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I found it in Southern Ontario next to a creek. I know it's a straight shelled cephalopod but anyone know the green mineral inside.

Found near mountain / river / creek bed in northern cali. So perfectly two toned. It’s heavy for the size 4”x2”. How does this even happen so neat! Not a whole lot of explanation when I searched online anyone have any more insight?! Thank you so much!

Recently found what I thought was a turtle shell. However the more I examine it the more it looks like a rock/mineral. Interesting pattern on top, side and bottom. Any ideas? Images are side view, bottom and top

Hello! Can someone tell me what is this, please? Is it walrus ivory and what about the mineral formation inside?

Included are some zoomed in pics using a handheld microscope. Thanks

It’s that time of year again, Denver Fossil Show time, still open ‘til the 17th. This being my 3rd time visiting, I felt I had a better idea of where all the dealers are, and what I wanted to see most. I go mostly to look at all the interesting fossils from all over the world, I saw dealers from every continent other than Antarctica. The show contains a lot of polished minerals and gems although it seemed like there was an ammonite at every table. The majority of the fossils available came from the United States and Morocco. There were plenty of stunning dinosaur bones and trilobites, fish and ammonites but as always there were many, many, fakes, composites, and poor resto jobs and whatever the weird scorpion things in the first image are considered.

I found this near my home in Georgia. I'm thinking it's petrified wood, if so what minerals have taken the woods place?...

I want to let everyone know that this upcoming weekend is going to be Gemworld 2023. This show is hosted by my local club, The Gem & Mineral Society of Syrause. If anyone happens to be in the area this weekend you should stop on in. I also wanted to show you all an old find from I believe Spring of 2015. Over the years I have found quite a few good size Dipluera dekayi trilobites. The one I will be posting pics of, is the only one left in my family's possession. I gave it to my oldest Son, who in turn gave it to his Sister. I got it from her last night as I am putting together a trilobite display for the show and will be showing this off. Right now with some cephalon and pygidium missing it measures 6 1/4 inches long with missing parts it would be about 6 1/2- 6 3/4 inches. I am really looking forward to the show and hope some of you can make it.

Not sure what this rock is, if a mineral or also a fossil. Found near a lake near Odenwald, Germany. Put up a picture of what the sign says about the rocks found there. Thank you.

I found this Coenholectypus echinoid in the Mainstreet Limestone in Fort Worth, Texas. Unlike the heart-shaped echinoid that I've found in other formations, these type echinoids' tests appear to have fossilized into a dark crystalline mineral. I'm not quite sure what mineral this is, and hope that it doesn't react to acids so that it can be acid prepped. It can be hard to see in the image, but on the edge of the fractured test you can see that it's made of a dark mineral with a reflective shimmer. I'm not sure if it is just calcite with impurities to make it that color, but of the 5 specimens of this genus, the 3 that are also crystalline have the same coloration.

Hi, always from the Omhden (DE) quarry. I'm wondering what this dark mineral actually could be... I'll report 2 different speciments, both about 10-15cm in length. They have little white "spiderweb" across the dark lucid surface. it is like 1mm thick this could be really useful for beginners like me thanks a lot Paolo

I found more of this rock, found at Anyer beach, Indonesia

Today I took a trip to the annual Denver fossil show, I really enjoyed it and it wasn’t 90+ F (32+ C) this time. There were fossils and minerals from all over the world, all though mostly minerals. I tried taking pictures of mostly different fossils, and they are not representative of what was at the show. If you do decide to go (it’s open for another week) look out for fakes and resorted and composited material there were many of those. It was fun to wander around looking at everything even if most of it is far outside my budget.

I finally completed the reorder of my collection of fossils and minerals. It is a wooden hexagonal display cabinet of several wood/glass shelf; in the pictures attached I only show some of them. I 3D printed more than 20 custom drawer compartments for the smallest specimens. I decided to go for a modular design, so I can adapt every compartment to the specimen. As printing material, I used a "wood PLA" filament 3D printed with 1 mm nozzle on the Alfawise U20 3D printer. LINK I finally added a strip LED inside the cabinet door and powered it via a USB power-bank - so it is fully wireless. In this picture you can see some of my recent purchases: Two Sinosauridae indet. teeth from Kem Kem One Acheroraptor tooth from Hell Creek formation, Powder River Co., Montana Some Mosasaurus teeth from Kem Kem One Pterosaurs tooth from Kem Kem A piece of Rhinocerontidae indet. jaw from South Dakota Some ammonites, shark teeth, a Flexicalymene ouzregui, a couple of echinoids (I found the white one in a brick!); the Velociraptor skull is 3D printed as well. This is the other side. The big sand echinoid was also found by me in a brick! On the right there's a nice fossil coral: I never seen something similar, please let me know if you know it's name. Three fossil fishes and a nice ammonites cluster with some quartz in the background. At the end, some minerals... Now I only have to finish the cataloging of all specimen. I already finished with fossils, now I have to start with minerals - it will be very looong! What do you think? Do you like it? Ciao!

Not sure if this rock is a fossil or unique mineral deposit that created uniform circles within the rock. My amateur guess would be maybe coral fossil?

This is a tusk I prepped a few years ago, sourced from central Alaska. It was in great shape for being a partial, no breaks to repair or even major cracks to fill, all natural besides a little stabilization and polishing to bring out the colors. Really strong vivianite on this one and inside the internal cavity appears to be crystals. It was tricky to get a good photo of them, but see below. I took a few of the inside shots with a UV flashlight as well as just a flash. Vivianite crystals?

This one has been sitting in my "interesting but I have no clue" pile for a while. When I found it, I was splitting limestone laying in the stream. I've found that when you split limestone, immediately after splitting you'll get a couple moments of a sharp looking specimen before things start to oxidize. The limestone is a very dark gray, or almost black color. You either see black limestone or white calcite pieces while splitting. I split this particular piece open and right in the middle was a 3-4 cm long, 8 mm wide gold looking rectangle in the middle of the flat broken limestone. I thought I wouldn't get to recover it, but one hammer hit later it popped out and I was able to save it. I do find that plants in the limestone seem to get the gold or pyrite type preservation. I've found one small straight shelled cephalopod preserved like this. But overall, it's very rare here. I have maybe 3 or 4 larger pieces of what I'd called pyrite type material I've recovered. Below are some stacked microscope photos of it. The scale in the first photo is 1 mm for each mark. You can see the grain that runs left to right. This looks like wood to me, but I haven't had that confirmed before. The next two photos are a view looking from the bottom to the top of the first photo. What has me most curious are the perpendicular grain marks that are found in this area. They don't seem to just be on the outermost layer, as you can see more deeper. I'm not sure if this is some sort of perpendicular crystal pattern, or it's just the shape of the original material that was replaced with the mineral. And maximum zoom. A stack of 12 microscope images taken through the lens in the same area of the above photo. And that's it. Is this a small piece of woody material that was preserved in the sea? I wonder if vinegar would clean this up or destroy the mineral as well.

This just fell into my lap, but I'm having a hard time telling exactly what it is. Seems to have been burrowed in by clams? Worms? Somethingorother. Not my area of expertise, so I rely on y'all. Found in northwestern Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Sorry for the lack of scale, but I assure you, those are standard-sized human hands. First four photos are outside, last one is a straight-through cut. Any ideas? Appreciate the help as always!

I've looked at a lot of sediment now and I just found this. It is a perfect sphere and semi-clear. Hard but perfectly round. Don't think it's a microfossil, but anyone have a guess as to what it is? It was inside a 3 x 6" piece of the formation. Image about 4-500X. Object cannot be seen with naked eye.

Even though I fancy myself as a self-collector of fossils, I have always been interested and attended shows as they are excellent learning/networking venues. For the past few years, I have been attending the Quartzsite shows. The first times I attended, I was pretty lost since they are actually a series of shows, some overlapping, some not, at different venues. Very confusing. That's part of the charm though since there is much to like about these shows: they occur at a time of the year (winter) when nothing else is happening in much of the country, you can find excellent bargains, they are pretty relaxed due to the extended schedule of shows and they are mostly outdoors which has turned out to be a huge bonus in the age of COVID. My experience is that there are 3 shows for fossil enthusiasts worth mentioning: 1. Desert Gardens This is an RV Park turned into a rock, gem and mineral show typically from January 1 to February 28. Vendors occupy RV parking sized spots, which are larger than your typical venue's vending areas. The show hours are typical business hours seven days a week for 2 months. It is all outdoors and due to its long schedule, can be visited in addition to the other shows. The parking and atmosphere of this show tends to be a bit more relaxed than the others as well. The feel is more wholesale type business, but every vendor I've encountered will also gladly do business with the general public. The common refrain is, "I'll sell the whole table or individual specimens, just tell me what you're interested in and we'll make a deal." I estimate the number of vendors around 50-100. The reason for the wide number is that thanks to the long hours and period, some vendors may not be there or open when you come. Some may not even be fully set up if you go early in the year. 2. Tyson Wells Another RV Park just east of Desert Gardens on Kuehn Street. This is a 10 day show during the first couple of weeks of January, this year from January 7-16. The format of Tyson Wells is the first show is for Gems and Minerals. After that show is a "Sell-a-rama" flea market type show, followed by an Arts and Crafts show. What I saw was quite a few vendors setting up shop for all 3 shows, selling a variety of goods not related to rocks/gems/minerals/fossils. I attended the Gem and Mineral show in 2022, and rock/gem/mineral/fossil dealers were actually a minority, scattered here and there but mostly concentrated towards the eastern end of the show (the northwest corner of Kuehn and Central). If parking and traffic is a concern, you can try going early or late to beat the crowds. In talking to some vendors, it seems that many rock/gem/mineral/fossil vendors will set up show here, then decamp for Tucson afterwards. I estimated the number of dealers in the low double digits, but still worth checking out since you can have first look at their selection before Tucson. 3. Quartzsite Improvement Association (QIA) Pow Wow This is typically a weekend show, extending from Wednesday to Sunday during one of the last weeks of January, in 2022 from January 19-23. Vendors typically occupy no more than a handful of tables, with some inside the building but most outdoors. The vendors are what you would typically expect at your local rock/gem/mineral/fossil show, just much bigger and more than you find in your normal local gem/mineral club shows (~100 vendors). While you're in Arizona, the FLAGG show (one of the first weekends in January) is the biggest show in the Phoenix area. Again, a weekend show, the format is a tailgate show, vendors occupy parking spaces outdoors with typically a handful of tables, although some vendors (i.e. the FLAGG Foundation) occupy dozens of tables. The size of the show is comparable to the QIA show, but there is a far larger contingent of local gem/mineral/fossil clubs at FLAGG than QIA due to their focus on education and outreach. By the way, if you have children, this is a good show to attend as many exhibitors/vendors have gifts or activities for children. Following the January shows, you would then move onto the Tucson shows in February. In conclusion, if you had 2 months to spare and the means, you can attend a world-class show every day for 2 months in Arizona(!!). For the rest of us, that kind of lifestyle will always be the dream while we save our pennies.

i received few minerals(sometimes sliced and polished) from a old collection mixed with fossils,mostly without name and location some are very easy to ID (I think),but i know nothing about minerals,if somebody could help?It would be very happy,this one seems to be for me kind of coprolithe,perhaps??? regards

Yesterday (9-11-2021) I went to the Denver fossil show. It was my first time going and I really enjoyed it. Most of the show was minerals and gems and jewelry however there were quite a few fossils. Unfortunately, most were Moroccan. There were some Pleistocene fossils, Meg teeth, USA Dino material and a few other things. Well might as well start with the photos. Let’s start with the few mineral pictures i took. Next up the Moroccan material which dominated the fossils present.

hello all, I found a lot of this specific type of rock and I thought they could be fossils. Now I'm not so sure. They have what appears to have a spongy inside and flat outside, on the sides that are still there. I tried to take pictures to show them well. A few of the pieces have two "lobes" at one end and the lobes appear to be splitting. They are all the same color, though some are dry and some are damp still. I was trying to figure this out on my own, and I thought it could possibly be coal (if not a fossil), but i really don't know how to test it. My husband did try to light it on fire... it did not catch fire. If you need more pictures, let me know. I got these in a river in Williamson County Tennessee. I believe the only dinosaur we have that's been found is hadrosaur specifically edmontosaurs. There have been multiple types of megafauna mammals like sloths, rhinos, and mammoths. If these are nothing, I will be sad, but at least I'll know not to pick these up anymore! LOL. Thanks! IMG_4308.heic