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67640205814__B8655CED-CBC8-47FB-9571-C65CD2C8730B.MOV I 67640205814__B8655CED-CBC8-47FB-9571-C65CD2C8730B.MOV I found this in my creek that also feeds into the Buffalo River. I’m located in NW AR., which is part of the Blue Ridge Mountain terrain.

Hi Everyone: My wife and I hike frequently in NW Arkansas and SW Missouri Ozark Plateau. We found this fossil recently. We are new to this hobby and would appreciate anyone's input on what this is. Thank you. Susan & Kei

Well, I found my very first trilobite!!! I just had to share my excitement with people who can appreciate hunting for something elusive and then finally finding it. With the family I get a polite “Oh, that’s nice.” I can actually tell it’s a trilobite. I’m pretty sure I’ve found pieces of others in the past, but they were so mangled it’s hard for me to be certain what I have. Anyway, I’m not sure if it is whole or not. I am still cleaning it up. Funny thing is I found it in my own home town of Siloam Springs, Arkansas of all places where I lived while in high school. My family still lives there. It was only about 1/2 mile from my parent’s house. Crazy. I found it on a micro hash plate of sorts next to Bryozoa that I had picked up from a new home construction site. I don’t know about anyone else, but hunting in the middle of a nice quiet little neighborhood feels a bit like dumpster diving. People watch and give you odd looks. I was looking at the Bryozoa with 10x magnification when I found the little trilobite. I absolutely was not expecting that. It’s so tiny I can barely see it with the 10x. LOL But hey a first trilobite is a first trilobite even if I can’t take pics of it and show it to anyone. It seems like the counter equivalent of a tall fish tale only it’s a microscopic trilobite tale. “It was this big/tiny . . .” I think there may be 2 others on the plate as well, but not quite as small. Not that you can see it, but it is a little white speck inside the red circle below. The Bryozoa thing is maybe 1.25 inches long and 7 mm wide. The little trilobite isn’t even 1 mm long. All I can see is the tale end. There are crinoid segments all over this piece too that are also microscopic. Some less than 1 mm. I found it in NW Arkansas in the Pitkin Limestone, St. Joe member possibly, which is Mississippian. The Bryozoan piece is actually much prettier than the pics portrays it to be. It’s all sparkly. It’s crystalized.

I had posted this piece in General Fossil Discussion area since it had my first trilobite on it. Someone message me saying that they thought it may be an echinoderm. The person said “that looks like an echinoderm ("calcichordate")fragment. Possibly the M1-M4 of a stylophoran(marginale elements)” I thought it was a form of bryozoan. However, I do not know the Mississippian or any Carboniferous fossils very well. So I’m willing to admit complete ignorance. Can anyone ID it and educate me as what it is? I found it in Siloam Springs, Arkansas in an area which Mancos identified as the Pitkin Limestone, which is Mississippian. ROCKD ID’d the area as St. Joe’s limestone. This is the item in question. I can’t say that I have seen segmented Bryozoa. The segments aren’t uniform in size. Although, I’m not sure if the segments are endemic or an artifact of being broken. I believe they are breaks. It is about 1.25 inches long and 7 mm wide. Just a slightly zoomed in pic of the same thing. A pic of the end. This is is a pic of the back side of the other side of the plate and other end of it, where there is a cross section honeycomb looking view. Your thoughts and comments would would be greatly appreciated. Kim

I did a long weekend of fossil hunting in Oklahoma and NW Arkansas. All of the formations, fossils and areas were completely new to me. I will have to post a trip report in the next few days. I found this specimen yesterday in a creek in NW Arkansas in the St. Joe Limestone Member of the Boone Formation, which is Carboniferous, Mississippian. I am totally new to the Mississippian. It was all marine stuff. I’d like to ID it before I start removing more matrix so I know what it looks like and don’t accidentally take off something I shouldn’t. I saw lots of brachiopods, but none came even close to the size of this one or was of this species. Most were under 1 inch. This is what it looked like when it was found. I think it is a steinkern. I just thought it was a maybe an inch wide or so from what I could see. It was in a fairly large rock conglomerate. So I attempted to split the rock so the thing could be popped out. Turns out it is 10 x 5 cm or 4 x 2 inches. It is still in the matrix after the first split. This is the negative (cavity) of where it split out of. As you can see part of it remained on the other half. It looks like there may be a little crinoid pice on it too. These are other shots of it. You can see the end where it broke off. I’m curious about the hinge part and what it is supposed to look like. Close up of the hinge parts. The one end appears to be fused with the matrix. The other end looks like it is basically free. Any help on the ID would be greatly appreciated. I wonder if @Ludwigia, @Herb or @fifbrindacier or anyone else might be able to help with the ID.