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I found these today along the Wabash River in Wabash County, Indiana. Any ID help (if all of these are even fossils) would be appreciated. Thanks! 1. 2. 3.

Last month I took a weekend collecting trip down to the Cincinnati area as my last trip of the year. I visited a number of sites in Indiana and Kentucky, and as usual this included the famous Upper Ordovician roadcut near St. Leon, Indiana. Although this site is best known for its trilobites, I found a great crinoid on my last trip there, and had some further crinoid luck on this trip as well. I spent most of my time in and around the butter shale bed of the Liberty Formation, shown below. The find of the day came when I noticed a large accumulation of crinoid stem fragments. It's always a good idea to look around for calyxes when you see a lot of stems like this. As I looked closer, I started to notice a couple calyxes. Then more, and more, and more.

Hi, I was going through some of my rocks and saw this one I found near Madison, Indiana. Most of the fossils I got from there were horn corals or brachiopods but the pattern on this fossil is different than what I usually see. Can anyone please help me identify it? Not sure if it is an imprint from a sponge or something else. Pictures show front, side and back. Thank you for your help!

Here are three more things I've found. These are from Wabash County, Indiana...all from creeks or rivers. Thanks for any help!

Hello, I found this in a creek in Putnam County, Indiana. The entire piece is less than 4cm and it looks like whatever it is is wrapped around, making it hard to photograph. Thanks for any help

Can any of you tell me what type of fossil this might be? I found it in Shelbyville, Indiana in the mud. As I soaked it, the holes started appearing and where the holes are, there is flash. Of course, my eyes instantly played tricks on me because it looks like a skull of some kind, but I don't trust my eyes anymore. Some of the pictures I took with the flash and then some without hoping for the best views. Thank you in advance!

found this in the same creek as my giant petrified burl. Finding things in this creek that don't just crumble is rare. The land I live on is very strange with deep deep slopes and high drop offs in the woods. I recently learned a glacier carved out the land here so thats interesting and explains alot. Can anyone give me their opinions on this peice? It sounds like glass if that helps. Thanks!

Hi everyone! So I am planning on doing some fossil hunting this year before it gets to cold and I am trying to find some good places. Thanks in advance!

I'm a newbie to The Fossil Forum. I hike in the hilly areas of south-central Indiana (mainly Morgan, Monroe & Brown counties) whenever I get a chance and many times I end up walking the rocky creek beds looking for fossils & unusual rocks. These creeks are rich in geodes and there is a lot of shale & limestone. I believe that some of the unusual finds are geodized fossils. I have several that I'd like to share with the forum to get opinions from the experts. Attaching multiple photos (15 total: 3 groups of 5) of 4 different specimens with the first five photos showing a pair which have similarities. Thanks in advance for any input.

Tammy and I made our first post-pandemic roadtrip and we went to Chicago to see family. Decided to drive as I was not yet comfortable with airports and airplanes. I had hoped to visit a site in southern Illinois where blastoids used to be plentiful and easy to find. Sadly, that site was mistreated and is no longer available. Members here on the forum suggested several alternatives which should produce the blastoids that I longed to hunt for. We found that the large (and well known) roadcut just north of Sulphur, Indiana was along the route (kind of) on our return trip and so it was added to the itinerary. We drove down from a last lunch in Chicago's Chinatown and crossed Indiana to check into a hotel in a small town just west of Louisville, Kentucky. The plan was to drive west to visit this Chesterian (Late Mississippian) site and see what we could find. We got up early, refueled, and had a quick breakfast since we planned on returning to the hotel and cleaning-up before the 11am checkout time. The morning proved to be much more overcast than the preceding evening. Things weren't looking promising as we were getting out to the site. You can see in the photos that the sky did not show promise of cooperating with us and the pelting rain along the highway was less than encouraging. The rain had slowed to a light drizzle and we arrived at the roadcut which provided nice wide shoulders to pull off the road a safe distance. Tammy decided she'd let me do the scouting and see if it was worth leaving the dry warmth of the car and so she stayed behind with her tablet to entertain her while I made good use of my raincoat. It took a while to find a good access point to climb up the first and lowest wall of this stepped roadcut. I walked most of the way down the road only to see the wall get taller and less accessible. I crossed over the road and walked back the way I had come till I found an opening. The rock face would have been easier to scale had it not all become quite slick from the rain. Once up on the first terrace level I walked along till I spotted a means of climbing up another level. I was headed up to the loose talus slope between the second and third levels. Along the way I spotted what I believe might be the Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)--the shell patterns seem to be quite variable on this species but I'm sure @Tidgy's Dad could confirm or refute. When I finally started seeing crinoid stem segments and a number of small rugose corals I knew I had found the level I was looking for. It didn't take too long to spot the first blastoid looking like a pentagonally symmetrical marble. Most of the little Pentremites sp. blastoids were in the pea to garbanzo size range. Many of them were loose but a few were still attached to a chunk of the matrix. I spotted a little piece of the matrix that looked to be peppered with a bunch of semi-articulated plates from what I'm guessing is a crinoid calyx. This needs further inspection with the aid of some magnification. I took some in situ shots of my finds as I figured I'd probably write a post on this site. I selected a number of the nicer finds and upon review of the images I noticed that had missed things that I could clearly see in the images. I was so focused on developing the blastoid search image (rounded items with the pentagonally V-notched edge on the top) that I forgot that the Archimedes screw shaped bryozoans were also here. You can clearly see an Archimedes screw bryozoan actually touching the blastoid I picked up--talk about tunnel vision. https://www.uky.edu/KGS/fossils/fossil-month-09-2018-Archimedes.php The clouds were starting to break up and a little increase in light levels was welcome to aid the search. I could just barely see the car where Tammy was through the dense trees that cover this roadcut. I had tried to call her to let her know I hadn't fallen on my noggin yet but our cell phone reception was pretty poor here. Made a mental note to bring along some inexpensive walkie-talkie radios if we ever find ourselves split up and trying to communicate where cell phone coverage is poor. The rain had made the clay on the talus slope very soft and slippery. I spent a lot of time with multiple points of contact to the ground--holding on with both hands usually to avoid possibly losing my footing. Having my head held close to the ground in order to see the small blastoids obviously works better if you scan the area slowly. I knew I had limited time here and was searching somewhat quickly but I'm surprised that I missed this second blastoid just a hand-width away from the one on top that I did collect. It's also quite obvious (now) that I missed this other Archimedes that is nearly touching the blastoid underneath. At least I was getting pretty good at spotting even the tiniest of the blastoid specimens. I found a larger blastoid that had been flattened a bit and I spotted the first brachiopod. It was odd to see the brachiopods being so relatively rare as they were always so common at the few Devonian sites I'd hunted. I finally remembered that there were Archimedes at this site but only after I spotted this one. There is no telling how many more I missed. My time was running out and I was looking for one last find of the day before quitting and then trying to find a path back down (you never remember the path up as it looks different from above). Going down is usually more dangerous than up and so I spent extra effort looking for descents that wouldn't land me in the ER. Happily, the last find of the day was one of the largest of the blastoids. That seemed to put a cap on this 45 minute excursion into the Mississippian (my first fossil hunt from this geologic age). From up on top you can see the interchange with route 64 heading back to Lexington which is the route we took to arrive later that day in Asheville, North Carolina to visit friends we haven't see in 2 years. It was a fun little excursion and signs that a longer hunt would be even more productive. The fossil-bearing layer is about 2/3 the way up to the top of the slope. I spotted some better access points on the way back down and if I ever get back to this locality I hope to explore with with many more hours of time to dedicate to the hunt. Cheers. -Ken

Greetings, all! After exploring outcrops and spoils piles from Quebec down to Florida, we are heading west from Delaware to Crawford, Nebraska and back this fall. Planning to stop by Sylvania, OH and Clear Lake, IA. Probably Richmond, IN. Any other suggestions? Thoughts on these three?

I have really been wanting to get this ID'ed but until recently I didn't have a good camera good enough to take a picture of it. Thanks in advance.

I purchased a couple of buckets of fossil/rocks from a friend who found them in the Ohio/Indiana area...which he told me was Ordovician and Silurian. Unfortunatly I've lost the paper that described where this section of fossil/rock came from. At first I thought it was a Crinoid...upon further inspection I noticed that there were patterns along with the ridges. So, I scribed it out of the rock. I noticed that one end was slightly larger than the other and that it was on the "Oval" side. There is a bit of pyritisation...especially inside the small end. So, I'm not really sure ...but I found one similar on the internet(last photo). It looks to be the same but would like your opinions. Thanks Greg

I found this in Indiana near Columbus. I originally thought it may have been a tool of some sort because of the triangular shapes, but the more I look at it, the more I've wondered if it's a bone. Or maybe it's just a beat up rock. Thsnk you in advance for any informatio.

I found this the other day and it has really puzzled me ever since! I would appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks in advance.

Any idea what this could be?

I found this yesterday and thought maybe it was a broken geodized crinoid calyx? Thanks in advance.

While heading to visit family in southern Indiana, I decided to leave a day early to do a bit of collecting in the Cincinnatian. The first stop was, as usual, St. Leon, to look for the famous Flexicalymene rollers. In the past, I've usually found 2-4 per visit, but was quite lucky this time, walking away with 10 rollers and my first prone. Here are a couple in situ shots. After a couple hours at St. Leon, I headed towards my hotel. As it turned out, it was just down the road from Trammel Fossil Park. I had not been here before. It exposes several formations (which are helpfully marked). I only spent about 20 minutes here but did find a beat up edrioasteroid (my first!) in the Miamitown. I would imagine it is very picked over, but it's a neat place to visit nonetheless. The following day I woke up quite early and drove down into Kentucky to check out a couple spots in the Kope along the AA Highway. Not much success was had, so I decided to head back towards Cinci to visit a popular site where the crinoid Ectenocrinus is often found. Again, little success. That was until I decided to flip over one last rock sitting right next to my car. And as luck would have it, the rock was covered in crinoids. At least half a dozen individuals were visible, but I suspect that many more are buried.

Found in South Eastern Bartholomew County Indiana.. My younger brothers (Ages 8-9) were messing around digging random holes back in the 17 Acres of Forrest behind our house and came across this.. It looks almost like a Mud Wasp Nest but it's solid wood instead of dirt.. Maybe some type of Root? I don't think it's a fossil but figured it couldn't hurt to ask someone else who knows way more about this stuff than myself.. Any help identifying it would be greatly appreciated! Little bros think it's a dinosaur tooth (LOL).. Dimensions.. Length-(8cm) Width-(3cm) Height(1.5cm)

I found this mandible (I think) near Bloomington, Indiana over the weekend and was wondering if anyone could give me an ID on it. I believe it's the mandible of a rodent, but that's about as far as I get. Seems to large for a mouse or rat, but maybe a muskrat, shrew (if those are bigger?), or squirrel? And I'm guessing it's more recent rather than fossil?

I found this lovely rock at the Monroe reservoir on Monday. I believe it's a petosky stone, but maybe I'm wrong. I'm also wondering if I should try to polish it or anything or if it would be best left alone.

I found this in Indian Creek near Bloomington. The shape is almost that of a turtle head(not insinuating that's what it is) and it has a node on one side that remings me of a joint head with holes. I'd like to know if this is even a bone and if it is, what kind? Or even what animal it likely came from.

Found this at the Monroe Reservoir in Indiana on Monday. Looks like a brachiopod made of pyrite? Or is it more likely a cast?

More Lake Michigan - Long Beach, IN finds. #1 - just a rock? #3,5 - horn corals? #4 - favosite? #8,9 - more coral? Sorry about the photo quality/quarter as a size reference. It was the best I could do for now. Thanks for your input