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Hello, My wife and I found these in Wyoming, other than #1/#8 (Myoplosis) can someone help me identify the other fish? I plan to finish them when fully dry (the rock was damp from snow pack) and apply butvar and write the species and date on each one to give to some family and make a small display.

My kids were purty darn young when we, as a family, started going places to hunt for fossils. Back then, about 20 some years ago, I found that one could go fossil fish hunting with a company called Uricks Quarrys. Not sure of the spelling. It cost $65 for 3 hours of digging. For me, back then, that was a heck of alot of money. They told me that you get 3 hours of digging, then back to their shop for cutting and squaring up the rock. Well, I got there one morning and off we were. There must have been 10 or 12 people there and after a short bit of what to do, we all got to work. Like most everyone there, we were finding all the small stuff, the Knightia's the small Dyplo's and then all of a sudden, the guy tells us its time to pack up and go! NO, No, No I thougt to myself, we still have an hour to go. I simply kept on picking up rock and splittin. Almost everyone else was packed up and ready to go when this guy keeps telling me that its time to go. I kept on diggin. Just when the guy starts getting demanding of its 'time to go', I run into this big freakin beauty!!! This was my very first ever big fish!!! I was super happy and super excited!!! To say the least!!! Then, I was willing to go. Everyone else was ready to go, all packed up and sittin in the two vans. I didnt care, I wanted my 3 hours of digging for cryin out loud!!! After we got back home, the first thing I wanted to do was to start prepping. Mind you, I had never prepped fossil fish before and there was one piece of rock that came off that had a big piece of tail in it. This was my first ever 'bone transfer' and it came out perfect!!! I was absolutley amazed that I could do this!!!??? Learning sometimes is a bit scary! Once I had this fish all prepped out, I decided to build a frame for it. and of course, I cant do anything simple. I didnt have any money for materials, so I used common everyday fir 2X4's for the frame. I thinned them down and made a frame and stained it with cherry colored stain. Then I realised that I had some left over mohogany. so, with some thought, I added some of that and put some carvings into it adn also some burning into it too. The only thing I didnt do was to put the Genus and species of this fish onto a carved area on the bottom. I simply didnt know the name in those days and was too excited to get it done. But still, my most favorite and memerable fish still today. I love this fish. Brings back some very nice memories.

I also brought home a small box of prepped out fossil fish today. Ive got a bunch more in my fossil shed, but those will come home another day, including some nice big ones. Ive got to start displaying them. Oh, now I see that ive got the black myo upside down. Dang! RB