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Date: Jan. 5, 2019 Location: Paulding, OH Formation: Silica Shale Time Period: Middle Devonian (Givetian) Species collected: *Bethanyphyllum or Heliophyllum *Cystiphylloides americanum *Aulopora microbuccinata *Stropheodonta demissa *Stropheodonta sp. *Megastrophia concava *Pseudoatrypa devoniana *Athyris sp. *Orthospirifer cooper *Mucrospirifer sp. *Limoptera macroptera *Eldredgeops rana @Nimravis

I’ve decided to change my Avatar, which I’ve kept since I joined TFF, but I wanted to send it off with a little information about it Zoophycos is trace fossil found around the world from the Lower Cambrian till present. It is either a feeding trace thought to be from polychaete worms. I had the chance to see and photograph it on my second fossil hunt, about a year and a half ago now. It was found at a site in the Devonian Mahantango formation of Maryland. I couldn’t remove it then, and it was gone the next trip. The other worm burrows were what lead me here in the first place, so I thought it was fitting it would be my avatar for a while. Here it is:

Yesterday we went on a fieldtrip organised by my geology club in the area of Marche en Famenne. In the morning the first stop was the visit of the "Grottes de Hotton" but me and my girlfiend didn't do this visit, so we got around 11am at the grottes to wait for the rest of the group. the weather was sunny and the temperatures very pleasant, this was going to be a very nice spring day. When the group was complete we hit the road to the quarry a couple of kilometers further. first we got a quick lesson about the geology of the quarry and safety mesures ( the sediments in the quarry were of mid Devonian age: Givetian). After this we where free to prospect the area. In the screes a lot of very large corals could be found, but I passed on those until I would find a more managable specimen. but a few of our friends did make the effort to drag a few of those back to the cars. After a while I found a verry good spot where a fossiliferous clay layer was washed out. this is where I found most of the good stuf. Lots and lots of Atrypas (brachiopods ) and a multitude of different corals ( sociophyllum, favosites, scoliopora,.. ) most of these were extremely wel preserved. With further prospection of the site we found a few other fossiliferous spots, one notable one where fragments of large Stringocephalus brachiopods could be found. we even found a few more or less complete specimens. At 4 pm we gathered back to the car and the finds where compared and discussed, and of course we left for a local pub to finish this perfect day for a refreshing drink. Enjoy the pictures: One of the big corals: The memmorial at the pub: the turret of an "easy 8 " sherman tank. Some time to rest after the hard work

Specimens of corals from the Devonian limestones of Devonshire in England are hard to come by nowadays - this is one I've just bought and repolished. It's likely to be a 19th century sample from when the quarries and marble trade were flourishing - many such pieces were sold then as scientific specimens, and many more were used decoratively. Frechastraea sp. , Givetian/lower Frasnian, Torquay area. The brass scale bar is 1cm long.

A lovely little extra in a collection of Devonian corals that I've recently bought. Heteractinid sponge, Astraeospongium or very similar, from the Givetian (Ahbach Formation, Zerberus Member) of Eifel, Germany. The spicules are up to about 2.5mm across.

Some finds from my Spring 2017 collecting season. Pictured specimens were collected in situ from the Hungry Hollow Mbr. of the Widder Formation (Middle Devonian, Hamilton Group, Southwestern Ontario). Due to file size restrictions I'll split the posts by phylum. Prone Eldredgeops (unprepped). Specimen consolidated with 6:1 water to PVA solution in field. Reverse side later coated with Acryloid (Paraloid) B-72 to stabilize matrix. Prone Basidechenella (unprepped). Consolidated as above. Missing lateral border and genal spine on one side of cephalon. This genus' exoskeleton preserves painfully thin making it a pain in the pygidium to collect.

Some finds from my Spring 2017 collecting season. Pictured specimens were collected in situ from the Hungry Hollow Mbr. of the Widder Fm. (Middle Devonian, Hamilton Group, Southwestern Ontario). Due to file size restrictions I'll split the posts by phylum. Graptolites (unprepped). These enigmatic creatures are undescribed from the Hungry Hollow Member.

Collected the same place as the others, my guess is worm burrow but it's a little strange, I am referring to the black line with two yellow globes on either side. It branches out a little as the pictures show

So as I am new to this whole formation and it's species, so I need some help again. Does any one know the species or genus? This is a brachiopod, the largest species I have yet come across in the Mahantango outcrop outside of McCoys ferry. I have found a few of these, only one larger than this but unfortunately it was broken. In big pool, MD I once came across a rock face with around 10 eroding out of the cliff, I didn't have the tools to collect them however. I can try to provide any other useful information needed to ID.

New fieldtrip to the late and mid Devonian in the Ardennes from Belgium. This weekend I went with my friend Anthonie to a last minute field trip. The weather forecast were promising for that Sunday: gray but dry and decent temperatures so this was a possibility to make a last fieldtrip for this year. So Sunday morning I woke up early to leave for the fieldtrip… of course when I looked outside it was pouring. Still, hoping it could only get better I took the highway to Brussels, picked up my friend and we went to the direction of Marche en Famene for our first stop. It took us a one and a half hour drive in the rain to get there. Luckily the sky got a little less gray and the rain ended. We got to our first stop, a large construction site for a new industrial site. I went there before with my daughter with great success and I wanted to inspect the spot more closely. The huge construction pits exposed late Devonian schists (Frasnian), those deposits are well known to amateur collectors and can deliver a large quantity of spiriferid brachiopods, sometimes of very large dimensions. We spent almost 2 hours on the site, the bulldozers had done a great job clearing everything and we just had to pick up the brachiopods laying around everywhere. It was easy to fill up our bags and we only prospected a small part of the site. Apart from the huge amount of Spirifers, from which a few of them where around 3” we also found solitary corals, and a pair of gastropods. (probably Euomphalus sp.) We then took a quick lunch and headed to a new location a few miles further to a Quarry with mid. Devonian deposits (Givetian) This was the first time we prospected this site, so it took us a while before we could find a few decent fossils. The first ones we found were multiple large colonial corals and stromatolites, giving us a clue about this ancient reef and lagoon system. Most of those where too large to carry around, so we took a few pictures and we continued the prospection. In most parts of the quarry we found other large corals, but when we got to a scree we found multiple small solitary and colonial corals. We inspected this more closely an discovered lots of nice small fossils including a variety of very beautifully preserved brachiopods. After further prospection we went back to the car, making sure to pass by the first spot with the large corals. Where we each took a large specimen back to the car. We had still a little time on our hands and went to a 3rd location, an old quarry. When we got to this spot we were surprised to see that they started to fill up the location with debris. On the positive side the debris where mostly schists from a construction site. And again delivered a few nice spiriferid brachiopods, although very few in numbers. I think another group of collectors must have been screening those debris before us, a large amount of footprints where all around the place. We went to the back of the quarry to take a few extra pictures before heading back home. here I heard small pebbles falling from the cliff at the end of the quarry. We then saw quite a spectacular sight: a fox went down the cliff at an incredible speed, I thought he was stuck and would fell off, but halfway the cliff he went into a hole in the wall. Probably his den. We went closer to get a better sight but we made a new but gruesome discovery. A large dog lay dead at the bottom of the quarry. he probably fell of the cliff and it was not far of the den, so maybe this happened due to the dog chasing the fox. We took a picture of the collar, It had a cellphone number on it. We later contacted the owner to let him know what had happened to his dog. He was sad to hear the news, the dog was missing for two weeks after a hunting party, so this only confirmed our suspicions with the fox. After this incident we got back to the car and headed back home ( again raining during the whole trip) Although the day ended on a sad tone for the dog we did get a lot of great looking fossils. Il post updates of the finds after their first cleanup. Enjoy the pictures: Kevin 1st location: Late Devonian schists Looks like Santa came early this year: 2nd location: Mid Devonian reef deposits: 3rd location: note the piles of schists dumped in the quarry: Thanks to PaleoTony for the pictures.