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I don't know where to begin. I am completely new to the forum. I will eventually be posting some fossils for help with ID and others that are identified by experts already. Having said that, this poster represents some of my fossils. I am not sure if can even read the names underneath. I may have to post separately. Any ID corrections would be graciously accepted. What I really need help with is locations. While living in FL for several years, I would go to a couple of locations in Polk Co. where I knew road base, I believe it is called aggregates were often kept. I visited and collected. What I don't know if where the shells originated. APAC Pit in Sarasota, Aggregates Pit in Bonita Springs, Star Ranch Quarry, Clewiston, Cochran Pit in Labelle to name a few possible locations. Based on the shells collected, it would seem that most come from either the Tiamiami or Caloosahatchee Formations, not sure which members....Pinecrest Beds, Bermont, Ayers Landing Ft. Denaud etc. How do I know what collection data to include on my label. I can list where I found it, but it is not its origin. ID is pretty ok with Petuch's works, but if I don't know the origin, it makes ID much more difficult. Any input or ideas to help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. I have included a sample collection label for anyone to comment on how to improve. One is more vague since I don't know origin, the other is from a fossil I purchased. Date on label was date I added to my collection. How important is it to list the taxonomist such as Petuch or Conrad etc? scienceteacher79

Hello! I found this on the beach today. It's a great site for Belemnites, bivalves and the occasional Ammonite. The beach here is at the head of an estuary which enjoys big tidal surges. So many of the fossils have been washed along the coast from well known Jurassic sites like Whitby. They're usually ocean polished and removed from any cortex by the sea. So this little guy is about and Inch and half long. It looks like a lobster claw, but surely a fossil lobster claw wouldn't be this well preserved? It's definitely stone and gives a lovely "" noise when tapped against another stone. Any advice from you lovely people would be amazing

It's been a few years of hunting for me now. What began as a spontaneous trip to North Sulphur River, spurred by childhood nostalgia, has become something of a gnawing beast that constantly nibbles at the corner of my consciousness. What will the weather be like this weekend? When will I have another three-day break? Is the car road-trip ready? Do I have the right foot ware for the locale? Is that unprepped fossil an ammonite or a nautilus? When will I finally find my first mosasaur tooth? And on and on... I've often wondered if this is a pre-midlife crisis. The time I get to spend outside is usually enjoyable, even when the weather is inhospitable. Is it madness that I am picking up ammonites at Lake Texoma among rocks covered in icicles? Possibly. Why worry about freezing cold water creeping over the tops over your boots when there is a beautiful vertebra with an ebony patina sitting in the gravel bar across the channel? I've hunted the well known sites up until now. North Sulphur River, Whiskey Bridge, Post Oak Creek. I have still much to learn about these places and the fossilized remains found there. But alas the gnawing beast isn't satisfied with only a handful of locations, regardless of their charm and ability to still surprise. So with a few carefully coordinated research tools, new sites began to slowly appear on my radar. I'm gettin' around. Considering this was one of my first scouting missions, this trip was pretty productive. The finds below are all from Bosque County, and likely came from several units: Comanche Peak, Edwards, and Fort Worth. All Cretaceous. Urchins, clams, gastropod steinkerns, oysters, prints. Let me know what you think. Until the gnawing starts again, ladies and gentlemen...

Hey guys! I actually missed a week of uploading, but Cris and I got back at it and went to one of our new creek sites for some more exploration! Unfortunately, we gave it a good go and didn't find anything great. So we literally went after dark to some of our trusty old road sites where fill material is used as road fill. This turned out to be an absolutely amazing decision, and ended up being one of our best hunts on the roads to date! This video is chock-full of weirdness, and great finds! Give it a watch when you get some time

Dear Canadian Fossil Collectors, Some of you may have heard that the ROM is finally going to open an invertebrate gallery, something that has been sadly missing for many years. There was a recent announcement of a $5 million (Canadian I assume) donation for this project. https://www.rom.on.ca/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/royal-ontario-museum-receives-landmark-5-million-gift-to-establish This is a great move on the part of the ROM. Jean-Bernard Caron has contacted me regarding the new exhibition. We have communicated both by email and phone. It seems that they are in desperate need of "spectacular" Ontario specimen for the exhibit. They probably contacted me because of my web site and in general people are aware of my "Ontario" collection, both Arkona and Brechin. It is very unfortunate that they (ROM) have no relationship with Canadian collectors or any other collectors for that matter. Jean and I spoke about this problem at length because at this point no one is willing to donate anything. We spoke about my Brechin crinoid collection and how it is going to an American institution simply because someone at the ROM told me that there was no one at the ROM interested and I should find someone somewhere else. We also spoke of a Arkona crinoid collection I personally gave them over 30 years ago and how it is still sitting in the same boxes under a table. No one bothered to accession it. And finally we spoke of a recent find by a Canadian collector of a very rare fish from Arkona. An American wanted to work on it, had no problem with it being deposited at the ROM and even made arrangements for the ROM to contact the collector. The collector sat at his phone for weeks waiting for the ROM to call. The specimen ended up being donated to an American Institution. I made it very clear to Jean that his problem is the historic relationship with the collecting public and more importantly the total lack of interest in working on ONTARIO projects. For being called the "Royal Ontario" all of the work is outside of Ontario. Jean has recognized this as a problem and is willing to work on repairing the relationship and maybe getting some Ontario projects going. I think that Jean is sincere in his statements and would really like a better relationship with the collecting public. I have agreed to donate some specimens but I am not going to fill the entire "Ontario" exhibit. The purpose of this post is to encourage Canadians, and other collectors to contact Dr. Caron and to start a relationship with the museum. And of course he is looking for Canadians to make donations to the exhibit. What exactly he needs is a very open question. I personally will be visiting sometime in the new year to see exactly what is needed and go from there. Maybe you can do the same. His contact information is below. Dr. Jean-Bernard Caron Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology Department of Natural History Royal Ontario Museum 100 Queen's Park Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6 CANADA Tel: 416-586-5593#1 Fax: 416-586-5553 E-mail: jcaron@rom.on.ca<mailto:jcaron@rom.on.ca>

Hi all, I finally made the trek to Matoaka Beach, a fossil collecting site along the Calvert Cliffs on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The beach is accessible to the public for $5 per person per day. Once we arrived, we reported to the front office where the property owner and his adorable newborn daughter were happy to collect our fee and give us access to the beach along with advice on how to best hunt the grounds. He advised us to head North (left of the entrance), which was what I had also read online. Apparently, the farther North you head, the better the fossils tend to be. So my dad and I made our way down the stairs to the foot of the cliffs, and began searching. The beach is very wide, so it's difficult to decide where to walk. I was finding fragments of Chesapectan shells left and right, but nothing quite worth keeping. But then, after maybe 5 minutes of hunting, I looked down at my feet and saw a large, complete, Ecphora staring back at me. I could hardly believe it. At a site where invertebrates dominate the matrix, a nice Ecphora is just about equivalent to finding a Megalodon tooth. And yes, I am aware that Meg teeth can be and have been found at this site before, but the find that I was after that day was certainly Ecphora. It was a gorgeous specimen, much larger and more complete than any other I'd found before. And there it was, just laying out in the open, a couple hundred yards from the entrance. I excitedly showed my dad the find, and promptly continued hunting, although I knew there was likely no beating what I had just found at the very beginning of the day. As I walked farther North, I marveled at the cliffs, which were absolutely chalk full of invertebrate fossils. It was incredible, and unlike anything I'd ever seen before. I kept finding crushed shells and small pieces of fossilized coral, but nothing spectacular. That is, until I stumbled upon the section of the beach where many huge chunks of the cliffs had fallen. I decided to look for large shells sticking out of the cliff falls, and very quickly discovered the best method for finding fossils at Matoaka. Immediately, I began finding giant Chesapectan every couple of inches in the cliff falls. After unearthing about a dozen, I decided to head North again to see if I could find another similar section. I walked at least a mile farther and found next to nothing, so I turned around and headed back towards the digging site. When I arrived, I saw that my dad has discovered the falls and was digging through them just as I had been. We both set down our gear and decided to spend the rest of our day there carefully excavating shells from the matrix. This was certainly different than the fossil hunting I've done in the past. It felt more like the traditional "dig site" hunting that most people think of when they think of a paleontologist or archaeologist. It was really cool. At one point, I saw a familiar spiral structure just poking out of one of the falls, and quickly recognized it as a small Ecphora. I plopped myself down on the ground next to it and spent the next 20 or so minutes cautiously excavating it. I foolishly forgot to bring a digging kit, so I resourcefully used broken fragments of sturdy shells around me to dig out the specimen. Although I chipped off a few pieces of it, I managed to extract it from the matrix mostly intact. With that, we headed back towards the entrance. We decided to sift for a bit to try for some shark teeth, and eventually I found one and my dad found three. Matoaka is unrivaled for invertebrate fossils along the Cliffs, but it's definitely not a top spot for teeth. Overall, I was incredibly pleased with my first trip to Matoaka Beach. From the friendly owners to the beautiful scenery and wildlife and the fantastic fossil finds, Matoaka Beach is a must for any fossil hunter in the DMV area. We ended up finding a ton of Chesapectan, ranging from "itty bitty" nearly the size of my hand, some stunning Ecphora, fossilized coral and barnacles, some Turritella, and a few shark teeth as well. I already can't wait to go back to Matoaka. Thanks for reading my report. Hoppe Hunting!

Hello, I have been a long time member of the fossil forum, but I have never posted before. I live in south Florida and I am planning on making a trip up to northwestern Georgia, northeastern Alabama, and southeastern Tennessee for two or three days and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on fossil hunting sites in the region. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I have been interested in fossils since I was a little kid, though growing up in the southern part of New York was tough as there was mostly igneous rock in the area. I am now in the western part of the state and am loving the opportunities to find invertebrate fossils. My interest is not limited to inverts, I love all fossils from petrified wood to shark teeth. I am also getting beginning to gather knowledge and practice on prepping fossils.

Hi Everyone, I suddenly have a work trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota coming up next week and I'd like to get out and collect some fossils along the way. I'm driving from Denver to Lead, SD and will be driving north on HW 85 and 18 through Newcastle. I'd be really happy to get a few stops in along the way and any potential information would really be great. Unfortunately, I won't have a ton of time to be able to stop and really dig, so some road cuts or target formations would be super helpful for surface collecting. I'm open to every type of fossil. I know there's a lot of fossils in that section of the state so I'm looking forward to hopefully finding some decent stuff! Thanks! Caleb

Recently, I have obtained a Wikipedia account so that I could update articles on some of Vermont’s geologic formations. The first of which I have made is the Ordovician age Crown Point Formation, in which I have collected many rocks completely covered in fossil invertebrates. Although I am unsure as to how far this formation goes (possibly extending into New York as well),localities known for having some of the most fossils from the formation include the towns of Panton and Isle La Motte. In creating the list, my main source of information was Paleontology of the Lake Champlain Basin in Vermont, as well as my own observations of what fossils were collected by myself and other members of the Burlington Gem & Mineral Club when we collected specimens from private quarries in Panton, VT last October. However, as my main source was written in 1962, the names and classification for some of the fauna included in the list may have names that are dubious, and the list itself if subject to change. If there is any further information that should be added to the article, please let me know, or edit the page responsibly (basing your facts/information with resources). Note: I have not added algae & porifera yet, so this post (and the Wikipedia article) will be edited. The Crown Point Formation Cephalopods Maclurites magnus Stereospyroceras champlainensis Vaginoceras oppletum Vaningenoceras sp. Proteoceras perkinsi Proteoceras pulchrum Plectoceras jason Nanno sp. Trilobites Bumastus erautusi Bumastus globosus Cryptolithus tesselatus Eoharpes antiquatus Flexicalymene senaria Isotelus gigas Pliomerops canadensis Vogdesia bearsi Echinoderms Dendrinocrinus alternatus Brachipods Atleasma multicostum Camerella varians Macrocoelia champlainensis Corals Streptelasma expansum Foerstephyllum wissleri Lambeophyllum profundum Bryozoans Praspora orientalis Rhinidictya fenestrata Stictopora ramosa

Couple of fossils found in the fort Knox region. Not too impressive but pretty cool none the less. Let know what you think.

Greetings from Greece!, Need help with the id of this fossil,I am guessing genus glycymeris maybe? Thanks in Advance!!

This question just crossed my mind today, seemingly without provocation: What are the oldest known coprolites in the fossil record, whether from vertebrates or invertebrates? I know of Paleozoic coprolites, but is there any evidence of coprolites before that, perhaps from the Ediacaran? And if there are no pre-Cambrian coprolites recorded, what are the oldest known from the Paleozoic? I have a feeling that @GeschWhat might know a thing or two about this subject since, after all, she is the official Queen of Poopiness on TFF.

I should preface this post by saying that the Paleozoic, marine ecosystems, and invertebrates are not generally my primary expertise, so I apologize if I am wildly off base or asking stupid questions. Sadly, I did not find these specimens myself, and so I do not have any particularly useful information on age or location. They were left in a desk drawer along with a collection of other invertebrate fossils, most (if not all) of which are Paleozoic in age. I have several different specimens of orthocone nautiloids, and I would love to know if anyone can refine that identification further. To make the situation more difficult, the siphuncle is only preserved in one of the specimens so far as I can tell (first set of photos below). For this specimen, the diameter of the nautiloid is ~3.5 cm (depending on exactly where it is measured), the inner diameter visible on top and the diameter of the siphuncle on the bottom are 4 mm, and the outer diameter is 8 mm. Here are the pictures. Thank you in advance for your time and input. Specimen #1: Specimen #2:

As with my other posts so far, I should preface this post by saying that the Paleozoic, marine ecosystems, and invertebrates are not generally my primary expertise, so I apologize if I am wildly off base or asking stupid questions. Sadly, I did not find these specimens myself, and so I do not have any particularly useful information on age or location. They were left in a desk drawer along with a collection of other invertebrate fossils, most (if not all) of which are Paleozoic in age. They look to my untrained eye to be the same species of brachiopod, although I have no idea what species that is. Any taxonomic information beyond just "brachiopod" would be awesome. Here are the pictures. While photographing, I kept the specimens in the same order, so the one on the left/right is the same specimen in each picture. Thank you in advance for your time and input.

Hello, I found this last year on a mountain near Munster, a city in Alsace, and it is a marine deposit. And I found this on the mountain and I am not sure what it is. So any help with the ID would be great.

Hello! Later this year I'm planning on moving from Florida back to New England. I was hoping to make the voyage into an interesting road trip... I've heard of several places in the Eastern half of the US where you can dig your own fossils. I know that there are some places in Georgia and the Carolinas that are good to find Megalodon teeth, and some places in the northern US that are good for finding trilobites... I'm up for anything interesting and was looking for suggestions on exact places, tour companies, people, anything that you can offer that might extend my collection on the trip!

This thread is a saga of procrastination. First of all, many of these finds are months old. Second, this weekend's prep efforts have helped me continue to procrastinate on my kitchen remodeling efforts. Third, the time put into shooting photos and creating this thread is helping distance me still further from moving ahead on the kitchen. So...let's waste some time together. I found a few cool Pennsylvanian inverts last weekend in North Central Texas, and pushed their prep to the front of the line. I enjoy the matrix association pieces most, so let's have a look. First, Meekospira and Worthenia. Second and third, 2 views of maybe Glabrocingulum in the aperture of a Pharkodontus. Third, a cool little orthocone nautiloid resting in next to a Worthenia gastropod.

Hey! Is there a winners gallery for FotY? If there is, is there any way to sticky it to the top?

Well it's been a while since I've last been on (over two months), and I know how much you all have been missing me , so I decided to finally get around to photographing some of the finds I've made over the summer. I've talked a bit earlier this year about collecting in the Frederick Limestone and other upper Cambrian-lower Ordovician units, but these finds are from rocks far, far older than those, nearly 100 million years older! These fossils are among some of the oldest in Maryland, and in the Mid-Atlantic region, which was part of the reason I collected them in the first place (because, let's be honest, most aren't that appealing). If you find these things interesting, the Araby was originally mapped as the Antietam Sandstone until about 1940ish when it became a separate geologic formation due to the strong difference in rock-type most common in either (the Antietam is mostly a quartz-sandstone, the Araby mostly a sandy and muddy shale and siltstone). When the time for the split came, the new name Araby was given to the formation that occupied a band roughly stretching from the Potomac River to the south north in a rough question mark shape to Pennsylvania as the type locality was situated near Araby Church (an interesting bit. A geologic formation from the Cambrian explosion named after a church!). Nowadays the church is gone as far as I know, but the area still bears the name with the apply named Araby Church Road. Going back further, in July of 1864, the Araby Formation would play a major role in the Battle of Monocacy. As Confederate forces under Jubal Early's command were marching east along the B&O RR, they were stopped in the vicinity of Frederick by scattered forces under the command of Union General Lew Wallace. During the day long battle (fought July 9), Wallace's outnumbered force of 5,000 men used the hills and small ridges to their east as a last line to stem the Confederate tide, strength roughly 15,000. This ridge, of course, was made up of the resistant Araby Formation, whose clastics didn't erode through time as quickly as the carbonates of the Frederick Limestone. Unfortunately for Wallace and the Union, the Confederates were able to outflank their positions, and forced them to retreat east past Urbana. Although it was a Confederate victory (the northernmost of the war), the battle delayed Early's advance for a crucial 24 hours, allowing reinforcements from the Union 6th Corps near Petersburg to arrive in Washington DC in time to stop the Confederate attacks on July 11-12 at Fort Stevens. Interesting to see how geology plays a role in how battles (and history!) are fought. I collected twice this summer, once in the early part and another time in September, from a roadcut near Frederick. This cut exposes the early Cambrian Araby Formation, which is nearly 550-530 million years old. The Araby is a nearshore clastic unit, likely deposited in a surf/beach zone on the elevated Piedmont block (a fancy term for a higher lying seabed). As such, it roughly correlates to the Antietam Sandstone further west, as well as, more roughly, the Kinzers Formation in Pennsylvania in the upper sections. Geologically speaking, the Araby is divided into coarser, almost buff siltstone and sandstone units and black, slaty-shale and siltstone (this includes the former Cash Smith Shale, which was found out to be in the middle of the Araby upon later work) ones. The darker, shale layers likely were deposited during times of deeper water, as there exists a degree of faunal differences between the two to suggest such (Olenellus thompsoni has been recorded from the black layers, but I never found any). Later, during the Taconic and Acadian Orogenies, the Araby Formation was slightly metamorphosed as were most other Piedmont and Blue Ridge units, though some parts escaped mostly untouched. These, of course, have the best fossils. Boring rock stuff out of the way, the Araby and the Antietam were formed at a special time in Earth's history called the Cambrian Explosion, which was a period when life underwent a rapid series of diversifications. Luckily we didn't miss out much here! Many beds of the Araby are filled with burrows and other traces of ancient wormlike creatures, as well as rarer edioasteroids, trilobites, and other creatures. Unfortunately little work has been done on the Cambrian units of Maryland, and less still on the Araby, so I haven't found any list of actual names for any species. As such, I'll use names from the Antietam Sandstone, as the two are time, stratigraphically, and lithologically equivalent. By far the most common fossils were the worm burrows, Skolithos linearis. These are rounded, somewhat tube shaped objects in their usual form, though they can sometimes occur as cross sections as you'll soon see. On top of this, they're also sometimes preserved in iron minerals, as is common with many other fossils. From what I've gathered, these "tubes" are interpreted to be the resting places of worms, likely annelids. Now, I'm not claiming to know 100% what some of these are so if any of you may have a better ID please let me know. First up are the Skolithos linearis. The first image is of a fairly typical "tube" shaped structure. The second image shows a cross section cut-away of a "tube", partially mineralized in what is likely iron (iii) oxide. The third image is of a large, albeit poorly preserved, complex of "tubes". The general way to tell where they are is by looking for the dark contours of them, and tracing them that way.

Hello, everyone. I'm working on a side project right now and I could use the input of the room for this one. I'm wondering what people consider to be the best fossil collecting sites public and private in the contiguous 48 states. I'm looking for everything. Vertebrates and invertebrates, all periods, just the cream of the crop for everything. I don't need exact locations, so don't worry about sharing super-secret specifics. Thank you in advance everyone!

Hey guys, so I'm starting up my prepping/study workshop, and I need practice. I have an unlimited supply of fossilerferous tampa limestone. Seen here, some of these inverts are recrystallized and very beautiful. I'm looking to trade this limestone for any kind of fossiliferous rock to help with my scribe prepping(and also add pieces to my collection that I can't get my own hands on)! I may be able to get bone valley formation limestone as well(it would take a special trip). If anyone is interested, let me know, we can work out the details later. thanks -J

Here are a few fossils I found a couple of years ago in Kansas, and I'd really like help identifying them! I found them in Riley County, KS in the Flint Hill area. The geological information is as accurate as I could be. I'm not the most educated in this field, so the information is from geological maps of the area. The first pictured fossils I found in Terrace Deposits or Glacial-Fluvial. The following two fossils were found in "Wolfcampian age with the Pennsylvanian/Permian boundary placed at the base of the underlying Admire Group." (According to what info I could find).

Hey everyone So I'm setting up a workshop outside for fossil prep. I have tons of vertebrates and invertebrates to prep. I'm pretty experienced with preserving fossils(butvar) but I've never done any real prep work. So far, I've purchased a wet saw, stereomicroscope, rock tumbler, work bench, vice, and mini fridge(for the beer!) I have a dremel and dremel engraver, I know the engraver doesn't compare to some of the air scribes, but it was cheap, and my limestone is extremely soft. I have about 500 lbs of this limestone, and some beautiful examples(Ocala, Tampa, Bone Valley formation) fossils in the matrix. These fossils range in calcite, aragonite, and Calcium Carbonate. Any tips are purchases I should make would be welcome. Particularly polishing and bringing out color. Thanks in advance. -J

Show us your home aquarium and its inhabitants! My inverts' tank: -2 Trigonostigma heteromorpha -1 Neocaridina heteropoda (RCS) -1 Brotia herculea -4 Neritina sp. -1 Faunus ater -2 Anentome helena -15 Tylomelania sp. poso (four adults and 11 babys)