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Greetings everyone, Over the past year, my 3 year old daughter has fallen in love with dinosaurs as we've watched Dinosaur Train, which features a paleontologist ( Specifically Dr. Scott D. Sampson, Namer/Co-Discoverer of the Masiakasaurus and expert researcher of Majungasaurus) who does an amazing job at helping inspire children in this area. My daughter can rattle off Mesozoic era facts all day, and has become more interested in Fossils. I let her know there was no Mesozoic mass in our area, but we could go look for fish fossils, since this entire area (Missouri, USA) was covered in ocean (The western Interior seaway I believe). Much to my surprise, she said yes. So we went outside and just started playing around in some gravel outside of our house and lo-and-behold we found a plethora of coral immediately, which she immediately has begun squirreling away in her collection. Since then, we've been visiting small beaches and rock piles to continue looking for interesting rocks and fossils, leading to a growing collection of Quartz, Chert(Chalcedony and it's sub-types), Horn Coral, Crinoid stems, and various other fun things. It's been amazing, and it's inspired me as well to learn a lot more about the amazing world we live in. Millions of years old Brachiopod shells sitting my our home feels absolutely unreal to think about, and is truly a humbling feeling. Most recently, i've been trying to take longer trips out to more interesting areas along the Mississippi River with rockpilings to access some of the mixed up soils that come from all over the US, and hunting for a good quality sample of a Trilobite and Galena ( Lead is made from this, it's the Missouri State Mineral ) Glad to meet you all! Here's a little picture of me and the daughter's first "real" fossil that we found on purpose by cracking open a rock that had a seam running down it lengthwise. Have a great day!

I recently went on a collecting trip ending in the Triassic of New Mexico. I collected in four states and covered 6 geologic time periods. I have a number of trip reports to do, and I usually like to have everything identified before I post. However, I am waiting on some brachiopod identification resources (productids), and I want to get this out while I have time (more reports coming as I work on the specimens from each site). This report is on the Mineral Wells Fossil Park. It was four hours out of my way, but I was determined to get there on this trip (my first to the site) and managed to get in two hours of collecting. This is a great site, and kudos (and THANKS) to the Dallas Palaeontological Society, Mineral Wells Parks and Recreation Department and all others who helped make this great park possible.