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The brochure said if I stood behind the wall and was patient that I would see dinosaurs. Didn't happen. Sheesh! Wasted that nickel. Last time I stop at a tourist trap.

Here is a good website that gives the gps coordinates for several fossil sites near Moab, Utah. https://www.discovermoab.com/dinosaur-museums-and-hikes/ Nearby south of Moab is the newly discovered mysterious 12 foot tall metal monolith, sort of like the one in Planet of the Apes. 38°20′35.2″N 109°39′58.5″W See video still from David Sparks Instagram page. If no one claims it then maybe they should take it to a local museum.

When fossil hunting near Moab, UT this weekend. There was quite a bit of snow in the Moab area this weekend, so I was not expecting to find anything. Luckily, this area was in the Sun and all the the snow was melted off. Found many Brachiopods, crinoid stems, and a small partial trilobite. (I have not been able to take a good photograph of the Trilobite because it is so small, abt 3/8") Attached are photos of the best Brachiopod. It is approx 2" across. I found a slightly large one, but it is still covered in a lot of matrix and needs to be prepped. Fossils are from the Permian Rico Formation about 17 miles down the Potash Road (Hwy 279) South of Moab, UT. Does anyone know of a good reference for fossils in this formation.

I was in Moab, Utah last week and stopped in at the Moab Rock Shop. They had lots of fossils so I picked up this nice little ammonite about 17 mm diameter for a few dollars. It was labeled as an Orthosphinctes from the Jurassic of the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, but I'm not convinced. I can't find much online about Orthosphinctes but what I do find shows the whorl cross section as being much more oval in shape. I found the thread below from 2014 but it doesn't seem to have answered the poster's original question of Orthosphinctes vs. Perisphinctes. Can anyone help?

Hello all, I thought this would be a fairly easy identification, given the distinct deep indentations in the ridge of this ammonite fragment. I looked in Fossil Index of NA, Invertebrate Fossils by Moore et al, a Collignoniceras survey and the Atlas of Cretaceous Life, online. This fragment comes from Mancos Shale near Moab, Utah. Help appreciated. And if you can suggest sources for this era and region I’d appreciate it. Thanks. Tom

Was hiking near Moab, Utah, climbed about 100 feet up a cliff to look for ruins, and stumbled across these. The rock was Jurassic-era sandstone. They were spread over an area about 20 x 20. Could they be dinosaur bones? If so, what kind? Thanks!

Hello all. Time for me to go to school again, and ask for help identifying this fragment of what I take to be an ammonite. I found it in Mancos Shale outside of Moab. This segment is about 10cm long and about 4.5cm wide. It is in a thin slab with no sign of the shell continuing on the underside of this piece of stone. The two photos show all that can be seen and the third gives a sense of the thickness of the rock. I was unsure of what this was until PFOOLEY called my attention to Kennedy et al. A Revision of the Turonian Members of the Ammonite subfamily Collignonceratinae. This helped me see I was looking at an ammonite. In fact, this looks to me fairly close to Kennedy’s fig 32 on page 39, for anyone who has this source. The spine has distinct bumps at the shell ridges and the ridges themselves are sharp and more widely spread. In his terms, I’d guess this is a robust rather than gracile structure. I do not think it is Prionocyclus since its spine, as pictured in Kennedy, seem to be smoother along the entire back. When I look on line at other families I see some went extinct earlier than the Cretaceous and some have clearly smoother shells. I don’t know the complete universe of ammonites that inhabited this area in the Cretaceous so don’t know who the other contenders might be. The two families I see are Collignoniceratidae and Prionocyclus. If I am close that it is in the Col. family, I don’t think it looks like c. jorgensen or c. praecox. It looks like c.woolari. After all this, my questions. Is this enough of a segment to make a reasonable identification? Is this Collignonceras? If not, what am I missing (seeing or not seeing)? As always, thanks for your help.

Hello all, I have what I believe to be a segment of an ammonite. I think this is in the Acanthoceratidae family. I can see the suture patterns very clearly. This piece is 15 mm long and was found in Mancos Shale near Moab. In ID-i got it I find the Cretaceous Atlas of Ancient Life particularly helpful. So first, am I on the correct track so far? If so, then I wonder how I can I go to the genus level of identification. I am looking at the robustness of the ridge pattern and see it is common with Acanthoceras, but there are other possibilities as well. Does an incomplete sample like this allow you to make a genus identification or not? Or is the best you can do make a probability statement, such as it is this or that? What specifically about this segment should I focus on to get to the next level and what source would you recommend for this type of identification? Is the key in the suture patterns? Thanks for your help. Tom

Hello helpful fossiliers, Help please. These fossils came from outside Moab close to the Colorado River, but on a high shelf. The river is not visible from this location. Roadside Geology of Utah identifies this area as Permian, as did a BLM paleontologist. They are from about 10-15 miles SW from Moab. The rocks are largely a red base (clay?) with a gray-er surface. These three pictures are actually 3 different locations on the rock, but I think (wonder if) they are the same life form. The first is about 2 mm long. The ruler shows a mm scale. You can see the cross section end of the item on the fossil closest to the ruler. The second is a round disc from elsewhere on the surface and the third is a connected series of round discs. My sense is that the disc and connect discs are crinoid segments. Is the first picture also a crinoid, or am I way off on all this? I can post additional pictures if anyone asks. Thanks. Tom

Hello all, here is another fossil for which I’d appreciate some ID help. It is about the size of a postage stamp. It looks to be a cross section of an animal. There were extensive ammonite shell fragments in the area and I wonder if this is a cross section of one? It was found in Mancos shale north of Moab, but before reaching I 70. I darkened the fossil so it was more visible. Don’t know that I like that effect. Thanks for your help.

This impression and partial exoskeleton is slightly larger than a postage stamp. It is from a Mancos shale deposit outside of Moab, between the city and Rt 70. I’m unsure of the words to use, but it looks like there was a central back carpace with a skirt around it. ID help much appreciated. Thank you.