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Hi Again ...I'm posting another nice for New Jersey Fossil .....its a Belemnitella Americana they are very common fossil for New Jersey but its very hard to find them with anywhere close to being complete...The rostrum that is. I put the two Exogyra's on the block for the fun of it but the Belemnite was found insitu laying long wise just exposing itself. I left the Belemnite in the block that I dug it out of and the Rostrum measures 4 3/4 inches.

My friend from Texas was back up in April for nearly three weeks to photograph some of the Ammonites in the M.A.P.S. collection for a book he is working on and for the days he wasn't shooting invert's we went out collecting and scouting for potential future sites. We managed to find some nice fossils and some are a bet rare to find in nice or nearly complete state. Here are a few of the best ones I found. The first one is a Hoploparia Gabbi.... Its a Cretaceous Lobster from the Wenonah a late Campanian formation. What makes this a rather rare fossil from New Jersey is that you mostly find bits and pieces of them.. mostly claws and the carapace is rare in its self. My specimen was found encased in a siderite layer that also makes up the protocallianassa (Ghost Shrimp) burrows . My specimen is partially disarticulated at the abdomen somites/tail section but looks like it can be put back together but one side of this area was not preserved or has fallen off and its also missing the uropod / flipper. I am tempted to try to expose the perciopods the walking feet if there still there I don't know. I have been working on this lobster for the last two days and I'm not sure if it worth doing any more to it. All in all a nice example of a New Jersey Hoploparia Gabbi. I also posted a picture of the anatomy of a Lobster for comparison.