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Showing results for tags 'iowa'.
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From the album: Lime Creek Devonian Rockford Iowa
Phillipsastrea woodmani odd enough this is a colonial horn coral. Tie with Aulopora sp. for the most common colonial coral in the site. Often easily overlooked when covered with a lot of shale, I have to look for hints of its to uncover it. The leftmost specimen was found on the ground in a least visited part of the quarry and thus had been completely washed off of all shale by the Iowan weather. -
From the album: Lime Creek Devonian Rockford Iowa
Syringopora sp. Rare coral species. Took me a bit of researching to find it into one Iowa fossil book. Author claimed to have found only 5 or something close to it but I had found 2. Easily overlooked and mistook for Stromatoporoid or bryozoan. I call it a small pores coral. Seem to be a unusual colonial tube type coral that's mainly at an angle to the surface of the colony. -
From the album: Lime Creek Devonian Rockford Iowa
Varying specimens of Westerna gigantea. Can be VERY EASILY confused with other giant Rockford gastropod species. Took me a while of studying to try to separate it from the others by its tighter coils and keeping its circular/oval interior instead of becoming more flatter. -
From the album: Lime Creek Devonian Rockford Iowa
Reverse side of my largest Westerna gigantea. -
From the album: Lime Creek Devonian Rockford Iowa
My largest Westerna gigantea. Part of the shell is preserved, which is smooth and have no ridges. Compare to Turbonopsis and Floydia its more tightly coiled and lacks the ridges when shell are preserved. Uncommon - I suspect its more due to overharvested as I tend to find more juveniles than adults. -
From the album: Lime Creek Devonian Rockford Iowa
Often sources don't said anything about the juvenile forms of brachiopods so here is a picture of juveniles of the brachiopod Theodossia hungerfordi. Since the adults are so abundant it makes it easier to find a wide variety of sizes. -
From the album: Lime Creek Devonian Rockford Iowa
Most commonly Theodossia hungerfordi keep both halves of the shells when it die. So for a bit while when I found those top portion of shells separated I thought they were a different species but shows how dramatic this brachiopod can look different. -
From the album: Lime Creek Devonian Rockford Iowa
Theodossia hungerfordi very common. I also noticed it tend to be more variable in shapes and have thicker harder shells so deformation due to geological processes is rarer than a couple other lookalikes. Can be easily mistaken for several other genus due to its variability in shapes. -
I found this in Black Hawk County Iowa. It is approx. 9cm x 11cm x 3cm. My guesses are always wrong even when (or especially when) I use Google images so I'm looking forward to being in the right spot for help. Thanks
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I found this in eastern Iowa and was unsure if it was coral or a sponge. Anything would be helpful!
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Found this bone in a creek in Central Iowa and would like to find out what it is. It is 2 inches long. It looks aged, surface is very smooth. Seems heavier than bone but lighter than rock.
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This past weekend, I had the pleasure of hunting with my rock club in central Iowa. I found what I think is placoderm, though there was multiple opinions given to me. Nothing earth shattering, but exciting for me! Can you help clarify the ID of the specimens? The last piece broke revealing more "placoderm" inside.
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Lately, I have been enjoying @Wrangellian's Show us your stromatolites. It made me think about some of my finds. I will post just 2 of them for the purpose of figuring out if they are stromatolites or stromatophoroid sponges. These were collected over the last month. The first came from the upper Ordovician of NE Iowa.I can NOT tell the difference!!!! It can be frustrating. The second ones, which I am pretty sure are stromatoporoids, came from the Devonian, Solon member or just above it, of central Iowa.
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Hello, all! As my first submission for identification, let me present to you the first fossil(?) I collected from the field. I feel I should apologize for several things right now: I have very little functional knowledge of local geography, especially as it relates to this specimen. In truth, I wasn't hunting for fossils when I found it; I was fishing for catfish. Since childhood, my favorite fishing spot has been at the junction of a local creek (Indian Creek, if anyone happens to know the geography of South-West Iowa) and the Missouri River. Good spot for big catfish, and plenty of limestone boulders to brace against while fighting them. It's easily accessible via bicycle trails. In July of 2018, I had hooked a sizeable fish when he snapped my line around a snag. Enraged (that was my dinner swimming away, after all), I hurled an apple-sized rock at one of the limestone boulders, hard enough to split it along a fracture line. Intending to release more frustration by reducing it to gravel, I yanked the crack open. Inside the fault, I saw this perfect-looking shell. I hadn't really thought it was possible to collect fossils locally, let alone find one with color. So, I gently pried it off the limestone matrix with the blade of my Leatherman, tucked it in my tackle box, and peddled home. When I got home, a cursory Google search of local fossil assemblages led me to believe I may have found either a brachiopod or some kind of oyster-like bivalve. Recognizing that the thin shell was brittle, I immediately applied a coat of 50/50 cyanoacrylate glue and clear nail polish (a mixture I now favor for finishing). In summary: The specimen itself measures roughly 36 mm wide by 24 mm deep. It is concave, with a deep fold to the midline. Slightly pinkish-brown with white speckles, which may be early (and incomplete) calcification. It was found at GPS coordinates 41.1890, -95.8741, encased in a limestone boulder. The boulder itself may have been deposited by the action of the nearby Missouri River, or washed out of the surrounding geography. Any conjectural identification is welcome and appreciated.
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It was found south East Iowa and I assume it’s a fossil not sure does anyone know?
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Hi, I have a friend from Ames, Iowa who found this in her yard. It looks like a fossil to me, but I'm not good with invertebrates. Is this a fossil? The shell is an inch in diameter. Thank you, Bellamy
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My recent trip to the Maquoketa Formation of Iowa produced a brachiopod that baffles me. It appears to have both shells but it is extremely flat. Help needed with ID!!! Mike
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A couple more Platteville Formation Grant Co. Wisconsin Trilobite and some others
SteveRogers posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hello, I had some time to look at a few more of the rocks from my collection trip into Wisconsin Platteville Grant County 1,2,3 First is a flat creek rock I gave a scrub and I think it has a trilobite cephalon. 4,5,Is a rock that appears to have a trilobites or it coiled be a broken bivalve? It's in a flakey rock so I haven't picked at it much. I included a side picture of the sediments. 6,7 I am pretty sure these are Chondrites? Or something similar? There are also some other bits in it 8 is a bit of hash plate but it has what I assume must be pyrite bits that are a bit flashy golden - hard to see in the pic but there ar little bit popping out and reflective - I figured I before I show my daughter I figured I should confirm they are pyrite or something similar - and not what she will immediately think it is! Thanks and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll keep sorting and seeing what I got and maybe walk a creek or two for fun
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I found this in the bank of the Iowa River amongst a nice collection of brachiopods. I have been trying to visualize an ancient living creature at the center of this rock, but I suspect my great discovery is nothing more than some type of weird rock. Would really appreciate your expertise and opinions! I have included photos of Left outside Right outside Middle Left middle Right middle Closeup Fossils from reference layer. IMG_0976.HEIC IMG_0975.HEIC IMG_0972.HEIC IMG_0971.HEIC IMG_0970.HEIC IMG_0969.HEIC IMG_0968.HEIC
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This was found along a gravel bar in the Missouri River in west central Iowa. Any help would be appreciated!
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Hi! Back when I was 10-12 I was hiking in Iowa when I found this "dinosaur tooth rock", which I have carried around for almost 25 years. I have always wondered if it was part of a mammoth tusk, a tooth, or maybe even a Native American whetstone. Or possibly just a weird rock? Any ideas? Thanks so much for any input!! Specs: Weighs = 2 lbs Length = 7 inches Circumference = 8.75 inches Height = 2 inches
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In September, the desire to collect the Burlington Formation, Mississippian of Iowa got the best of me, “forced” my truck to make a little road trip down that way. The trip was about 4 hours, necessitating an overnight stay. Covid was running rampant, compelling me to sleep in the back of my pickup and eat out of a cooler full of food instead of motels and restaurants. This left a 64 year old man a bit stiff in the morning. The nice thing about the Burlington, it did not tax my body too much, allowing me hunt my allotted 8 hours with ease. Normally the Burlington is searched for crinoid specimens, but on this trip, my goal was to find the fish layer and come home with shark specimens to prep out. Success was had and I even stumbled on a few nice crinoids too, as a forum member found out The stark contrast of the dark fish parts can be seen against the whitish matrix FULL of crinoidal debris in this chunk. Extracting the teeth was very difficult due to their fragile nature. Many nice specimens were ruined as a result of my inadequate techniques. But I am proud of what I salvaged! After completing my preps, I placed the teeth in some plastic sleeves. However, I developed such a liking to the teeth that I couldn’t just bag them and file them away in my barn. So I decided to make an Iowa tooth display out of them, something that I can hopefully use on occasion for educational purposes. The result of my project is shown in the next photo. I used a red blanket from under the Christmas tree as a background. Not sure I like the Santa red so included another without it. Plus, as always, I forgot a scale!! Now I will show closeups of most specimens and attempt a CRUDE ID on them. First Cladodus???
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The colder days of late has allowed me to work on the Burlington matrix that I brought home this summer. It has revealed some real treasures, at least for me. But I am stymied on a few finds and look for some opinions of forum members. 1. A few questions on the first piece. My goal was to clean up a large piece of ??? Shark spine? While cleaning, two teeth were uncovered. Here is the "backside" tooth. Now the "front side" tooth Initially just the tip of the tooth was showing, but as I progressed with cleaning, this "moustache" was exposed with the tooth at the very tip. I am very curious to understand this as well as what the long linear specimen is above it. 2. Looks like a trilobite eye but I will venture some type of shark tooth?? 3. The matrix where these specimens were found is white. So any time a dark spot is seen, a fossil exists, at least most of the time. Here is a dark item I assumed when I started its exposure was a tooth of some kind. But I concluded, just a "rock". After seeing it sit on the workbench for a few days, I kept thinking about the LACK of any matrix that wasn't white. So my thoughts went to the possibility of a coprolite. I will tag @GeschWhat for her opinion too. 4. Open to suggestions on this SMALL tubular structure. 5. I couldn't find a confident ID on this tooth. 6. Again, I have no clue on this one. It looks like Mickey Mouse ears, but I can't believe it since this was no where near Disneyland!
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Found this fossil recently while visiting the Fossil Park near Rockford, Iowa. The fossils here are Devonian in age, and belong to the Hackberry Group/Lime Creek Formation. Have found numerous varieties of brachiopods, horn and colony coral, gastropods, bryozoa, and pieces of crinoid stems, but have never seen anything quite like this. Since it was such a crappy day, I had the whole park to myself except for one guy from Minnesota. Thinking he might be more knowledgeable than myself, I asked for his opinion on what he thought this was. He suggested it was definitely a crinoid calyx. I am not so sure. Thank you all for checking it out.
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I graduated college back in May, and since my graduate program did not start until September, I was fortunate to have quite a bit of time this summer to explore further away from home. I've been slowly prepping and cataloging over the past couple months, and figured I would share some of my favorite finds that I haven't shared yet. First up is dump piles of Silica Shale (Middle Devonian) in Paulding, OH. My university was not far from here, so this is really where I started fossil hunting. I've been here quite a few times, so most of what I found I already had in my collection. A new find for me, and my favorite, is a nice chunk of Protitanichthys placoderm armor. I visited family near Indianapolis in August, and headed out a day early to visit some classic sites. This is the view from a roadcut in Sulphur, IN that exposes the Indian Springs Shale (Mississippian). My first blastoid and first shark tooth of the day. Can you spot them? A small portion of the haul. Lots of blastoids (the main attraction), horn corals, and some brachiopods, plus a crinoid I have yet to identify. Next up was the famous St. Leon roadcut (Upper Ordovician). This was my second visit to this site. You need to get on your hands and knees to spot the tiny Flexicalymene rollers.
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