Search the Community

During my last hunts for fossils in Dordogne and Vendée(southwest France),i have found these minerals,on pieces i try vinegar and nothing happen(i think; it's not Calcite )i know nothing about minerals,i collect only fossils and i will try to exchange those if they are valuable for minerals collectors,was i right to carry those in my bag?what could it be?Minerals collectors could be interrested by those?Thanks

A new form of the rock-forming mineral discovered High-pressure experiments reveal unknown variants of common mineral by Amit Malewar, June 1, 2020 https://www.techexplorist.com/new-form-common-rock-forming-mineral-discovered/32716/ Pakhomova, A., Simonova, D., Koemets, I., Koemets, E., Aprilis, G., Bykov, M., Gorelova, L., Fedotenko, T., Prakapenka, V. and Dubrovinsky, L., 2020. Polymorphism of feldspars above 10 GPa. Nature Communications, 11(1), pp.1-8. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16547-4 Yours, Paul H.

I have finally made the step to find my own fossil beds instead of relying on pay-to-dig type locations. My research has led me to a local formation which will be practically spilling out with permian specimens if I can find it. My problem is finding the very thin fossiliferous layer. I havent had a geology course since high school and I dont recall a whole lot of it. Frankly, I'm having trouble identifying rock types. siltstone, mudcrack, dolomitic mudstone, sandstone, paleosol, shales.... my head is spinning. I understand the grain size differences from sandstone to shale, but what I find in the field is confusing. I find the same appearing rocks with differing characteristics. In one location its a very hard sandstone with no apparent cleavage. In others its a wet, soft sandy-stone that will partially separate along planes. In another it cleave along clean planes but is extremely fragile and disintegrates into pebble size bits. None of these matches the fossil bed description except for the coloration. I understand these are likely different levels of the formation (and completely different "rocks"), but I cant really define what I'm holding. I havent found any fossils in any of the rocks I've search yet in road cuts. I have found some property locations with more possible exposures, I need to get permission to search them.

Hi everyone I am very new to the fossils world. I have always loved history and the idea of fossils, but until the quarentine of the world I hadn't really looked for some. My 2 yr old granddaughter loves to throw rocks into the creek while we were there I found a Braciopod fossil and since I have been down at the creek looking for other fossils.

How did this petrified wood get these colors? Any idea what minerals caused the colors? I got this piece from an Idaho Auction. It was completely raw, untouched and dirty. I cut the top and sides to reveal an outstanding array if colors!!! After that, I cleaned the rest. You can see the grain clearly now. Thank you, enjoy!!!

Here's a few photos of some of the unique stone/gemstones. All are magnetic to some degree and most have had their physical properties altered/modified. There was a lot of magnetic serpentine found so it is believed that the stones in the first 6 photos might be some sort of altered jade. All of these have a hardness of 7.5 except for that last small white stone, it has a hardness of 9.5. A lot of the stones from that area were broken or highly fractured and some even had holes burnt into them. I'm told that chemical analysis alone will not tell what these are/were, it will take an in depth look at the crystallography of all of these stones to understand what they might be.

Aloha, here is the best of my collection. Since I moved together with my girlfriend, only the small and nice samples are on display, one showcase out of three. Looking forward to the day when we will have some more space. So it is a crowded mix of fossils, minerals, recent beachfinds and mosty selfmade or altered skeleton models. Sadly, only a small percentage of my fossils is selffound, although nearly all of the beach stuff is. There is the "poultry showcase", dedicated to Birds and pterosaurs (Parrot skull is a replica of course, as is the Pterosaur plate regrettably) The big showcase is a composite image because I could not get all into one foto. The whales you may know from the Palaeorecreation thread. Best Regards, J

hi guys , i have some minerals that i no longer collect bit of a long shot but i was wondering if maybe someone would be interested, i can give closeups on request i am interested in most fossil fauna other than bivalves and brachiopods.

Here is a quick guide to the key fossil venues of the 2020 Tucson Fossil Show. A list of vendors are in the links I've attached. Tucson Hotel City Center Venue: official dates Feb 1 -15 Details and dealers/displays https://www.mineralshowslld.com/tucson One of the better venues for fossils in general, a few of good Shark and Dino dealers are present. Dealers start getting there early some will open as early as the 27th since most are in private rooms. Most by the 29th. The Main ballroom opens on the 30th where you find Displays and the Black Hills Institute. Pete Larsen is typically there and has had no problem answering questions. Parking is very limited so get there early, they do have remote parking, a short walk. It's within walking distance to the Day's Inn venue. Big venue for minerals and meteorites. This is the last year at this venue will post later whats going on for 2021 lots of changes expected Days Inn (formerly the Ramada) venue - official show dates Feb 1 to 15 An AAPS show guide will come out shortly giving more detail.. Will attach link. https://xpopress.com/show/profile/25/fossil-mineral-alley In my opinion the best venue for fossils especially Invertebrates, Dino and Shark. Lots of high end European dealers. Parking is reasonable Please note dealers get there early so expect some to be open on on Jan 28 and leave early so quite a few are not there the last week. European dealers stay to the end and party cannot beat the weather. 22nd Street Show venue: Official Dates Jan 30 to Feb 15 (no early access like the other venues) https://www.22ndstreetshow.com/ Used to be one of the better shows its turned into a parking nightmare and contains mostly trinket and junk dealers. Having said that there are several key fossils dealers present and unfortunately a MUST visit. Just be prepared to fight parking and do LOTS of walking and complaining. They keep making this show bigger at the expense of parking. $5 to park. Get there before it opens to ease the pain and do not plan to come back after you leave. A short drive south from the two venues just mentioned before. Already erecting the mile long venue tents Co-op venue Official dates January 31 to Feb 16 https://xpopress.com/show/profile/44/mineral-fossil-co-op A couple of dealers are there year around but others are there just for the show. Best to wait to do the other venues first then hit this one. Have an interesting variety of items, fossils, minerals, sandstone and has had a nice dinosaur showcase of museum grade skeletons.. See what this year brings. Kino Show Official :Jan 30 to Feb 30 https://xpopress.com/show/profile/41/kino-gem-mineral-show Huge show separate from downtown. Cool place to visit has everything..and fossils. Big Moroccan tent dealers are located here. Watch out for the fakes. Main Street Venue Feb 2 to 16 https://xpopress.com/show/profile/43/main-avenue-fossil-mineral-show Interesting venue.. mineral/fossil dealers in tents and nice Moroccan fossils in building and a small museum. Across the street is a cool group of Moroccan Tent dealers. Again watch out for fakes they abound, negotiate heavily with these dealers. Overall guide for all the shows. Most venues other than the pure Gem one have fossils... 50 shows and venues. It takes up the city plus https://xpopress.com/showcase/profile/1/tucson-gem-mineral-fossil-showcase

I don't collect minerals as often as I used to in my youth, but every now and then I pick up some shiny stones that please my eye. I just wanted to share this piece of calcite that I found. I randomly checked it under UV light yesterday when checking a trilobite. The colors are very pleasant to the eye.

This is a brown stone and about the size of a dime. When the dark brown is scratched it leaves a copper red under it. When the “Rice Krispie” dots pop out it leaves a smooth void and there are smaller crystalline pieces embedded in it. It has been soaked in water and maintains shape so I don’t think it’s mud. The Krispie ranged in color like well, teeth? Any help would be appreciated.

Oh how I miss going to the library! Alas, that’s another story. So.... is there ANY difference between chert and flint? Is it really just geologist versus historian? I have some beautiful blue pieces, but I also have some that are the milky kinda waxy white color, and a few brown with small green places. I just don’t want to label anything wrong. Thank y’all for the help!

Well folks Spring has finally arrived in Central New York! We actually had two days in a row of sun! The thermometer is reading 70º as I write this. Me and the boys were busy this weekend. Yesterday we collected some gypsum specimens, shot their BB gun and a found an old Coke bottle. Today we went to Briggs road for a short Trilo hunt, went fishing and went to one of the nicest waterfalls in our area. We all enjoyed being outdoors and soaking up the sun. While at the fossil site I found a huge spotted salamander wedged in between the shale. I felt bad for disturbing it but I didn't see it until I had already destroyed its resting place. I don't think it was actually out of hibernation yet as it was very sluggish. Here are some pics. 1- Gypsum 2-Coke bottle 3- Salamander 4-Dylans finds 5-Davids finds 6&7- Devins little trilo roller 8- My finds

Hey guys was just wanting a consensus on alternative names for colourless Chalcedony specimens? I've been doing a lot of collecting at a local beach where this variant of chalcedony is rather common but I'm really stumped as to naming these under-rated specimens. I love collecting them as they often look like glass or ice, with or without banding and/or inclusions, but I feel like I'm doing them no favours by just referring to it as "colourless". Cheers, Jasper. Ps: Some geologic background - The chalcedony and agate specimens at this beach have been worn away out of Cretaceous-Paleogene intermediate and felsic volcanic rocks by rivers and carried down to the ocean where they are further tumbled and deposited by long shore drift.

I wanted to let everyone know about our upcoming Mineral and fossil show held in Syracuse New York. If you have not already seen it posted on the forum's calendar of events, our show is Gemworld 2019. It is hosted by the Syracuse Gem & Mineral Society. It will be held at the New York State Fairgrounds Center of Progress Building Saturday July 13 from 10am- 6pm and Sunday July 14 from 10am- 4pm. If you will be in the area that weekend please come buy and check it out. I believe we do put on a great show. This year I will be helping out in the youth area making beaded bracelets for the kids. The lady who usually does this cant make it and needed someone to fill in. I will be there for most of both days. I will also have a display of my sharkteeth. There is plenty to see, and plenty to buy. Presentations will be given and there are other activities for kids. So fun for the whole family. Hope to see you there! Dave

Well, it finally happened ... made the time to stop off this summer at the Rice Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Oregon. Specifically in Hillsboro, Oregon. And wow, WOW .. what a collection !! One that rivals or equals a good number of natural history museums that I have visited. The most impressive was the extensive collection of petrified wood. Some of the slabs could have easily swallowed me. The minerals, as you will see were also quite impressive. Outside there was a seeded rock pile that the kids could dig around in and save their treasures for a minimal fee .. 1.00/lb. The first fist-sized mineral was free. Palm wood from Texas ... Some fantastic corals too ...

So when I was taking a better look at my spinosaurus teeth I noticed that in the enamel part there are lines coming out from bottom to top, are these created by minerals or it was some kind of blood vessels or veins from when the animal was alive? Thanks.

New Analysis Techniques Unearth a Trove of Unusual Minerals https://www.wired.com/story/geologists-discover-specks-new-minerals-earths-extremes/ Yours, Paul H.

Hi all, I recently acquired a nice gem and mineral collection. I found out later that the collection originally belonged to a Dorothy (Dottie) Elam who was active in various clubs. Unfortunately this collection was hastily tossed into boxes and into the trunk of a car. Fortunately, it is largely intact. Dottie clearly spent a lot of time and effort on this and I plan get it back in order. I'm curious what the various colored stickers and smiley (and some frowns) faces mean on the boxes. I'm only just beginning to figure out how this is organized but there are cards for each fossil with good information. Some of the specimens were field collected, many were purchased, and quite a few were gifts from the late Charlie Hall. I attached some pictures. I'm pretty excited about having this! Thanks, Rick

Hello all, I recently saw a whole lot of collections on this forum, and they were all beautifel. Now I cleaned up my room (what's a hell of a task to me, I spended 8 hours) and I deceided to take pictures of the nicest part of my fossil and mineral collection. It's by far not as nice as most members here, but I still have decades to get a nice collection . It's a bunch of everything older then the cenozoicum, because I find it hard to choose what group of fossils I want to collect, trilobites or dinosaurs/ reptiles. Dinosaurs are pretty hard to get here without paying high import and shipping costs. So let's start then. The trilobites are the firsts. Selenopeltis longispinus. Upper: Flexicalymene ouzregui 2 X Elrathia kingi Flexicalymene ouzregui Lower: Minicryphaeus sarirus Cyphaspis agayuara Crotalocephalina gibbus Upper: Cyphaspis walteri Boeckops boecki Combination of Cyphaspis sp., a very tiny kettneraspis sp. and two phacops sp. Coltraneia oufatenensis Lower: Kettneraspis pigra Cornuproetus sp. Gerastos tuberculatus Stapeleyella inconstans Trinueleus fimbriatus Elrathia kingi Phacops latifrons Foulonia sp. Right upper corner: Phacops sp. with bite mark A whole block with partials of Stenarocalymene celebra (I don't find much about this species so I'm still not 100 % sure if this is correct) and a ventral prepped Ogygiocarella debuchi The personal high-light of my trilobites (pictures don't do it justice). A Kettneraspis williamsi with a couple of free-standing spines. Personally the best I have ever seen. So far my trilobites. Next my Khouribga fossils: Lytoloma elegans ( a bit of restoration but most is real) A roothed Mosasaurus globidens tooth. Enchodus fang (there is a jaw in the stone also) Pretty big Mosasaurus sp. tooth Two verts of Otodus obliquus. Partial Mosasaurus globidens jaw Mosasaurus sp. partial jaw. 3 Weltonia ancistrodon teeth Otodus obliquus tooth Roothed Prognathodon tooth a box with misc fossils from Khouribga My two only teeth that are not from Morocco or Europe Denversaurus schlessmani Indet. Croc from Patagonia More to follow

This is the part I found, I know that I know the outside of this geode or rock or whatever from some thing, but I can’t find it... marine fossils....? Didn’t know if corals could be geodes if it is a coral, by all my posts on here everybody knows I don’t know what I’m doing

I found a beautiful burned and petrified tree under a hundred feet of basalt in oregon. Can someone please help me identify this and point me in the right direction? Christopher Finck. Thank you

Here is another show that I visited today, I really had my hopes up high for this show and arrived 1 hour early to it's 9 am start time. This sale was billed as the largest sale that the Wheaton College Geology Department has ever held. I was 8th in line and by the time the show opened there were about 70 people in line. There were 4 rooms on the lower level that held the items for sale. Each person was given a ticket with a number and we were advised to grab a box or bag that was located on the lower level and place the items that the person selected into the box / bag and then write your number on it and pay at the end. I would say that 99% of the items for sale were rocks and minerals, the fossils were located on one table in one of the rooms. The information on this sale stated that the prices on the items were lower than rock stores, that may have been true for the rocks and minerals, but the majority of the fossils were very high. Regarding the fossils, there really was nothing to write home about. I did pick up one piece identified as "Columnar Stromatolite" for $10.00. One thing that I was surprised with, especially seeing that these were supposed to be items that were the property of the Geology Department, was that lack of identification on the fossil specimens that were offered. After I post some pictures of the fossils for sale, I will add some pictures of the fossils that the school had on display. Here is the piece of Stromatolite that I purchased. Here are some pictures of their displays.

To day I stopped by the ESCONI Rock / Fossil and Gem Show that was held today and again tomorrow at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton, Illinois. It is a nice little show and a great way to start the Spring season. In my opinion, the show was a little smaller than last year, but that did not stop the people from coming to seen what was for sale and to look at displays of nice fossils. The ESCONI Show is a free show, no entrance fee and no parking fee. When you enter, you are greeted from members of Esconi who will give you a ticket for a door prize. Throughout the day, they draw numbers and the lucky winners get to pick an item from the prizes that they have offered. As usual, I pass my ticket onto a lucky youngster who hopefully will win one of the goodies. This year I donated over 1000 Moroccan Echinoids and a large box full of Ordovician Hash Plates that I collected from St. Leon and Lawrenceburg Indiana. All of the fossils were given to a person who was handling the Kids Corner section. This is a great spot for kids to go and get fossils, I believe many are free or at a very cheap price. Throughout the day they also run silent auctions and you can get some nice stuff for for a couple dollars. They also have better items that they Auction off in a "Live Auction" format. This year, like last, they had some great Mazon Creek fossils and some really cool looking minerals. See below-

Hello from Elgin, Texas! Thank you for adding this totally GREEN NEWBIE to the Fossil Forum! The reason I joined is because I have a seasonal creek that runs through my property that is full of rocks, fossils, and goodies that I have no idea what they are LOL. I'll post pictures of the more "interesting" things that I find. I plan on spending time in the "ID" section so I can get 'edumacated' over there as well. I look forward to interesting and fun conversation! Eileen