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I really have no idea what this is, but I'm hoping Kentucky's first dinosaur egg. Lol. None the less, it is really cool. I came across these two pieces embedded in bedrock in a gorge. I'm not a serious collector, but I am always looking for cool things in nature. It appears that they belonged together, like an eggshell. The outer portion is probably 3/4". The diameter is approximately 9" for the large piece. Depth is about 9" of the larger piece. 1 1/2" for the smaller. Any ideas?

Hello all! I came upon this site while trying to determine whether a certain fossil I have is a coral or a sponge and was captured by the message boards here! I've been a casual collector since very early youth. I LOVE to dig my own finds but have been known to purchase a few every now and then. Most of my finds are from the West Clermont County area of Ohio (outside of Cincinnati), but I used to wander the Midwest region always with an eye to the ground. Thanks for having this site! I look forward to digging through the posts!

Hello Everyone, I recently moved to western Kentucky and have been finding a ton of fossils here. I think a lot of what I've been finding are corals, crinoids, and brachiopods. I found a few fossils that I can't find online. I have no idea what they are. They washed out of a hillside on Kentucky lake in western Kentucky. The specific geology where I found them had a lot of strangely welded rock seams, geodes and a looked like the material may not have originated there (maybe moved through some geologic process). The rocks where I am are mostly limestone. The ones I can't Identify are the slightly spiraled ones. The other picture Is a nice coral (I think) specimen from the same location. Any Idea on what they are? Thanks!

I have three fossils I collected last week in Kentucky during a family visit. The first I know is a partial crinoid head, missing most of the calyx, but what genus/species? It was found near Leitchfield, KY in the Leitchfield Limestone, the Jimmy Dean member. The second, I don't know what it is. It was found in a layer that was rich in crinoid stem pieces. The locality is just north of Elizabethtown , KY. I don't know the formation, but it is certainly Mississippian. The last object I'm not sure is even a fossil though the thing on the bottom is a crinoid stem piece. I don't know if it is attached to the object in question. It was found at the same locality as the second fossil. I would like to thank TFF member Herb for leading me to these two localities. I welcome and all input. Thank you.

So, I found this specimen across the street from my paleontology professor's "mega crinoid bonanza spot". This is an Ordovician spot in Kentucky packed full of crinoids. I think it is a recrystallized; articulated crinoid. But what do you guys think? I'm about a quarter into prepping it. The pics aren't that great, but it seems to be a lot of the columal, any ideas would be appreciated. Wow, these pics are garbage. I'll take between ones

My wife and I have been hunting a Silurian Dolomite outcropping all day in kentucky. We found about 30 beautiful trilobites. In the rock, we also found several of these things. I imagine it is cnidarian something or other, but can't place exactly the id. Any help would be appreciated. -J

I had some luck the other day poking around a creek in Jefferson Co Kentucky (Ordovician) I was told there might be some trilobites in the area, so I went back after a rain to look around. I found a bunch of weird stuff, but this looked the most promising. Is it a nautilus? Thanks as before for the help.

Hello, I'm new to fossil hunting and to this forum, so my apologies for the very basic (and potentially ill-formatted) question. I recently got access to a friend's property near Louisville Kentucky that is pretty lousy with brachiopods. Had a lot of fun exploring, but I also found some fossil-like structures that didn't look like shells. Any chance you can help me identify one of them? Assuming this is like the rest of Jefferson County the material is Grant Lake Limestone. The fossils are Ordovician (all sea floor material). This piece in question stood out because it's dark like the fossils (which are easy to spot against the otherwise light brown matrix), but didn't look like the rest. It was found on the banks of a very small creek (that is mostly moving during rain storms). The mystery in question is the dark rectangular bit. The others are clearly brachiopods. Thanks for looking! I'm trying to get as much info as I can before I head out again.

I like to look for rocks in Tennessee (almost the Kentucky Border). This one I picked up thinking it was horn coral, but I do not see the normal markings on horn coral. I have never seen the "curl" on the end of any rock look this. Possible shell? Curious what everyone thought.

I was digging with my son in the backyard and when we went inside to clean and classify our findings, this one kind of stumped me. It almost looks like a mushroom on top, but definitely not on the bottom. It also almost looks like coral but not quite. Maybe a pod of some kind? In any case, I would appreciate some help. Thank you

Found near Lake Cumberland, Somerset, KY. Approximately 2 inches in size. White circular pods are very fragile and can easily be popped out.

Having only found specimens with 1-2 nodes, I was pleasantly surprised to spot this poking out of the ground after a heavy rain yesterday. Just out of curiosity (and so I can properly label it in my gallery), could anyone tell me what species of Calamites it is (if possilble)?

I found my largest fossil yet yesterday. I assumed that it was Lepidodendron and was curious what species it may be, but it occurred to me after looking through images that I may have some other form of Lepidodendrales. Can anyone confirm? It's about 29cm (about 11.5") long with a circumference of 53.6cm (about 1' 9"). Leaf scars are about 3.5cm (about 1.4") tall by 1cm (about 0.4") wide. The scars wrap around the nearly-cylindrical specimen, only absent on roughly a third of the backside (last photo) where it may have broken off or is still hidden under the matrix. It was found in the Hyden Formation (Middle Pennsylvanian) in Johnson County KY. The closest result I've found has been Lepidodendron lanceolatum, but the pits are more centered than those in my specimen and I haven't been able to find any info on whether or not they occur in my area. Rockwood suggested that it may actually be Lepidophloios that has rolled-up at a 90 degree angle rather than being a Lepidodendron cast, which would be consistent with pit placement. What are your thoughts?

Hi everyone! I've been going through a few piles of all my pretty things I drag home from the wilderness and came across a few of these peculiar looking blobs I found last summer in Kentucky. They're pretty boring, and I figure if they are even fossils at all, they're still not quite as fun as a shark or even a pretty shell or coral, but still figured I'd see some opinions before I go too happy with my diamond bits to see what's inside. I've thought these were just quirky little round geologic blobs but then found that the smaller one does appear to have some sort of influence on the material throughout as I was grinding around it. I got this in the same area of central Kentucky (Hart County region) where I grew up and periodically re-visit family. I picked them up with the typical little shell and algae type patterns I always find there. I've gotten a few like this, various sizes though they range between the two examples I'm showing in the photos below. Like the ones in the photos, they appear to have been broken off of a shelf type rock. They are surrounded by a smooth type of rock, that is not quite all sandy/grainy, and rather solid compared to the more light type of material that is so common there. They're usually pretty solid and while I thought originally the rock was the very dusty type of sandstone that would chip away easy, I found when I tried to grind it down that it actually becomes much smoother below the crud layer on top. The photos show the look of the rock that is around the actual knobs--I have not yet messed with the blobs themselves because I wanted to see how they may differ from the surrounding rock if at all. I hope that I have shown the area on the side of the rock. The side cut is natural, these are exactly as I picked off the ground, so the sharp cuts are as found, though I'm obviously grinding away in thin layers. It may be a coincidental artifact of normal geological design, but the round "circle" on that sharp straight side appears to be what you'd expect if the round blob were indeed a separate material that was stuck in matrix? I get so frustrated with the inability to just snap photos of exactly what I think I see with my own vision sometimes. I know the photos are not great--I need a new camera and these are taken with my cell phone and quick crops with Picasa. I didn't take them with intent on posting here originally but had thought to use them for my own reference. Since I'm an ignorant ijit about the geological technical details, I usually have no idea what I'm doing when I'm playing around with my tools. I would love to one day have the skills to bring out natural interesting things, whether fossil or geologic, so for now I practice on seeing what I can do with regular boring "leaverights". They actually often give very pretty results if they're in the right materials, and so the value is there for me to play with and see the results, and that's all that matters, right? I will post a couple more photos of the better snaps I have next post. Thanks in advance for any help & comments! I am so impressed with this board and have always received such patient and informative responses. If there is any way I can ever help any of you, I hope that I am in a position to do so, though my own areas of expertise consist mostly of a good imagination in terms of useful fossil info... lol