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Prologue: I am a lucky man. I have my health, I have my family, I have my fossils. Last but not least, I have a forum where I can learn, and teach, and guide, and make new friends. I have made many friends on the forum, each unique, and each a joy to deal with. Hopefully, one day I may be able to hunt with all of my forum friends. On to the story... The other day I arrived home from work to an unexpected package. I saw the return address, and scratched my head, as I wasn't expecting any package from this good friend. JimB88 hadn't sent me a pm to let me know he was sending something, as he has in the past. Hmm. I opened the package with more than a bit of excitement, as I am a sucker for a surprise. What could he have sent me? He has already graced me with a wide assortment of treasures from his beloved Mississippian Bangor Limestone. I do not lie, when I say that I gasped in shock, as the package's contents came to light. Sitting before me, .... was a life sized sculpture of one of my favorite fossils, ... a Semionotus! And this one even has a head! Needless to say, I was totally blown away, not only by the artistry of this peice, but also by the precision with which it was executed. And of course, ... I LOVE this unexpected gift. Jim,... thank you, once again,... for your time, effort, and skill you put into this artwork, and for your friendship. Have a look everyone. It holds a prominent place in my Computer Room/Study. Thanks for looking. Regards,

Are there any papers/articles on Enchodus being in the Kem Kem formation? Also does anyone have any specimens they'd like to show off here because I read here that some people have specimens of it, and it just hasn't been described.

I just acquired a GRF fish plate with a Knightia, two Diplomystus, and an interesting ventrally compressed (?) fish. Any help with identifying this fish would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I have recently bought a fossil fish prep kit,tried to do it and have done for 5 hours,however randomly a small piece falls off and Ive gone as slow as possible is there anything i could do to help?

Hello I'm a newbie fossil collector (and newly active member) who happens to several interesting fossils for a decent price from our favorite auctions sites 1st is are Knightia. The seller claims that they are not restored or enhanced 2nd set are 4 Spinosaurus teeth. The seller claims that cracks have been repaired, but no restoration or composition has been made (Pictures 2-9 of teeth in pairs) 3rd is a Lycoptera which the seller claims is not restored or enhanced 4th are plates of Elrathia Trilobites from Wheeler Formation 5th are Fossil Ferns from Llewellyn Formation 6th is a Hyracodon jaw fragment I would like to ask if the sellers' description of the items are accurate and/or if they are restored, enhanced or composites. Cheers!

Well,, it was just a couple of weeks ago when I was out on a fishing trip to the Green River Formation. We were invited back to the almost unknown 'Phareodus' layers!!! Very tuff layers for sure. We had to use special chisles for these layers along with the normal thin shims used for the 18 inch layers. We didnt end up with very many Phare's, only 2 but the boys did get some purty good B-Grade Phare's!!! What we did find was quite a few small diplo's and small Mio's in some very very nice high quality preservation. The one thing was,,, just how many small good preservation Mio's does one see? These are almost rare. What struck me also was the difference in the layers here! From one layer to the next can be completely different! Some of it was super nasty rock and had travertine on it. You find a fish in this travertine you simply toss it aside. That hurt! When the sun went away we had to go dig the 'mini' layers. The mini layers are very much like the split fish layers but you can get some really good hard layers there and you can also find some big fish there too along with the 1000's of little Knightia's. But the sun came back and again we dug the Phare layer. The boys also did some night fishing with lights in the famous 18 inch layers but only lasted about 3 hours. Still, some nice little prisci's for their efforts. It was also very cold! First morning was 32 dgrees. Tons of wind too and the second day destroyed out tent!!!!! Im gettin old and can do without the cold and wind, but for those of who know, after almost 14 months with this stroke I was for the first time able to actually do some work and for some hours. Quite happy to say the least about that!!! and even though I payed for that the next day, for me, it was Fantastic. And today, just one day after getting back I was able to unload almost all the fish, get them squared up with a square and pencil and now having a very deserved whisky and writing this! Wooooooooop Woooooooop!!!! I will pay for this tomorrow but I dont care. Ive always love getting out and fossil hunting and camping and its now finally gettting a tad bit easier. Here is my little set up before it got desroyed the next day!!! Here is a large Phareodus with some of the head missing from the 'mini' layers. The very first rock my middle son lifted. This fish is upside down. Had to build a wind block so we could have a fire for cooking baked taters with onion garlic and a slice of bacon. Makes for one heck of a baked tater!!! and some New Yorks too!!! The boys working the famous 18 inch layer. You can see in the lower left of this photo the small pad of the unknown Phareodus layer. Here is a small but very high quality Mioplosis from one of the 'Phareodus' layers! Im super excited to get these!!! To say the least!!! This fish, Diplomystus is one of the most awesome ive seen. Just fatter than a pig!!! Sad to have the tail end missing!!! This fish came from the 'mini' layers. If this had a tail I would have paid some serious moneys for it!!! Just check out the anal fin!!!

Went to my property the other day to pick up our camping trailer and couldn't help but go through a couple more boxes in my fossil shed. Found these in a tote with a bunch of Scotia Bluff material. Not sure why they were in that box but made for a nice surprize. Here's the thing, I can not remember the name of these fish, the formation or the age. Nothin. All I know is that I got them from a chinese dealer long ago in Tucson. Any help is appreciated. thank you and I got more in the garage. RB

I am wondering why Lake Gosiute has been closed off to the public. It is the only part of fossil lake that has catfish and I really want to try and find one, instead of paying thousands of dollars for one. I have heard it was bought by a company, but I was still wondering if they would let a small private team dig or if they would sell any of the fossils. Thanks for any help!

I recently bought this fossilized fish online. I was wondering if anyone could identify the species and perhaps pinpoint the locality/formation. Thanks, Seann

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-03/lm-pda030119.php

I would appreciate some help/advice as I know very little about this stuff (although this forum is proving very interesting and informative). I’m looking at giving the fossil fish pictured below to a friend as a birthday present. It has been listed as “Knightia alta from the Eocene age, Green River Limestone deposits Wyoming” and is mounted on a presentation slab. The item is from an apparently well known UK supplier and comes with a ‘certificate of authenticity’. Does this appear to be genuine and is it a decent sample? There is what seems to be a squarish tool mark at the top centre which I’m guessing is from when the stone was split, and is perhaps a bit of a shame on what otherwise (to the ignorant at least) is a fairly pleasing looking piece.

I was just going through a box of fossils that been sittin here in my office for awhile now. Besides lots of other cool stuff I ran into this little beauty. Diplomystus poweri from Hajoula lebanon and Cretaceous in age. I bought this about 20 years ago. I think its real? I only have my readers on at the moment and parts of the head look a bit fishy? No pun intended. RB

Ive been wanting to get some fish done for a few years now. I have about 5 days of good weather left so since I got the abrasive unit up and running I started on this one. Its a Serrata from the Green River Formation and is in some real nasty rock. Its slow going and I figured I would use 50/50 bicarb/dolomite and cut back on the dolomite when I got to the 'thinner' things. Ha!!! I still had some of the 50/50 when I got to the gut and some of scale covered areas both above and below the spine and low and behold, it worked for those areas too!!! This really tuff hard rock makes for some really hard bones and such!!! I,,,,,,,,, am a happy camper. I still have a few hours left to finish this up, but its turning out purty dang good. RB

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/deadthings/2018/10/18/flesh-ripping-fish/#more-2956 https://www.newsweek.com/ancient-flesh-eating-piranha-fish-lived-alongside-dinosaurs-discovered-1175875?piano_t=1

Could anyone PM me somewhere where I could purchase unprepared Green River fish? Thanks in advance

sooo.... i found this on the "auction site" as you peeps llike to call it. and i would LOVE to buy it. buuuuttt is it real? also how do i post pics?

At a site where I have been finding heteromorphs, I have recently come across some vertebrate material. So far I have only found three vertebrate specimens; one bone fragment and two fish scales. I am hoping to get some information on their affinities. I am most interested in the fish scales, since it seems they would be the most easily identified. The site is in North Texas, the Austin Chalk group, Atco formation, upper Coniacian stage. For biostratigraphic reference, at this same site I have also found the ammonites Protexanites planatus, Phlycticrioceras trinodosum, Tridenticeras peramplum, Scaphites semicostatus, and Glyptoxoceras sp., among others. The bone (Figs 1-17) was found on Saturday the 14th of July. It is a small fragment from a more marly layer than the fish scales and most of the rare ammonites that I am finding are from, but still from the same site. The main part of it has 39 mm exposed length wise as shown in Figs 11-12 (some of it is still buried in the rock), and has a branch coming from the main part that is 22 mm long that forms a depressed canal structure in the rock (Fig. 14). The maximum thickness of the specimen that I can see is about 2 ½ mm. The branch begins to curve around when it meets the main part of the bone. The other end of the rock and the underside don't show much exposure of the bone except for a few bits poking through (Figs 16-17). I don’t know if the specimen came from a fish or some other vertebrate, but I would guess fish. If anyone can give more information on what kind of animal this came from and where this might have been located in the animal’s skeleton, that would be much appreciated. But I also know that due to its very fragmentary nature, a more definite identification may not be possible. The two fish scales (Figs 18-20) were both found on Friday the 27th of July over 100 yards from where the bone was found. These specimens are from a more chalky matrix than the bone, the same matrix that the rare ammonites are in. The first specimen (Figs 18-19) was found breaking open a large chunk of chalk. It is basically flawless and in excellent condition, and only has a little bit of obscuring matrix on the right side that could be prepped off. In the same chunk of rock that I cracked open to find this I also found a T. peramplum specimen. The fish scale is 5 ½ mm long by 5 ½ mm wide. The second fish scale I found (Fig. 20) was found within a few feet of the first one, possibly from the same fish specimen. It is a bit beat up and less complete than the first scale, but is larger from what I can see. It is 7 mm wide including the flatended area upon which the scale once was before it flaked away during excavation. The front part of it is still buried in the rock but could hopefully be prepped out. It is also in a chalky chunk of rock, not marly. I have noticed that these are less shiny than scales preserved in shales, though they still do glimmer a bit in direct light. They are also differently colored than most fish scales preserved in shales, with mine being on the red/brown spectrum while those in shale are usually black or dark gray. I am hoping that the distinctive symmetrical 7 way splitting shown on the first fish scale could narrow down the identification. I know that getting to the species or genus level could be very difficult, but could a family or order be at least possible? I have heard that identifying fish scales is challenging, but this paper indicates that it is not impossible. @oilshale, you’re a fishy guy (in a good way of course). Any ideas? Fig. 1.

Just finished prepping this great Diplomystus found by a guest at our quarry. It was the first fossil they have ever found so I wanted it to be something special for them. Not much to work with but it turned out pretty good. I used a scribe to clean up the fish a bit, PVA to stabilize the fossil and prevent further flaking, and then had to do some restoration using fossil putty and a bit of touch up paint to restore a few missing areas for them, as they wanted a piece that they could hang on their wall and display.

Hello my friends! Good Morning! I'd like to know, please, if this fish died doing, what I'm thinking he was doing ... Is it really a coprolite? The coprolite is his? I thank you for all the answers!

http://www.dw.com/en/new-fish-fossil-found-in-germany/a-44397549

Figured I'd share my current project here. I'm currently testing different sandblasting media and their effect on various matrices since this is a somewhat new application for us at Vaniman. The picture is an almost-finished Green River Fish that's roughly 4" x 2" in size. I will be doing a full-scale article regarding the entire process but wanted to share some of the work with you all for fun. I have a lot more pictures so if you're interested- let me know. It's only letting me upload one (?)

A 10 year old boy discovered a new species of fossil fish in some flagstones of a 17th century monastery. Candelarhynchus padillai. Enjoy. LINK1 LINK2

Some people are truly lucky - they find fossils everywhere they put their feet https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/10-year-old-boy-leads-scientists-to-90-million-year-old-fish-species-discovery-1.3784927

The Winter 2017 issue of Fossil News is a special focus on Kemmerer, WY — the Gateway to PaleoTourism, USA — the Fossil Basin area; the Fossil Butte Nat’l Monument; Dig-Your-Own quarries; and much more. There was so much great content that we added four additional pages to the issue! · In the Beginning: An Excerpt from Lance Grande’s The Lost World of Fossil Lake · A Photo Gallery of Specimens from the Extraordinary Collections at Fossil Butte · Kemmerer Area directories: Rock & Fossil Shops, Dig-Your-Own Quarries, and more · A Visit to the Westmoreland-Kemmerer Coal Mine · Discovering & Photographing Ostracods in Eocene Green River “Turritella Agate” · American Fossil: The “Education Quarry” · A Monitor Lizard from Green River The Find of a Lifetime · SVP to Sue to Block Reductions to Grand Staircase & Bears Ears National Monuments · and more! Get your copy or subscribe: tinyurl.com/fnsubscribe. From now until the end of the 2018 Tucson shows, mention that you saw this notice on Fossil Forum and get the trade rate of $44/year (instead of $50).

This is another installment of the ongoing display project detailed in previous posts; http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/80671-display-stand-project-redux/ Here is the wooden base; sanded, shellac applied and drilled for the brass posts. I was having considerable difficulty with the shellac "gooping" up as I mopped it on this piece. I finally realized that I was down to about the last 20th of the batch I had mixed up. It had become significantly thicker than ideal via release of its volatile solvent. I cut the remainder with some more denatured alcohol and all was well. The wood is Yellowheart, Pau amarilla. It is a native of Brazil. Next the brass rods, formed to fit the fossil are tried in place. The sharpie mark visible on the right post was removed later. Here is the nodule containing the fossil fish seated to assess fit. The fish is from the Cretaceous of Brazil, Rhacolepis buccalis. Wax was applied to the wooden base and buffed to a low gloss. The finished display was then ensconced in its new home in the snolly great room.