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Hi fellow fossil collector, can you identify this brachiopod for me? I recently found a very different brachiopod, where I usually collect my fossils in an Upper Ordovician formation (Click here to see the site). I can easily find hundreds of swerbyella, but this fossil is very different from what I usually find, its huge size, 3 times larger than any fossil i usually find, and its different shape puzzles me. It measures approximately 3cm x 2.5cm. It also has intriguing concentric protuberances composed of a primary and secondary shell on external shell surface. As you can see it is very fragile, there is a crack going through it which is about to break it in half. Is there a way to consolidate the crack without damaging it further? Thank you!

lI found this rock in a quarry, at Hadeland in Norway, Katian-Ordovician age, but cannot figure out what is is. Any one have an idea? A piece fell off and then we can see a very smooth surfce inside (black part).

I found these two fossils from Mimico Creek in Toronto, Canada and they both belong to the Georgian Bay formation, late Ordovician. The first one I believe is a Pseudolingula, but I can't really nail it down to a species level. The other is a bryozoan, and I was thinking of Prasopora. What do you guys think? The brachiopod I found in shale, but the bryozoan in a limestone bed with other bryozoas. The brachiopod: The bryozoa:

Here in Norway is snowing now, so it is not the best time for fossilhunting. But there is another hunting we can do: to look for small things in rocks already found. This is much easier if you take photos of the rocks and then scann them for the details. That is what I did today and I found several things, among them a small orthocone nautiloid. What I wish to show, however, is some unknown animals, which I hope someone can help me identify or suggest a possiblility. I will start, in this corona-time, with a greeting from the Late Ordovician formation in Norway, just before the End Ordovician extincion event, a rock showing the sign of capital 'O' in Greek, the Omega: Ω. This is the last letter of the Greek alpabet (not the small 'o': ω which is the hated omicron). I find this formation very interesting, because it is the end of a long period of evolution, the mature stage with more advanced fauna than the earlier periods, and which we still know very little about, but which came to an "omega" or end. What can the omega shape be part of? The next rock has 4 interesting shapes marked out in the photo, two of them is a rounded shape with a tale behind, a few mm long.

I wonder if this rock from very late Ordovicium in the Oslo field, Norway, shows an alge or a sponge? The rock was bigger originally with 4 bumps of equal size, 3-4 cm away from each other, but 3 of them had very unclear surface pattern, so I chopped away that part, showing here the rest. Another fossile from the same formation, 500 meters away (the structure about 3 cm in diameter):

My first post was so popular that I decided to do a second. I went to the same place, and found more many rich and colorful fossils, and got enough material to write to you about it. For those who missed my first post, you will find it HERE As you will see in this article, I combine my two passions, collecting fossils and color photography. I love color, creating black and white photographs of fossils is good for scientific research, when you are a paleontologist and want to record the small details for science and posterity. But for people who are just starting to explore the world of fossils, we need something more inspiring, because to be fair, fossil photos are generally drab, and generally unappealing to the general public. Not that fossil collectors don't take great photos, I see fantastic photos all the time on TFF, but usually in a different context. I'm just trying to be a little different and take a picture of the fossils as I see them, in their natural environment. Maybe this will inspire the next generation of fossils collectors. This site is part of the Lorraine group (Chambly sub-formation). It contains the most recent sedimentary rock in the region, a series of clay and limestone schists that are redder towards the top. It's made up of clay schists, a sedimentary rocks of dynamic origin, formed by the splitting of existing rocks and calcareous schists, a sedimentary rocks formed by the accumulation of animal or plant matter in bodies of water. This region also bears the marks of the Quaternary geological era. Immediately after the last ice age, the whole St. Lawrence Valley and its waterways became a vast inland sea (the Champlain Sea) that stretched as far as today's Lake Champlain. The site is not as gorgeous or rich in fossils as the other sites we see in this forum, but it is rich in brachiopods, crinoids, bryozoans, and a few gastropods. Sorry @Kane no trilobites. Here are some photos to give you an idea of the site, it's a small beach where the fossils are underwater, so I'm literarily fishing for fossils. The formation is made up of many colorful stairs and steps leading to the water's edge. Like a time machine, each step takes you back a thousand years, where you can discover at each staircase the remains of a thriving fauna, long extinct. Don't expect to see anything bigger than a few inches, this is the Late Ordovician historically rock formation in the Richelieu River Valley in the St. Lawrence Lowlands rests on sedimentary rocks. which are some 450 million years old and formed during the Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic Era. I was able to photograph this hash plate full of sowerbyella at that special moment, when the water was receding after a previous wave. This is not a painting, just a photograph of what typical Ordovician fauna might have looked like 500 million years ago, almost as if we were there. I try to keep my hand dry and out of the freezing water, picking up the fossils between two waves, leaving the fossils out of the water. It was difficult to photograph the fossils underwater, because of the waves I took the photo at a time when the water was calmer and just before a wave came crashing on it. A lonely sowerbyella taking her beauty bath I found bi_valve playing hide and seek, with the bubbles A lot of times I hear that fossil and water aren't a good mix, but in my case it's a perfect match. The water acts as a sort of magical act, bringing these 450 million year old fossils back to life, infusing them with vibrant colors and hiding the passage of time. These normally terness fossils have a second life in this freezing water, small imperfections are hidden, making the texture smooth and lustrous, with beautiful vibrant colors. In homage of the Beatles, I call this one the Yellow Submarine Some brachiopod pile up over each other, I don't know what cause this rainbow of colors, the diffraction, the translucidities' of the fossils. Whatever the reason, it's a beautiful effect and a total surprise. A colorful brachiopod on a colorful rock I really like the contrast of theses two plate Don't need to search, no fossil here. Just a color full formation. Crinoid columnals are the most commonly recognized crinoid fossils, they are individual pieces of the column, or stalk, these resemble small washers. Olympic logos gone wild or Crinoid columnals, you choses. I particularly like the circles with a small star inside Columnals are joined together in life by elastic ligaments and skin. However, when the animal dies these soft tissues quickly decay and the stem break apart into individual ossicles, they leave behind a great many fossils. After the crashing waves, they sometimes cover themselves with air bubbles, giving this strange old world a new dimension. The hole in the center of the columnal is called the axial canal. It is most commonly round but may also be pentagonal or star-shaped, like this 1 millimeter fossil. Despite their small size some fossils can still be the star of the show. Bryozoans consist of a skeletal structure of calcium carbonate that has numerous tiny holes or openings dotting the surface. These holes once housed individual bryozoan animals called zooids, that derived their nutrients from the seawater. Atlas Of Ancient Life I found this briozoma all alone on this big boulder, strangely it comes out of the rock and comes back in right away. This is another bryozoan, it was on a smaller rock and I was able to collect it for my collection Most colonies were only a few inches in diameter but a colony of an Ordovician form found in the Cincinnati region ( Florence, Kentucky) is more than 26 inches in diameter and is one of the largest known bryozoan colonies. I really like this formation for it's richness of colors Photo taken in direct sunlight of a wet bi-valve Again, mother nature was playing with ice producing these wonderful sculptures everywhere we look. It was such a nice day, I couldn't resist taking some in picture. See other Ice sculpture Here. Crinoid columnals trapped under translucent ice. I found all theses fossils in just haft a day at that very special place. For those of you that did not see my previous post about my first fossil fishing trip, your in luck because it is still available HERE.

I found this stone with some unknow pattern in the Kalvsjøen formation, Oslo field (late Katian, in late Ordovicium). Can it be two nautiloids or alge? It is some small gastropods there too. The length of the longest "nautiloid" is about 7 cm.

I found this while fossil hunting see my post The day I went fishing for fossils. I'm wondering what it is , it's between 4 and 6 inches I guess, didn't have an rule with me at that time .

I found this on one of my hash plate, is it what I think it is, a very small cephalopod ?

I wonder if this is some animal or just a crystal formation. The surface is extremely smooth, when I touch it with my finger. The formation is from Late Ordovician. Pict. 1 Pict.2 Pict.3 Pict.4

Last fall I went on a fossil hunting trip to a creek in Adams, NY. Along this creek were exposures of the Whetstone Gulf and Pulaski formations. There were many different layers, each with different fauna. Some layers were barren, while others had many species. Some of the most common fossils were cryptolithus and triarthrus trilobites, as well as brachiopods, bivalves, gastropods, ostracods, and straight shelled nautiloids. Some layers contained pyrite and some of the fossils in these layers were partially pyritized. (Including some of the trilobites!!).

Not a huge piece of my collection but still neat. The fine details of these marine animals are often lost to the ages but every once in awhile you find a few pieces that catch your eye. I was digging through my collections curious about those fossils I found when I first started collecting. Came across this little invertebrate nugget. It is worn but the color and how it hugged the matrix was attractive. Taxonomy: Animalia; Bryozoa; Ectoprocta; Gymnolaemata; Trepostomata; Amalgamata; Monticuliporidae

I was reading a book about fossil fishes and there was a chapter dedicated to sharks and their cousins. Apparently there were chondricthyan scales found in the Late Ordovician and Early Silurian rocks. Since I hunt the Late Ordovician Georgian Bay formation in Toronto, Ontario and various Early Silurian formations in Hamilton, Ontario, what are the chances of me coming across these scales? Should I keep my eyes open and what should I look for?

I am a mineral and fossil collector and an amateur astronomer and my email is rocksnstars, so rocks collected that include a star shape are special. Most of the ones I have are the crinoid stems with star-shaped centers. This is the first time I've seen anything like this. I believe I have met the requirements of providing a good photo with a scale, and I know the period is Late Ordivician. I tagged Ohio because I think that is where it is from, but it is possibly Indiana, however BOTH sites are the SAME period and well known. I collected the two places the same day, and unfortunately during the drive home to Maine and the unloading, some of the specimens got mixed up and this was one of them. The Ohio location is the spillway at Caesar Creek State Park, Waynesville, Ohio, US. The Indiana one is Whitewater River Gorge, Richmond, Indiana, US. (Each mark is 1 mm, so the "1" on the scale is 10 mm, perhaps standard.)

About a month ago, I headed out on two fossil trips to the well-known St. Leon roadcut in Indiana. I was hunting in the Liberty formation (late Ordovician) with the sole goal of finding some nice trilobites (which I definitely achieved!). Along with multiple rare trilobites, I was able to find some excellent examples of other fossils. The spoils were totally awesome, and I am itching to go back. I hope you enjoy. Best for last.