. Then go and have a look. They don't mind this at all.

These are so hard find in the Peace River. I've only found one echinoid and small chunks of sand dollars in 20+ years then kabóom 4 echinoids and 2 complete sand dollars. The sand dollar maybe Melitta Carolinas I'm sure I did not spell that correctly. As soon I manufacture some extra time these and more are gong to FLMNH.

I'm really enjoying tinkering with my phone photography skills, and this composure of a February Tetragramma is probably my best image I've made with this technique so far. It still doesn't have the same clarity as a proper camera would show (immediately evident when you zoom in), but I think it still makes a nice first impression.

Hi all, does anyone know anything about these echinoids? All are approximately 4-6cm in diameter. They came up with the sediments dredged at Holden beach. My best guess is they’re Eocene Castle Hayne since that formation is out towards the coast and is well known for its echinoids. Also, what’s the best way to clean these guys up? They’re in a lithified sand but with enough force you can sort of break some chunks of it off, so it’s not super resilient like some limestones. edit: I believe they’re Hardouinia spp., that’s what they look like online. Someone said they might be PeeDee, although I’ve not heard of lots of echinoids coming from the PeeDee, although some can, and they didn’t really say how they knew it was PeeDee vs Castle Hayne. Also I found a fish skull cap, it’s not sea robin, anyone possibly know what type of fish it’s from?

For whatever reason, I used to completely dismiss the Austin chalk as a formation of any interest. I viewed it almost through the same lens that I view the Edwards formation, as if it was some barren uninteresting hinderance that gets in the way of cooler formations. Accidentally finding a large Parapuzosia ammonite in it once changed that a bit, but for the most part I still ignored it... Turns out I was just looking in the wrong places, and had very little understanding of its members. @LSCHNELLE recently explained a lot of it better to me, and so equipped with new knowledge I decided to try and discover a member of the Austin Chalk I've been wondering about for a while now, which I always falsely assumed was its own formation. I found myself deep in a Travis county creek, following very specific instructions I had read on an old thesis from the 80's I found online. To avoid being too long winded - nothing stood out to me as different in the geology, so I think that the vertebrate rich member I was seeking still eludes me. Yet, I wouldn't say I was skunked, because I found some very interesting invertebrates that even a simpleton like myself can appreciate My first find had me cheering and jumping, partly because of how just picture perfect the insitu was, but mostly because it was just an aesthetic looking echinoid I haven't seen before. Here it sat below, as I originally saw it: Fortunately, what's left in the matrix I believe is still in great detail. It's just on a smaller-than-it-looks exposed portion where the wear took a toll, as you will see at the end when I show more photos. For another hour and half beyond this, I was just sloshing my way through the water, very slowly, admiring the highly fossiliferous limestone as I went. Usually when I scout a new spot, it ends up being more exploring than actual hunting, and yesterday was no different. Close to my turn around spot, I for whatever reason took strong notice of inconspicuous looking pebble lying loose on its own. Picking it upon a whim, I was surprised to see it was another echinoid of the same type I found earlier, albeit in worse condition. Pictures all at the end. (update: I now know that these are cidarids - funny that on april fools day, I make two of my rarest invertebrate finds, back to back. Odds are I won't have a luckier day in the invertebrate field ever again) Walking back was a serene vibe with few fossils - I was distracted by the new greenery that's been blooming lately. When I got back to where I found the first echinoid, I decided to poke around a bit more, and was surprised to find two ammonites - one large (Mortoniceras?) which I removed, and a much smaller ammonite as well. Results below! No vertebrates but these were well worth it! @JamieLynn put together a phenomenal guide of the inverts by formation that we can find in our central texas stratas, but I wasn't able to find these echinoids in it. I'm aware they need prep, but if you know what they are already please chip in! Results below: Echinoid #1: Echinoid #2 - While it's in worse shape than even the first, I think the substantial attached matrix has protected a lot of it. We'll find out when it preps! Larger ammonite I removed - glue will come to the rescue here. I'm rather sure that the inner coils are preserved under that! Smaller ammonite below: This was just one day sandwiched into what is so far a very busy weekend for me on the paleo front - lots of exploring, and also some good work brewing on two interesting, older vertebrate finds. I'll update this post when i eventually manage to get these echinoids cleaned - the hard limestone they're in will be tough for hand tools - perhaps this is my signal to finally buy a scribe. (update: rest assured, I won't be tackling these echinoids with my rudimentary prep skills - It'll be done by a professional)

I found all 20 of these in about 2 hours at just one spot! Yesterday was my lucky day! I honestly should have thrown quite a few of them back but several of them are real beauties!

During the Christmas holiday we had the opportunity to go on 2 field trips to the north of France. 1st one was just after Christmas when we visited the Turonian part of the cliffs. Here we found a couple of nice ammonites ( Mammites nodosoides and a realy nice Fagesia catinus ) and a big flint echinoid. (with @Natalie81 and @Euhoplites) The second trip was last weekend, but we had no luck with the weather this time and we had heavy rainfall for most of the day. Also lots of competition that day. Not a lot of fossils to be found that day: a small flint echinoid, a big Mariella sp. but not the best preservation and an Acanthoceras, but this one is still completely in the matrix, I don’t know how this one will turn out. pic's from the 1st day: The echinoids from the construction site: Fagesia catinus all cleaned up the 2nd field trip: a wel hidden Acanthoceras rhotomagense: Rain, rain, rain,.. I almost forgot, Best wishes for 2022 to all the forum members

Here a couple things that I received from my wife- first off, a few beautiful echinoids that were purchased from @Harry Pristis back in September- really love these pieces. A book that I have been wanting for a while. A cool adjustable light that hangs around your neck. It has two different powers and will be great for collecting, taking pictures or Cindy things I drop- lol. And what kid does not want a remote control dinosaur that walks, lights up, roars and even blows out water vapor.