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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)

This weekend I went on a quick hunt with my family to Sesimbra's Miocene (Calcarenitos e margas da Foz da Fonte-Burdigalian). It was a really nice hunt...And I brought home some quality (IMO) fossils. However, the documents I've been read about this site are not very specific about taxonomic informations. So, I would like to ask for some help identifying my finds. Invertebrates -Ficidae (maybe Ficus sp.)

Can't find any similar pictures, too big to be Brachiopods,

Hi All, This is my first post in the forums, but probably won't be my last... I'm trying to write a kids book on evolution and want to draw some nice pictures to go with the rhymes (it's aimed at younger kids). However for the page I have written about Tiktaalik roseae I would like to do a picture of it resting on the bank of a river, with some of the likely associated flora and fauna that lived in the margins of freshwater at the time hanging out in the background/foreground (probably foreground as I suspect they were all fairly small). Unfortunately there don't seem to be a lot of good fossils from the Famennian in Canada at this time and so I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me identify some likely candidates. There is a lot of information on the tetrapods that lived with it but it seems like nobody has covered the land living/marginal species that may have crossed paths with it. There is also some info about things like e.g. Archaeopteris, Gigantocharinus, Microdecemplex, etc. but none of them seem to occur in the same location/stratigraphy. Hopefully the way I have written this doesn't make me sound completely clueless (although chances are good), as it's been a while since I've dabbled in palaeontology, but if anyone wants further clarification then let me know. Thanks in advance, this is a great website, by the way! Cheers SpoonMan

Hello! I'm relatively new here, but I've been coming to this site for years to look at the great photos and read the discussions. I started this topic to share some of my own research that's going on right now about mass mortalities of marine invertebrates in Patagonia, Argentina. Over that past couple of years I've been working in Argentina, studying fossils (mostly decapods and mollusks) which were killed en masse by volcanic ash. We found some really interesting things in our first trip to the Valdes Peninsula, and documented that volcanic ash can have a killing effect on marine fauna even hundreds of kilometers away from the eruption! I'm also describing a new species of marine isopod that was found preserved in volcanic ash right now. This work is really exciting to me because there is a huge opportunity for new discovery. I hope to describe the numerous different effects volcanic ash has on marine ecosystems, and how they recover from catastrophic events. The ash also plays a really important role in fossil preservation processes, which I also hope to test and describe. I recently launched a "crowd funding" campaign on a website called experiment.com to help raise funds to go back to Argentina for a more comprehensive study of the mass kill sites we know about. If any of you are interested in learning more about the research, or donating to help support it, you can find a video, and other info at http://www.experiment.com/deathbyvolcanicash. I'm also interested in any comments or thoughts anyone has on this topic. I'm always looking for new field sites which may involve volcanic activity and marine fossils, and my research is also more broadly related to mass mortality events in the fossil record in general, so if anyone has any insight into any of this, please comment! Also, if anyone is in the Cleveland area, I'll be giving a talk to a local fossil club on Saturday, May 7th, so if anyone is interested, let me know!

Sorry for the flurry of questions from a new enthusiast. I am trying to get set up and so every time I think I have all of the answers, I have more questions. I am looking to prepare invertebrates like crabs, lobsters, trilobites, animals with chitin look cool to me. What air scribe would you reccomend? Here is where my research has taken me so far: Micro Jack is the best, I don't have $500 to drop right now. Chicago Pneumatics is a great tool, however it might be too big for what I want All Air Products has a tool, it might fit? Can someone weigh in and give me some direction? I have spent the last few days researching the tools and I am going in circles. Thanks, Adam

"It ain't worth beans" a discouraged prospector would say when disgusted over the year's panning gone sour. When in my home during the frequent summer trips, it was a 1956 VW, 900cc lawn mower engine, practically NO HEAT, NO Power to get up a mountain road, nor room for two people to stretch out for getting some sleep on a long trip... beans and tuna in a can were the menu. Potato chips. Canned corn. Apples. A huge watermelon. Those doughnuts with the white powdered sugar... This was the diet of young fossil collectors, and I am proof that it was healthy, as I am still moving around with minor ailments. Once I was married... things changed. Unfortunately... AFTER we were married. The "this is so cozy honey..." went to "we need the two story, 75 square foot apartment made from canvas. Of course, after a 50 mile per hour, gusting to 65 miles per hour Wyoming wind... we were sleeping under the Stars... But that thought was quickly forgotten about the star canopy and snuggling up in a sleeping bag made for one. Then it was..." I will stay with Mom and you go on" and ... "have fun collecting, or whatever you do". Somehow the romance of getting out into the field, camping in pure squalor, mice running over your head after sunset... was no longer on the short list of things the Mrs. wanted to do. Honey... these small rattle snakes... never... crawl into the sleeping bag (or do they?) when you are gone collecting during the day. Scorpions in your shoe... just in those old western movies. (or do they?) She had me wondering, now. Well, beans, tuna and corn topped with a can of icy cold Coca Cola in an ice chest the size of a modern woman's purse... with a sugar frosted doughnut days came to and end. It was now time to step up in the world. Dinty Moore beef stew. Propane cook stove. Pots, pans, wash tubs, clean underwear, deodorant, tooth paste, shaving razor... now a 3/4 ton 4x4 Chevrolet pickup to haul the Mrs. and all of our home belongings... to hunt fossils in the Nebraska Badlands. Then tent camping at a camp ground with showers, running water, flushing toilets... restaurant, horse back riding, art classes... and maybe time to... hunt fossils. Somehow things were getting out of whack. No longer was I leading the troops into the unknown. It was going to the Playhouse on Thursday, ice cream social on Tuesday, swimming at the Hot Springs in South Dakota for Saturday. I went from Rooster to a Hen Pecked explorer wanna be. I had become... domesticated. After 17 years of transformation the Mrs. wanted me to quit my business and join hers. Setting up computer systems and programming for Desk Top publishing and Advertising Agencies needing computer consulting. Computers? Software. My question... "do these plug into a wall socket?" After the divorce... she left me with the rocks and fossils. She married an older guy who worked for a medical magazine publisher, a good client of hers. I had my... beans, tooth brush, tuna in a can and some Dinty Moore with an expiration date "good until"... that might even be good today. And best of all... MY 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser and extra rock hunting equipment, that she apparently forgot to take. She wanted everything else. That worried me, a lot. Today I have a wonderful understanding wife. She is not into computers was my first question when we met. She loved camping. She loved dogs! That other woman that was so starry eyed at the beginning,...hated dogs and my fossil hunting friends. Now after 22 years of happily being married, we have two Blue Heelers, a 23 foot trailer and cannot wait for mid April to begin our camping season. We still have beans with hot dogs from time to time. Tuna in a can... for me at times. I still love cold corn in a can, but keep it to myself. My wife cooks like a French Chef... but without the accent. I finally found my partner for LIFE. When she has had enough tromping through the gullies and hills... out comes a book and she will read. Now we have a house on wheels, showers, heat, running water, refrigerator... a bed. If you do not like the scenery... hook up, start up the truck... gone. Now this is, of course, the unabridged and unedited (at the present) story. My wife loves my fossil friends, well... what is left of them from the last situation. Stuart in Laramie, Wyoming has always hung in there, but he is still single and can do what and whenever. I have few restrictions today. Actually, age has added some conformity to my relationships... unless they bring up Creationism... and then I bring up the possibility of the next Great Extinction, which will take care of that problem. But, I wander again. Now the title BEANS was intended to keep JohnJ from flagging my photo or deleting my post... so... keep this quiet for a bit. Post YOUR beginning with the girlfriend/boyfriend to Mrs./Mr. and since you are really anonymous and I am hanging out there in the wind for now... lets hear it. Sometimes an interest becomes the glue that bond two people for life. I love my wife so much, that it is Valentines Day every day. Our wedding day was March 21st, the first day of Spring, or at least always close to the first day of Spring. How could I be so lucky? I am certain that it was probably... ... the Beans. I should have known. This was my Valentine for 2014 to my wife and friends who follow the Fossil Forum.

I have trouble identifying many of these and thought I'd post them and see what folks think. The location of these was in a spoil pile of an underground coal mine around the border between the Braidwood (terrestrial) and Essex (marine) Biota. Number 1: Worm? Something almost resembles an eye on the 'head' area. Number 2: Didontogaster perhaps? Number 3:

This is the 4th in our "Juniata" series of fossil ID posts. The primary goal of this trip was to find a Dipleura trilobite. I had found one previously, at Tully NY and we have 4 different species so far. It's difficult to find a fully formed trilobite and in most cases the tail section (called a pygidium) is found. Nancy found the head section of this Dipleura - you can see the "face" and the two eyes looking straight into the camera, in these photos. In addition, we found another partial fossil (2a) and several trilobite parts (3a-d). Our question is, do the parts all look like they came from Dipleura, or other species? This site and formation has several species of trilobites. Is it possible to tell if there are other species represented, from just these fragments?

While most of the state of Vermont is metamorphic we do have a small portion of the state where we can find fossils. My daughter starts college in Buffalo, New York next week so I am looking for any suggestions for places to explore. I've been to 18 Mile Creek but am looking for other locations with public access. I am interested in trace fossils as I am putting a display case together for our clubs (Burlington Gem & Mineral Clubs) show next year. Thanks, Andy

Over the span of June 14 to 18, I was invited to join my brother and four of his friends to their latest "summit" (i.e. get-together) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I guess they'd figured my hike-scouting capabilities, as well as a share of the expenses, would come in handy.... We ended up staying in a house near the Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club on the east side of the Sandia Mountains, which overlooks Albuquerque to the west. The Sandias are basically an uplifted fault block on the east side of the Rio Grande Rift. It is made up of granite with a thin veneer of sedimentary rocks at the top: (Image courtesy Wikipedia) I found a geologic map of the area to see if I'd have an opportunity to collect fossils. The site of our dwelling is marked with the 'X'. According to the map, I would be dealing with the Pennsylvanian Madera Group. After doing a little research, I found out that the Madera is made up of limestone, sandstone, and shale. Hmmm.... Sounds like my Pennsylvanian strata in KC. In this view (taken as we were returning home), you can see the general nature of the Pennsylvanian strata in the Manzano Mountains in the foreground. The Sandias are in the background. Visible is the gentle eastern slope that was our home for five days: The next step was to try to get some idea of the kinds of exposures I would encounter. With Google Maps, I could just make out some thin outcrops that stretched over the hills. I marked a few in red in this screen shot: Interestingly, in the image, the outcropping beds curve downhill in a gully. This indicates that the beds are dipping steeply to the southeast, i.e. one would be moving down-section while walking uphill. It also indicates that tracing the beds on foot would be a challenging undertaking in the hilly landscape. From the ground, it doesn't look like much: Because I would have to cross the fairway to reach the strata, I'd have to wait until I tagged along on the guys' 18-hole round. The next day, three guys teed off. We other three enjoyed the scenery, spotted balls down the fairway, and collected balls -- and other things -- in the rough. I found a few fossils that were worth taking back. There were a number of outcrops of sandstone and limestone along the way, but they were all barren. The fossils appeared in cobbles at various spots. I figure I was crossing unexposed strata that were expressed as rocky remnants in the overlying soil. A little later in the day, I walked to this road cut that I had seen when we first arrived: There is one bed that is very fossiliferous, but I had a hard time finding a collectible piece: