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I found this while I was doing some recon on some Salem-Warsaw limestones a day ago. Every other chunk of quartz I stumbled upon looked like your typical oddball sphere of quartz crystal, nothing special. This one's shape and appearance were pretty unique. I almost see the resemblance of a calyx. Is this geodized quartz as well, and why the odd shape? Side view Side view Side view Bottom side Topside Thanks for the input, Jackson

Hey there, I hope today was as nice for you as it was for me outside here in Henry County, Missouri. On my day off today, I decided to go on another fossil hunt. Today's location is a little arm off of Truman Lake, and is one of my favorite spots to look for crinoids. The water was relatively low right now at this location today also. I decided to take advantage of that fact and look along the bottom by the water line where scraps and eroding peices fall down, and get covered back by water for most of the year. Often times I'll find complete crinoids and blastoids down here if the water is low enough, and one's luck is high. Today was a decent day for this picky fellow. The morning started off a bit cloudy, which was nice because I have a bit of a walk before I can start scouring for fossils on the ground. Soon after starting my trek, this cute little bug landed on my hand. I think it is a mayfly. Bugs can be annoying, though this little guy wasn't. Today was particularly bad with mosquitoes though. Lazy me forgot to bring bug spray. Be prepared for ticks, mosquitoes, and other creepy crawlies when coming out here. After getting to the fossiliferous limestones, I started off by going towards the bottom of the exposure. I tend to squat down sumo style, or look like I'm doing toe touches with my butt sticking in the air a good portion of the day while looking. One's success is often due to experience here, but alot of things are small, dirty, weathered, or just easy to overlook here. It definitely pays to take your time and go low when you look. There is always at least one fisherman or kayaker usually baffled by what I'm doing, today was no different. The first find was an easy to spot crinoid, which was perfect and required no preparation at all. Sometimes its as easy as just picking it off the floor. Very lucky to say the least. All that was needed was cleaning with warm soapy water. Can you spot the crinoid in situ? The second find was just as easy! A hundred feet away or so, this blastoid was just sitting there. Again, this only needed very simple cleaning up. Here is another photo, showing how I found it next to my trusty old Estwing. There are some cherts in the Burlington Formation, as well as the crinoidal limestones already shown. I didn't find too much in the cherty sections today. It always takes scribe and abrasives to prep this material. Sometimes you can whack the chert and the fossil will pop out, but depending how it's situated in the rock and also just dumb luck depends on weather that extraction method is successful. It usually isn't, and it can be dangerous as the chert can splinter out and shoot at high speeds if you hit the rock wrong. I did find a nice Pentremites sp. blastoid though, as well as a nice Composita sp. brachiopod in cherts. It is likely complete, but not one I can just whack. Heres another blastoid, though a different type from the crinoidal limestones that needs prep. It will be much easier to finish. After a good 5 hours out, I decided to return back to my car and head for home. I won't have many opportunities to hunt my beloved Burlington much longer, so I'm trying to make the best of this and go out as often as I can. I tend to be at peace most when I'm out in nature, and finding fossils has taught me more than just about these ancient creatures. It has taught me about my current surrounding environment, the current living creatures here, patience, and more that I probably don't need to ramble off about. Anywho, here's everything I managed to clean up today. Preparation on the blastoids will have to wait until I have more time. Composita sp. brachiopod Azygocrinus rotundus and Globoblastus norwoodi Other crinoidal bits. Another Globoblastus norwoodi (needs abbraided still) Crinoid (probably Aorocrinus parvus, still needs prep) And that ends today's trip, thanks for reading. Enjoy your summer while you still can!

Hey all, when I was out fossil hunting today in the Burlington Formation, I found this odd little thing. I'm pretty confident it's a fossil, but I'm really not quite sure what it is. I really don't even know where to guess on this, any ideas?

Hi, I found this little tooth today in some more limestone. Its the smallest yet, and I'm kind of surprised I even saw it. My eyes are trained to see calyxs not these lovely teeth, so it's a great treat to find it. I'm also pretty new with these teeth, so I'd rather not guess and figured I would ask you lovely folks with more experience. I cannot tell which, but it looks maybe like a Deltoptychius or Deltodus to my eye? It's about 11mm in length. Good chance I'm wrong too, and it maybe not even he ID-able! Anyways, I appreciate opinions as always. -JG

Hi there, last fossil hunting trip I went on a week or so ago I found some nice fossils and than this. I was hunting some Burlington limestone/ chert that day. Not exactly sure what this is, a possible bryozoan encursting part of a brachiopod valve? I find a lot of pieces of brachiopod valves in the crinoidal layers, where this was laying so that would be my guess. Hopefully it shows, but the entire top side is covered in tiny pits. Thanks for the help, Jackson. I know this was collected from the Burlingtong Limestone. Heres an Azygocrinus rotundus I found about a foot away from the original posted ID piece for formation reference.

Here is another challenge seeking input from FF crowd. I find numerous sections of these fossils around N. AL but have no clue what an entire one looks like or what they are from. Occasionally they are two sided with both sides being identicle. They remind me a bit of worm tubes I have seen from later rocks. The other day however found several pieces together that seemed to indicate they would have had concentric whirls perhaps down to a center, which then made me thing more Gastropodish perhaps. Just wondering if anyone knows what they are and if you have a picture of what a complete one looks like I would love to see it. Thanks!

I am looking to the FF resource to help with this one. I found this last month and while small (~1cm by 1cm) I am pretty excited about it. The piece is flat to slightly curved and has multiple Tubercles/Denticles? present on one side. Flat and smooth on the other. The denticles remind me very much of Petrodus sp., of which I have found many loose over the years but never attached like this. I found a section of Oracanthus spine a while back that has similar Tubercles but they are much more elongate than round at the base, and that section of spine had a very curved (almost semi-circular). Could this be a dermal plate? and if so from what(Mississippian Age)? Curious to hear what you guys think. There is some calcification present on the top, I am still working on this but figured good enough to see at this point.

I always like looking where other's have dug in the shale. Granted turning over new earth is bound to uncover new things but I always am surprised about what gets left behind. This was the case this Sunday when my wife and I decided to take the dogs for a hike as it really felt like fall! We went for a quick 20-30 look for fossils as the spot was close by. Someone had dug a huge hole in the shale that my wife immediately started looking around. She said I think I found what they were looking for and she plucked a very nice crinoid calyx from the ground (Pic 1). We continued to look and shortly after in the side of their spoil pile I found most of the very large cephalopod pictured but it was missing the small end. Some more looking farther down the pile and there it was! Found a few other nice things pictured as well including a couple other cephalopods one shattered (Pic 2) and put toghether in (Pic 3). The shattered one ends up being the one in the lower left of the composite picture. The large cephalopod pictured is the largest I have found out of the Missippian Age shale. The cladodus tooth in Pic 1 is seen in situ in Pic 4. Anyway I thank whoever dug the hole, hopefully they found some nice things too!