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Fossils found in this area are from the Cambrian Pennsylvanian, and Cretaceous Periods. What is it? That’s for any help! My foot is there for size reference. Maybe 6? Inch diameter

Hello fellow fossil lovers! Thank you for allowing me to join your forum. I have loved looking for fossils and rocks for as far back as I remember. When I was a child we had an elderly neighbor who tumbled and hand polished rocks. I was so intrigued and he was kind of enough to let me watch and gives me stones. I was about 5. No one in my close circle “gets” my interest is I am reaching out for like minded folks. I know very little but want to learn and get that excited feeling again! I found a cool fossil a few days ago and I hope to get some identification of it. I apologize ahead of time I’m I am clueless. I am here to learn and admire your finds!!

This link explains the geology of my area. https://www.mtsu.edu/glade-center/gladehistory.php I’m happy to have found this forum as I’m a newbie and would be so grateful for your help w/identification of these fossils I’m finding here in Middle Tennessee, USA. My friend has a creek in her front yard full of these Ordovician (??) sea creature fossils. This is my favorite so far but I’m not sure what it is. Someone in a FB group said it could be a cephalopod cross section? I’m seeing eyes and shrimp. There are even shades of violet on one spot IMG_0763.MOV

Hi all, greetings from this retired Royal Navy officer/fossil newbie in Southern England. I've returned to fossil hunting after maybe 40 years doing plenty of other stuff, and the bug has bitten pretty hard. I've attended a couple of organised field trips and it turns out that I like nothing more than crawling along a beach with my nose about a foot from the sand. I'm looking forward to plenty more opportunities for getting my hands dirty, and to using the great resource that this forum seems to be. Here's to dirty fingernails and heavy rucksacks.

Hello from Yorkshire and Tyneside, England. I am fairly new to this game, although have accidentally stumbled on some nice fossils over the years. Have Recently started finding bits and bobs on northern English beaches with my 8 year old grandson. We are both hoping to learn more from this site.

Hello everyone! Already made a post but figured I better introduce myself as well. My name is Jeff from Salem County, NJ and haven’t been fossil hunting for long so please bare with me. I was introduced to it by an older coworker of mine who had told me of his hikes and finding shark teeth at a small creek located not far from me. I had heard of fossils in New Jersey but couldn’t believe what this old fella was telling me until sure enough I adventured out with my 3 boys and found half a dozen shark teeth in a creek/dammed lake area I never even knew exsisted even though it was 15 minutes from my house. I’ve been hooked ever since. Hoping to submit some of my finds as well as learn more about what I am finding in some well under explored areas here in Salem County! This was a photo of our first trip out and now have gone out at least once a week to find what we can find!

Usually dig in rivers, so very newbie to this. First time to badlands. Watched a youtube and the paleontologist is squirting some kind of glue on a tooth before they try to remove it from the earth to prevent it from breaking. What is that glue?

I am looking for fossil forums in Korea. ... Thanks for accepting this!

Hi all, first post and newbie collector so appologies if this is posted in the wrong place. On a Recent trip to Dorset these were found and I’d love some input on the best way to prepare these. One is large and I as tempting as it was to just have at it with the hammer and chisel, I suspect more interesting things may be lurking in there. The others are much smaller and may need something like an air scribe?? Recommendations on that line appreciated also. thank you in advance for any help/tips/recommendations.

Hi all you dirt under the finger nail fossil maniacs you…. Hi I’m Skye, Mornington located, fossicker who would love to connect with others who would like to hunt together …. Ex student to the late and great prof. Neil Archibald…my spark started when someone gave me 1988 - Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia by Dougal Dixon for maybe my 6 bday…. I still have my ratty copy….and then prof. Archie rocked my world when he took us on excursions… have spent many, many years trying to find my old journal entries with location but alas I fear they are gone. Have free dived my way around Port Phillip picking up bits as I went…. Beaumaris, Mornington, lilydale ….I would love to make friends, maybe find where it was that I was finding bits as my twin toddlers can spend 7.5 hours scouring the beaches with me hahaha…. Covid has killed my mojo but I want to find my groove again…

in Charlottesville, VA. I found my first shark teeth at Brownie's Beach in MD about 5 years ago and was immediately hooked, but I didn't get seriously into fossil hunting until a friend posted online about taking his kids to Fossil Beach in Westmoreland Park, a little over two hours' drive from Charlottesville. I went with a friend and found only one tooth but also lots of other interesting, unexpected stuff, including a tilly bone, a couple of clam molds, and a small pelecypod mortality plate (in this case, more like a "mortality rock"). Then I discovered the Natural History Society of MD and went on several of their fossil-hunting field trips to Stratford Hall, which is very near Westmoreland Park. I found some bigger--still not big, but varied and interesting (including a small but very exciting posterior chubutensis and a fossil mako tooth!)--teeth, a wahoo jaw section with 4 teeth, a bunch of double chesapecten nephrens (thanks to Cory, one of the Paleo guides!), lots of fossil bone fragments and some "cookies," a tree oyster cast, several different gastropod casts. and all sorts of other stuff, all of which I've found really exciting. Also, I just really like to get out and walk the beach, even when I don't find much. I don't know very much, though, about fossils in general or geologic ages; about the particular fossils to be found in Virginia and MD; or about much of anything related to fossil hunting, geology, or paleontology. My friends have been good about humoring me, but I'd like to make some friends who are interested in fossils and who know more than I do (which wouldn't take much! I'm in awe of all the knowledge here). Anyway, I'm rambling. I'm excited to have found you all.

Hello everyone!! I'm from Italy, new to the fossils world but I've always been fascinated by extinct creatures since I was a little kid. I've been reading posts in this forum for a little while, and I finally decided to join you guys, so that I can learn something about identification, fake/restored fossils, and much more... Can't wait to know more about this world!!

Hi all, pretty new to fossil collecting, but loving my small but growing collection. I am located in the midlands of South Carolina ( near Columbia)

Hello Everyone, I have been a rock/fossil-hound since I was very young. I just recently started back actively hunting minerals and fossils. I ran across this forum and I am really excited to learn some new stuff here. Thanks!

Hello All, (WARNING: FIRST TIME CRAB PREP AHEAD) A friend of mine came across a small concretion (2.5") on a marketplace website and picked it up for me. It was already cracked open right across the equator, and exposed a small crab. (I'm assuming from Washington State but anyone that can weigh-in on the species is appreciated.) As per the pictures, the Crab itself has the body and the claw separated into different halves of the split. Reading up on the forum I decided to glue the concretion back together and air scribe my way back down to the Crab in the hopes of consolidating all the pieces into one specimen. After a few minutes of scribing I discovered a second Crab in the top section of the stone well above where the first one is located. Now I'm stumped and would like to ask the forum if they have any recommendations on how to proceed.

Hello my fellow forum members Hope you are well :0) I'm Chris from Hertfordshire UK & have recently just joined the forum. I have two 5yr old twin boys who are absolutely dinosaur mad, but I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the topic with them & think im enjoying Andys Dinasour Adventures more than they are lol Having recently returned from a weeks family holiday fossil hunting along the Jurasic Coast, has peaked my intrest further which has subsequently led to a few fossil finds as well as some impulse fossil buys much to the wifes annoyance. Anyways, looking forward to exploring the forum & learning more on the subject.

Hello all, I am very excited to join the wider community. I have always had an overwhelming interest and fascination with history, anything old and I can get into it. I have always loved dinosaurs and Earths far distant history, but I grew up with reenactors and living history parents. My knowledge base is far deeper when it comes to the periods surrounding humanities inner conflicts. Ancient Rome, the Viking period, the Golden Age of Piracy, and the Napoleonic Wars through World War II all fill my shelves. My family has always had a few fossils here and there they got from gift shops and road sides, but nothing of any substantial consequence, until my sibling moved to New York and began regularly collecting fossils from the Penn Dixie area. I never travelled much past the video game Ark: Survival Evolved. Some may gasp that I would mention such a work of fiction, it stirred to me begin reading about the real life counter parts that roamed the planet so many millions of years ago. Due to my ADHD my interests come around in a predictable cycle of patterns, and while deep diving on genealogy and the Golden Age of Piracy I felt a sudden urge just last week to clear a path through the prickly bushes in the woods behind my house to the creek that borders the property. After several hours of a comedic back and forth with thorny bushes and vexing tree branches slapping me about I had made it down the slope to the creek. I call it that but its actually a drainage easement that was dug out in the 70's between two of the ridges. I started looking at the wide assortment of rocks before deciding on a small oval shaped rock that appeared to be missing its back half. In the shade of the bare trees by the shallow waterway I began inspecting it, unsure of what I was looking for. And there on top, right at the edge of where part of the stone had broken off sometime in the past, two black circles no bigger than the head of nail with faintly visible ridges. I took it back to the house and began researching how to clean it, rinsing it with water and a gentle brush and using on my hobby knives to try lightly expose the mysterious disc below. After a few days of correspondence on Facebook and further reading I had learned that this was my first fossil I discovered, the cross section of an ancient coral species. Now I am absorbing all I can on fossil prep, identification, preservation, and how to locate them. My initial setup is nothing fantastic, an electric Dremel Engraver and a Dremel Rotary tool, several old paint brushes of varying stiffness (I also happen to collect and build models for tabletop games), a wax carver set with exactly one tool that can kind of work as a pick, a new Estwing 22 oz Geological hammer and flat shank cold chisel, and coming in the mail a set of Zoic Palaeotech fossil preperation styli. I hope to be able to find more amazing finds in my backyard and surrounding area and eventually get a better setup with airscribes and compressors. Jumping into this hobby has also guided me to learning more about the geology of the land itself, as such a US geological survey map has been pulled up on my computers other monitor pretty much always, and a click away is a full breakdown of the stratigraphy. I still have to go to google when identifying rocks, but at least I can sort sandstone from limestone now. I look forward to the adventures ahead and learning from those who have journeyed before.

Hello all, My name is Ali and I'm a Canadian living in the UK. I'm brand new to fossil collecting, so I thought this forum would be a good way to learn a little about the subject! While I know very little about fossils, I have always been fascinated by natural history. Recently I have been thinking of acquiring a few fossils (e.g.: ammonites, trilobites, mammoth tusks, etc.) as well as other wonders of nature (such as meteorites) as I find them quite quite striking - however, it certainly seems I have a lot to learn! Thank you for having me, I look forward to learning from you all and sharing as much as I can! -Ali

Hey guys! I'm new to the forum and have something neat to share that came from Hockley Valley Ontario. I found a descent sized piece of what I believe is fossiliferous limestone. This was in a clearing on my property near Hockley Village! I had posted it on mindat.org which some kind people had directed me here to help further identify the fossils in it and maybe learn more about this specimen. We deduced that it was likely limestone but with some hard silica in it as it was able to mark glass. The rocks dimensions are 17 × 12.5 × 4.3cm and it weighs roughly a pound (I don't have a precise scale). That last picture shows translucency within some of the fossils when lit. Pretty incredible could there perhaps be mineralization happening here? I can disclose any specific fossils' dimensions if required but the largest is 3.5cm long and also my favorite on the piece. It is the one with a one inch nail in its picture. I'm looking forward to learning more about this beauty!

Just found this in a ploughed field, IMG_1899.MP4

Hello guys, some of you already knew me from a topic about paleocene sharks from Chile, almost forgot to introduce myself properly!!!! My name is Diego, and I´m currently living in Chile, in the coastal south central zone. Probably gonna post about any interesting fossils that I´ve seen in my field work on my local university. Paleontologicly I´m more familiar with Maastrichtian - Upper Eocene (ammonites and sharks), and some Mollusca Maastrichtian - Upper Eocene, Miocene and Pliocene taxons. Currently I´m working on my graduate thesis on geology, so if anyone want some geologic or paleontologic data about Chile or southern South America, I may be able to provide some help. Greetings from Chile!!!!

Hello all!! So glad I found this website. Two years ago was my first experience going fossil hunting and I loved it. Unfortunately, the creeks where we had gone are now shut down by the county. Luckily, I will be going in a couple of weeks with a tour group. Can't wait! Going to do more research on the Peace River and Venice area and make one of those my next trip. Have a great day everyone!

Hi all! New guy here from CT. Name is Frank. Joined after a renewed interesting in fossils. What got me started again was a meg tooth I bought and looking forward to expanding the collection. Dream fossil is, like many, a rex tooth (What can I say? I grew up when Jurassic Park starting becoming a thing! Some things just stick with you. ). Looking forward to hearing about everyones experiences, collections, and goals. Good luck all!

Just a little hello. I have been interested in fossils since an early age. I have got a meg tooth that I bought some years ago that renewed my interest. Just taken my second trip across county to try and find some more teeth. I live in Gloucestershire, and took a little trip of 3.5 hours to get to the Naze. One side of the country to another and 181 miles in total. This trip was way more successful so, happy days. Will have to now travel to find more sites where I can hopefully find more.