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Found in an Emsian marine formation in northwestern Maine. This nodule, or concretion, is considerably darker than most found nearby. It was also in a layer with an accumulation of shells, where as many of the fossils are horn corals dispersed more randomly in what I think is muddy sandstone. Would this be a phosphate nodule that preserved a Lingulid ?

I found someone selling a few Bolivian trilobites in ironstone nodules and I really like this one (above). Most of the others have an oxide coating (example below) and this one does look very slightly yellowish. Will it (or other fossils in ironstone like those from Mazon Creek) be stable long term? I don't really want to buy it if it will just rust away.

I have these two Mazon Creek pieces out of a big group that I picked up, and I am a little at a loss to figure out what they are. The others I was able to figure out generally, even if not a specific species, but not sure on these. Any help would be great!

I would love to have a go at prepping some nodules, because the hammer and chisel is pretty brutal. What would i need to set up an airpen? and would it work on Yorkshire fossils? If you have any recommendations for a beginner set i'd love to hear your ideas. Thanks

Found at Brownies Beach, on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Never seen anything like this. What is it?! The 30+ nodules are very hard material like enamel, and the base is bone material. Can someone please help identify this fossil?

I bought a bunch of nodules to practice with my hammer and chisel. This one seems to have two different ammonites in it, or is it just one fat one?

Just thought some people might be interested in a quick look at this. My wife found it lying on the beach at Charmouth several years ago, after a bunch of experienced collectors ahead of us had the misfortune to walk right over it. It's just come back from being prepped by the excellent Craig Chivers. Here it was after I'd attempted my own prep on it, and rapidly gave up. The nodule was heavily pyritic, the ammonite had delicate spines, and I felt that it was beyond my level of expertise. Here it is today, back from being prepared properly. It's a battered old ammonite, with a crushed body chamber and a centre that was badly beset with pyrite, but I do love ammonites that have character. I haven't been to Charmouth for years, much to my regret, but this is definitely our best ammonite from that location. No idea what this weird impression is. It looks a bit too rounded to be fracturing from the body chamber being compressed, but any thoughts welcome.

A nice old gentleman gave me a bag of fossils he gathered at Mazon Creek many moons ago. Unfortunately he didn’t bother identifying most of them or even double checking that the rocks actually contained fossils at all. So I’m left to sift through them and figure all that out. Here’s one I’m having trouble with: Now, don’t any of you be getting my hopes up by saying that it’s part of a tully monster, lol.

I was told this fish nodule came from the Anti-Atlas region of Morocco, and is supposedly Cretaceous in age. Can anyone ID it?

I found this nodule last summer and opened it about a month ago. Could it be a worm? I didn't know if the two adjoining dots on the left were jaws.

I went exploring today. I hit 3 places. The 1st two were the Ozan in Rowlett. The first 2 were a busts, but the 3rd was in the Eagle Ford in Dallas and it was a very interesting place. I can’t say that I found specific fossils per se, but I did find the product/remains of prehistoric animals. I was ecstatic with my finds. Septarian nodules have been on my bucket list of things to find. I found a hill full of them!!! I got there less than an hour before sundown and was thrilled with what I found. This one is very cool, but I’m not sure what the original creature actually was. The only thing I can think of is that it was an ammonite and maybe the septa became crystal filled, but that is a total guess. The curves on the edge and sides don’t look right, but I’m not sure exactly how these formed in the particular area. It honestly looked like the badlands or something desolate with nothing growing there and was a very fine soft gray shale. I found a lot of what I think are aragonite crystals at the site as well as some other beautiful crystals. I have never found any crystals in this form before. So I’m thrilled and hope to go back tomorrow if I don’t get paged into work tonight. This is the one I’m very curious about. Maybe some of you may have seen something like this before, but I have not. I think it is super cool though. I’m pretty sure it was once a critter of some sort. I believe it is a septarian nodule, but there are no septarian marks externally like you usually see. When I was washing off other nodules I found, as I was washing, the exterior began to slough off and the septarian lines became visible. There are basically 7 bundles of crystals across this thing. Some are kind of merged. #1 This one has me most curious of all. #2 other edge. Right edge is encrusted with what I guess could be considered pyrite disease, rusty material mixed with crystals encrusting it. I have found an ammonite before that was rusty with crystals like this. #3 Close up of the encrustation with small crystals jutting out. They’re hard to see. #4 one side. The other side is less descript. The curve on this doesn’t look ammonite to me. I found some pieces that looked almost turtle like, but I don’t know turtle stuff when I see it. I will say the rock material is soft and is a fine shale like texture and material so when wet it becomes slick almost like soap, but no bubbles. This is a 2nd find in the same area. In the center below the crystal on top is a sea shell. Wish I knew what kind, but not much is exposed. All you can see is the mother of pearl inside the shell. #5 note crystal branching in 3 directions below shell, there is also a beautifully formed crystal on top that is pristine and wafer thin that was part of the septarian, but the non-crystalline material has eroded away leaving the flower petal like crystal. #6 This is it from another side. You can see more of the septarian sections. If anyone knows the critter this arose from or the crystal type I’d like to know it. Calcite and gypsum are most common here. There is brown too. I also found stone with green crystals. This is a 3rd find in the same area. #7 I found these bars just laying on the ground like this. They looked so peculiar. I couldn’t figure out what they were. I thought they looked a little like columnar basalt, but knew that wasn’t it. There was a small nodule in the ground less than a foot away that was cracked all over and filled with crystal. I wanted to dig it out. In the process of digging it out I found another hard object just under where these were. I thought it was a solid rock, but when I started to move it the rock came apart in these shapes. #7 cleaned up a little at home. #8 one up close. I believe they are all covered in aragonite or brown crystals. I’ve been told that when an ammonite is encased in a nodule and then the mineralization process takes place that often aragonite crystals form as a result from the nacre in the ammonite shell. I have not found the source of that claim though. Can anyone tell me how these formed and what the crystal is? Is it aragonite? How would I know? I can provide higher resolution pics upon request. I had to make these low res to get all of them in here. @Uncle Siphuncle, @Fruitbat and @BobWill you 3 have hunted the Dallas and North Texas area for many years. I assume you’ve seen these sorts of things and may have insight you can share.

Alright everyone I'm pretty excited about this one. It's about an inch long and 1 1/2 inches wide.

This one has the black coloring of some of my plant fossils but the shape suggests an insect to me. Could just be my imagination. Any suggestions?

I found one half of a worn open nodule with asterisk-like grooves crossing the surface. This is a cleaned up version. Is it a fossil or just strange weathering?

Hi all, I recently worked up the nerve to hit mazon again. I have some suspicions on what a couple of these might be but was wondering what other people thought. 1 2 3 4

Hey folks! Just cracked open a nodule from Mazon River, Grundy County and wondering if its a fossil or just geologic? I can't see any detail to determine that its a fossil. It looks like could be a seed cone or coprolite but just guesses? Any thoughts? I found a lot of plant material there. Thanks

Hey Gang, So need your opinions on this one...We find alot of nodules down here and this one has a particularly well digested lumpy look to it, more so than most. Any chance you think this might actually be a coprolite? It does have a few clam borings and along the top wrinkle you can see some irregular parallel tubes that make me wonder. All thoughts are welcome. Thanks! Regards, Chris

Hi, This fish is Laure's one, Greg's wife (see in my signature). She received it without any information. At first she thought of a fish of Brazil, Santana Formation, Araripe : Rhacolepis buccalis, but the fins arrangement seems not to be good and the jaw either. The real color is ochre and not grey. Is someone able to help us ? Thanks to you ! Coco

As I was collecting at Arkona in the Widder Fm yesterday, my eye was drawn to this piece. It had a lot going for it - apparent texture, concentric ribbing, suggestive shape. Not knowing for sure at that moment, and not wanting to spend valuable collecting time deliberating on it when I had a lot of shale to move, I simply put it in the bucket so that I could take a closer look when I got home. My question for those who know more about taphonomy and such would be this: can anyone tell me a bit more on the processes that produce this kind of nodular form? The concentric patterns are kind of throwing me, almost as though there was some reworking due to tidal turbulence, like mixing dough in a bowl. I'd certainly appreciate learning a bit more about this phenomenon, as it provides me a bit more by way of clues as I move from layer to layer.

Hi this was found in lyme Regis near the ammonite pavement to the west of the cob. Any I'd help greatly appreciated.

I have about a dozen nodules in a tray in my backyard. There, they have resided for several years of benign neglect. They are pieces that refused to open after repeated cycles of freeze/thaw. I have long since forgotten what area of Mazon Creek these hale from. In an idle moment yesterday I took a rock hammer to 3 or 4 of the recalcitrant stones. One did open and provided the pictured mystery item. The smaller shard displays a decidedly convex interior object. The larger counterpart is, of course, distinctly concave. Sorry, the photos are the best images available due to the extremely shallow depth of field inherent in close-up photography. If anyone has a clue, please ID.

1 2 3

Now I know these are something 1 2 2

I have just spent the last 30 mins chipping away at this nodule. I wasn't actually sure if there was something inside, so the first sign of it was very exciting. When i finally split the rock in half it was very satisfying.