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Good evening, First of all, I apologise that there’s no ruler in this particular photo. My phone battery died as I was taking the photos and then it got dark, so I couldn’t get a good photo. I can update tomorrow if there’s anything here. I went to the Herkimer mine in NY this week and I found this rock. It interested me because of the lines and I didn’t see anything else like it in the 5 hours (!!) we were mining. Do you have any idea what the lines are, please? Thank you. L.

I am heading to Herkimer for a trip soon, and I was wondering if anyone knew any places one could find fossils? I heard some of the mines have stromatolites but I could not find much information on that. I also hear about trilobites near the diamond mines, and I hope to find some, and if anyone has any advice that would be appreciated.

Hi everyone, recently I took a trip out to upstate New York in search for eurypterid and trilobite fossils. The first spot I took a look at was in Herkimer, where lots of Eurypterids and Stromatolites can be found. Whilst there, I made my best fossil find to date. A partial Eurypterid! After this spectacular find, I made my way up to Utica to check out a spot that I had found multiple Triarthrus beckii heads and pieces, along with a ton of marcasite-diseased cephalopods. Unfortunately when I reached the spot it was completely flooded with water. Oh well... After this, I headed to another spot I Herkimer that a friend of mine recommended that I check out. One area near this spot is completely covered in posted signs, however I managed to find a spot that had no signs. Once there, I was finding T. beckii heads and bodies all over the place! The first T. beckii I found at this spot ^ 2 very nice T. beckii body segments Lots of graptolites at this spot! Another T. beckii head A huge multi plate of T. beckii heads and bodies A partial T. beckii body A possibly enrolled T. beckii? Not sure if it really is enrolled. This spot is insanely good, but unfortunately I didn't find any completes. After spending a couple hours in that area, I headed back to Herkimer to check out the eurypterid spot again. The best find I made from the second stop there was this plate with multiple attached segments, along with some stromatolites. 3 eurypterid segments Multiple stromatolites That concludes my post for this trip, hopefully I can head back out there soon!

FYI @Ptychodus04 @RJB I have some Herkimer Green River Formation fish I just dug up last month and they look really nice but half of them are covered in the sedimentary limestone. There's a bunch that are halfway covered. The matrix is real sticky and just doesn't want to come off. I tried pulling off chunks with some dental tools but had to quickly stop as that was damaging the fossil. Every time I pull up a chunk it takes the fossil with it. I'm thinking about getting a nice air scribe. I found a nice Chicago Pneumatic CP-9361 but have heard that these scribes can be tough on fossils. All these fish are from the split fish layers and I've heard this layer can be challenging to work with. Should I pickup the CP-9361 or go for another scribe such as an AERO/ARO? I can't seem to find an AERO/ARO anywhere. Paleotools sells a modified ARO but those are about $650 and that's a bit past my budget. What are your thoughts? I was also going to get a decent sized air compressor that goes up to 125 PSI. Thanks everyone. Here's a picture with some of the fish. The bottom right fish are good but the rest need to be prepared out.

@Ptychodus04 is preparing a fossil fish in exchange for some on the side web development (web page). Here's where he is at with the preparation and I must say that I'm very pleased with the results. This is going to turn out to be one amazing fish. Here's a before and after. The before was a fish that was broken in half and in need of some restoration and repair but is mostly there. Kris is really working his magic on this one.

Had a phenomenal time digging up Eocene freshwater vertebrae fossils in Wyoming this past weekend at @sseth and @FossilDudeCO famous American Fossil Quarry. Managed to convince my cousin, his two sons, and my family to join. @sseth set us up with our own rocks to split and he was very informative, showing us how to split the rock and what to look for. We all had a really good time. Here are some of the highlights. Matt's two sons Logan and Wesley had a blast. Here's their cart full of Knightia's. A sneak peak at some of the multi slabs I hauled away. On the bottom is a slab with five complete fish. There's one hiding in the sun and another top right that needs to be prepared out. Some of the finds. Some of these fish need some prep work to fully uncover. A personal favorite was the largest Diplomystus I have ever found. I should of put something in the picture for scale but this fish is nearly a foot wide. The heartbreaker of the day was this well preserve Mioplosus. The top and bottom halves of the head are missing! Still a nice looking fish and I'll use it for referencing the species in the years to come. Wesley holding up a decent sized Knightia. A view of the limestone rocks we were splitting. @sseth recovered a crocodile tooth from a small slab such as the ones pictured here some time ago. Matt trimming down his finds on the rock saw. My cousin Matt and his son Wesley showing off some of their prized fish. A front view of the rock quarry. There's a lot to offer at the site. Wes lining up fish for his dad to cut. Matt sawing away. The remains of the slabs after we split them down. We kept revisiting and respiting slabs. It was a lot of fun. The Seth clan hanging out under the shade, escaping the hot sun and dust. Couldn't resist snapping this photo. I really need to get one of these decals. @sseth on the left side. He was super helpful in showing us what to look for. That Mososaur skull on his shirt was recovered my him in Morocco. That is super neat. I'm holding up a large Knightia near Logan and Wes. Matt and his sons getting pumped to descend 50 million years into the Eocene. At 9:00am we were among the first on sight and we were all super excited to get to the digging and exploring. Wes (left) and Logan (right) braving the dust and sun to find Eocene fossils. Have to start them off young! Having dinner at a local Mexican restaurant in Kemmerer. The food was really good. We ordered Carne Asada that came with spicy salsa. Matt kept telling the waitress to bring out the "Gringo" salsa.

Well I haven't had much time to go fossil hunting since we made an offer on our home. We are moving in on Saturday. I'm so excited. Two weeks ago my wife allowed me to take an excursion for fish fossils in Wyoming with her cousin Luke. Little did the twelve year old boy know what he was getting into. This would be his first fossil hunting experience but he also experienced the following: first off roading experience, first taste of beef jerky, first time to Wyoming, and first time to a Sonic drive through. Being in the middle of Wyoming I diligently followed Google Maps which led us off roading. I have done some crazy stuff in my lifetime (i.e. sky diving) and have been really worried. This was one of those times. The off roading experience started us off on a dirt road with deep tracks from tires with chains for getting through snow. At one point I had to keep my left wheel in the middle of the road and my right wheel was off road with the right side of the vehicle slamming into rocks and sage brush. Thankfully we made it out. The quarry was amazing. Here are a bunch of pictures going back to our trip to my parents cabin in Island Park near Yellowstone and the new home. Heading out for date night at a nearby ski resort in Utah. Here we are at the Sundance ski resort for an outdoor play. My wife insisted we take a selfie. You can tell that I'm not a big fan of selfies. This is Bear World located in Rexburg, Idaho. We stopped here on our way up to Island Park. Bear World is a zoo for wild animals native to North America. Cute little fawn. American Bison. This Black Bear decided he didn't want to move so we had to wait for a few minutes. Big Grizzly Bear waking up after an afternoon nap. This is my brother Spencer holding my daughter Clara. He has a little son and I can tell he really wants a daughter. The Caldera pots of Yellowstone. The sulfuric smell was horrible but the sight was interesting and pleasantly warm. This may look like an inviting hot tub but is dangerously hot. Having our picture taken near the falls. Old Faithful My dad and I went to his secret spot near the cabin for some fishing on Saturday morning. I ended up catching thirty rainbow trout but only kept three. My father caught a bunch but only kept a few. We had enough fish to feed our families for lunch (keep in mind not everybody had trout as there were hamburgers). Clara loves the great outdoors. My mother really enjoyed spending time with her only granddaughter. My four young nephews really adored her as well. I had to share this one. A few weeks ago I came home to see my young daughter smiling up at me. That made up for the long day I had at work. This is where I decided it was time to turn the Subaru back. That hill was rather steep with loose gravel and even with X-mode and Incline mode set I couldn't make it up and the other side of the hill didn't look promising. Almost ran down into this deep crevice. It's a good thing I was going really slow. As you can see there are no roads up here. Luke is being a good sport, but he was a bit nervous about the whole ordeal as was I. Thankfully we made it out. We ended taking another dirt road and coming to this sign. Definitely turning back this time. Bad road! This was the "bad road." Doesn't look to rough but over the bend it could "evolve" into something nasty. Despite the rough start Luke is still looking forward to getting at those fossil fish. Almost there! That sign notes that off roading is illegal. I'll keep that in mind for next time as I was unaware. I notified Luke that he couldn't keep anything over 100k. And we are here! Within the hour discovered this massive Mioplosus that shattered upon extraction. I had no clue it was in the limestone. The stuff is so brittle it just popped right out in pieces. I left it out in the open for the brave preparer who would try his hand at this heart breaker. I keep forgetting to take pictures of fossil extractions on site. Managed to snap this photo while heading out. The car definitely needs a good washing inside and out. The serenity of Wyoming. A heard of Antelope running up the gorge. Here is Luke's amused face. The preservation on this Knightia oceana pair isn't great but what's interesting is that they are inverted against each other. Another pair. The bottom fish is well preserved. Close up. Another K. oceana. This is a K. oceana but looks like a miniature Piranha. Excellent preservation. Another K. oceana. A K. oceana and what I believe is a Diplomystus bottom right that needs some preparation. This will be the location for a new fossil preparation bench. The space looks small on camera but is surprisingly large at 7ft wide by 3 ft deep. Lots of fossil fish. More fish. One of the plates had seven K. oceana but I had to cut that one down (too big). I'm not sure what species the fish is bottom right but it's about the size of a dinner plate. Here is a decent Mipolosus that should prep out well. @Ptychodus04 this is the specimen I told you about. What would you recommend for this fish in terms of exposing it. Any other feedback from TFF members is welcome. The big plate sized fish. K. oceana K. oceana A plate of K. oceana. This is a beautiful Priscacara. @sseth father helped me to extract it and he said that this was one of four found that day. Unfortunately it was already split from the first hammer hit but I do have the other half. @Ptychodus04 recently you worked on a GRF fish that needed to be glued back together. Mind if I send you this project? I'll pay you or add some new features to the website. I'm a bit worried about messing this one up. The spikes look really neat and I do have the complete half that goes with it. Should turn out to be a rather neat looking fossil. This Diplomystus was a trip maker. It's not that large but has fine detail. I applied an air scribe from the rock quarry to the back portion as the tail was covered in limestone sediment. This one is currently on display at my office at work. All of my coworkers are green with envy. Measuring out the work bench. Picked up a large shelf for storing fossils on in the garage. Here is the backyard. The neighborhood is built against a mountain so the backyard is a hill with terraces. I'll plant a garden and trees on the terraces. I can't wait to move in this Saturday. View of Utah Lake from the backyard. Right next to the lake is the city of Lehi. These sunflowers grow well in the desert region of Utah and require very little water. @SailingAlongToo here are some pictures for you. I ordered these fine paintings from the Annapolis Marine Art Gallery in Annapolis. They weren't cheap but should look really nice. This painting is the HMS Surprise the British frigate featured in Master and Commander. This is Beyond the Mark and one of the most famous paintings by Willard Bond. The painting depicts the abstractness of a regatta race. Mr. Bond frequented Maryland to witness these ships racing each other. He is considered to be one of the greatest ship painters of our modern day. This is one of my favorites and depicts a sail boat returning home from a day in the bay. In the background is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge linking the western shore to the eastern shore. At one point in time the bay bridge was the largest man made bridge in the USA. To this day it's one of the older bridges in the country and was built in 1952. I have fond memories of this area from my Calvert Cliff days. I also spent countless weekends in Annapolis. If you ever get a chance to visit the east coast the Chesapeake Bay is a must see. Neat picture of Lone Peak mountain right outside my wife's parents home. It was overcast that day and the clouds sat right on top of the mountain. Close up of the Mioplosus. Another shot of the backyard from the top. I'm in love.

I recently went to the Herkimer diamond mines. Although I did find a decent amount of "diamonds" as I was packing up I spotted this. It's a piece of dolostone with what looks like brachiopods on it. After doing a little research, it seems like the rocks in the mines are Cambrian in age with little record of fossils being found. Any help with figuring this out would definitely be appreciated.