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Hello, I have had a profile for a while but never used it. I am sorta new to fossil hunting (a little over a year into it so far) and I recently moved to Pulaski, TN and have spent quite some time looking at all the roadcuts in the area. If you have recently driven on 64, you may have seen me parked at all the roadcuts looking at the rocks and fossils! I am curious to learn more and meet anyone in the area who has spots they know about. I have quite a few on 64 and in the area around Pulaski mapped out and am continuing to explore the area. I have found all sorts of bivalves species, crinoid pieces, gastropods, cephalopods, one trilobite head, worm tubes, tabulate and horn coral, etc. I also have a couple of digital microscopes and am trying my hand in hunting microfossils in soil samples from different areas of the world. I'm usually available weekends if you're in the area, I know there's more fossils and new locations out there! I also work in Huntsville so if you know anything in between Huntsville and Pulaski I could check out I'd love to know. I did notice east of Huntsville has some big roadcuts too, but haven't had a chance to investigate since then. It was raining pretty hard the day I saw them. I'm also in the VBAS in Huntsville if anyone on here is a member. It's the astronomical league chapter in Huntsville, my other passion is learning astrophotography. Chris

Rare, Jurassic-Era Giant Insect Discovered at Arkansas Walmart A trip to buy milk turned into a stunning entomological find. Amanada Kooser, CNET, February 28, 2023 Large-sized fossilised lacewings prove remarkable species diversity during Middle Jurassic, Pensoft Blog, October 23, 2018 The paywalled paper is: Skvarla, M.J. and Fisher, J.R., 2022. Rediscovery of Polystoechotes punctata (Fabricius, 1793)(Neuroptera: Ithonidae) in Eastern North America. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 124(2), pp.332-345. Yours, Paul H.

Howdy all, I did a bit of fossil hunting in Fayetteville AK over Thanksgiving, hitting the Mississippian age black shale the area is famous for, looking for goniatites and any other ammonoids or nautaloids I could find. These concretions were dug out of the lower unit shale and many of them were large, extending over 4ft in length, flat, with an oblong appearance. This was on the surface of a concretion and unfortunately was exposed to weathering and moisture. Not sure what that is. This little guy, it’s just provided for grins and not requesting an ID. It’s way too small This is the main fossil I’m concerned with ID’ing. When I broke the concretion, it split revealing a horizontal cross section of an ammonoid. I have both halves and it appears to be potentially well preserved. I’m attempting to prep it but it’s been a real struggle due the siderite that makes up most of the mineralization in these. It shines like metal when it’s cut or ground with a diamond bit making it very difficult to make out features and details. It all just looks like a shiny metallic mess. To complicate things further, many of the fossils are pyritized. I’m sticking to mineral oil only when slabbing and making large cuts. Oil causes the dust to clump and build up further obscuring things. Im also having to wear a respirator to avoid breathing this dust and it makes a nasty mess. It’s a total pain but it’s worth the hassle to get one well preserved ammonoid, even if it’s small. I’m curious if anyone has ever worked with this shale and if any tips can be provided. I’m only attempting this kind of prep once as an experiment. If it works, I’ll do the same with the other half and glue the halves back together. Im leaving enough matrix on the bottom to provide a base to stand it upright and only removing matrix from the dorsal side. I have no clue if this will work or even how much of this thing is preserved. When slabbing excess matrix off I found a second Ammonoid below it that appears completely pyritized, though less well preserved. It’s the piece on the left and the rest of it is under the fossil on the right. Note that it’s cut like a vertical cross section and not proportionally. Any assistance or info is greatly appreciated. I realize that a definitive ID may be impossible without exposing the dorsal side and it’s sutures.

Hello all! I am new here but not to fossil hunting. I've been collecting off and on for ~25yrs. I started out as a young kid finding small ones on the beach. I finally made it to Aurora (been waiting since 2019 ) for their re-opening this past weekend (or 2, time flies lol). I have just recently started back into the hunt as a form of therapy from the anxiety of working at home. What better place than to be in nature and doing what you love eh? So far I've gathered no hunting in Robeson Co, not much west of I95, and GMR. I've spent countless hours along North Topsail and a few creeks that flow into the Cape Fear. As I have been watching youtube videos and scouring google for places near me, I found this neat place. So, now I'am just out looking for new friends and new spots/creeks to venture in. Last weekend the family and I went to Little River up near Goldsboro to sift for a couple hours. Not much luck except some memories and a few unique looking rocks. So, in all, I am Allen and I have a fossil addiction.