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Hello. I found this scleractinian coral fossil in the Hanifa Formation in Saudi Arabia which dates back to the Oxfordian, Jurassic. It doesn’t seem to be mentioned in scientific papers and I think it could be a new species. If so, what family and genus is it. Thank you!!

Hi everyone! Last week we went on a weekend trip with our fossil club the BVP to go on a fossil hunt to the jurassic clay cliffs "Falaises de Vaches Noires" between Houlgate & Villers-Sur-Mer in Normandy, France. https://www.paleontica.org/locations/fossil/68 The famous cliffs of Vaches Noires date back to the Jurassic period, and span both the Callovian & Oxfordian stages (166 - 157 mya) and the Cretaceous period spanning the Cenomanian (100 - 94 mya). Back in the jurassic this area was a rich marine environment and fossils that can be found here are many species of bivalves (like Gryphaea, Lopha & Myophorella), ammonites, gastropods, belemnites, brachiopods, crinoïds, sponges and other invertebrates. The cliffs are also known for marine reptile material and even dinosaur material, though these finds are rather rare but you'll see some nice pieces in the museum pics later. We arrived Thursday afternoon (november 3th) and stayed to Sunday (november 6th). We were very happy to join this trip organized by our club since it is probably the last year that fossil searching is allowed in this amazing location. We were with around 27 people I believe and met each morning at the entrance of the beach at Houlgate. We searched the cliffs for 2 days and went to the local museum "paleospace" on sunday. The weather was amazing for the 2 days of searching, it was even sunny the first day! The first few hours we mainly searched among the rocks on the beach which were littered with large Gryphaea fossils and other bivalves like Lopha gregarea. After our lunch break we moved on to search more near the clay to find smaller fossils. On our second day we again searched the clay, went through some interesting places in the sand which were littered with oysters, gastropods and had some ammonite and crinoïd fossils and we ended the day at the cenomanian rocks in search for some fossil urchins. The Cenomanian rocks on the beach A piece a chalcedony A partial ammonite Me very happy with my first complete ammonite, which I found next to me while having lunch One of the mystery fossils which nobody could really determine (we brought it home along another we found) The tubes seem to be pyritised. I believe it to be some kind of Echinoderm and someone suggested it might be a Crinoïd with a parasite on it. But eventually our top finding (and the best of the entire trip) was spotted by my girlfriend Elise and is this gorgeous fish (probably Lepidotes sp.)

Hi everybody, i need help to identify that Oxfordian Perisphinctidae i found yesterday in a quarry of Charente, South-West of France. I think it could be a Zigzagceratinae indosphinctes, but that's only a supposition. I also thought it could be a choffatia, but i don't know if they can be that big (an important part of it is lacking) as you can see on the second pic with my friend's hand as scale. The scale on the first pic is in inches. Thank you for your help.

Hello everyone. I offer interesting gastropods with calcite crystals - perhaps someone will be interested I have a lot of them. Pseudomorphoses of calcite after gastropod shells of the genus Nerinea from Upper Jurassic limestones of the Oxfordian stage (Izyum Formation J2-3iz); 163,5 mln years. Ukraine, Donetsk region. I'm interested in everything - I invite you to private messages Have a nice day VID_20220122_135535.mp4 VID_20220122_135732.mp4

Hi all! This is a small trip report from a quarry by the town of Mikhaylov, Ryzan Oblast, situated in 200 km from Moscow. The place is very well known among the public interested in fossils, especially ammonite collectors. There are 4 quarries in a tight group, operated by different companies. Mikhaylov quarry is the most famous of them. The experience is very similar to that of other Callovian - Oxfordian quarries (in my previous reports), but ammonites suddenly take the place of gastropods! Pretty exciting, isn't it? Unfortunately there are not many spoil piles as Jurassic overburden is also used in production and taken to the plant. Another difference is that the site is overwhelmingly Callovian with little Oxfordian part. The ammonites are pyritized. What we see is usually the center of big specimens and small ones, large complete ammonites are preserved as imprints. We had prominent paleontologists in our group and the permission to visit most of the quarry. This trip took place in summer.

Last sunday October 24th I decided to visit the old Andil clay quarry at Liesberg in Switzerland, just over two hours driving from where I live, to see what fossils I might find there. Now a nature reserve where collecting is tolerated as long as the natural parts are not disturbed, the deposits at this quarry, mined for cement production between 1934 and 1980, date to the Upper Callovian and Lower to Middle Oxfordian (source). It is thus stratigraphically - though not petrologically - comparable to the geology of Vaches Noires in Normandy, with which I'm much more familiar, albeit with the interesting variation that the bedding planes at this site have been uplifted and verticalised. The latter makes for an unusual experience working the mudstone layers in the middle of the quarry, and means that the oldest layers are to be found along the quarry's south wall (to the left if facing the quarry's back wall), whereas the youngest layers - most notably the Liesberg-layer, which geological limestone composition and embedded fauna of shells, sea urchins and crinoids is strikingly comparable to the Middle Oxfordian Coral Raq at Vaches Noires - are to be found on the north wall (to your right). A situational satellite map from Google Maps A commercial example of a beautiful Kosmoceras annulatum ammonite found in the quarry's Callovian layers Seen from the parking spot at the quarry entrance near the top of the mountain The buildings of the old quarry when you walk down from the parking spot to the quarry along a road with restricted access Entrance to the quarry with an informational sign explaining the geological significance of the locality, as well as tells you not to get your hopes up, as most fossils you're likely to find will be steinkern-fossils Spill heaps along the north wall, with the back wall in the distance, and a sign explaining the importance of the locality as a nature reserve The path to the back wall of the quarry can be extremely muddy, and searching for fossils along the quarry's steep slopes is an activity undertaken at your own risk Due to circumstances I arrived quite late in the day and only had a number of hours to search. However, I quickly concluded that the south wall (Callovian layers) and even the mudstone in the middle of the quarry (Lower Oxfordian) were not particularly fossiliferous, with a couple of hours of work only resulting in a corroded pyritised ammonite and a tiny fossil that may either be a crustacean or part of a sea urchin spine (if you know, please let me know). I did not find any fossils on the south wall, although the information sign at the entrance to the quarry had already forewarned that most of the fossils encountered would be steinkern fossils. I later picked up from a discussion between a solitary fossil hunter and another group of collectors, however, that this solitary hunter had found an ammonite towards the top of the Callovian slope two weeks earlier and had returned to collect it, only to find it gone. He hadn't found any new specimens, however. Interestingly, while the quarry was quite calm with only one or two other collectors for most of my time there, by the time I got ready to leave (around 17:30), the place all of a sudden became abuzz with groups of other fossil hunters. Vertical bedding planes at the quarry and the two finds I made in the Renggeri clays: a heavily corroded pyritised ammonite and an unidentified fossil that may be either a bit of crinoid, or may be crustacean? Following my lack of results (did I give up too early?) in the older layers of the quarry, one of my fellow fossil hunters suggested I check the quarry's northern slopes/spoil heaps, as there were plenty of smaller fossils to be found there. And, indeed, as soon as I stepped on these slopes I was able to pick up spine after sea urchin spine, stems and branches or crinoids, serpulids and even the occasional shell. The slopes were steep and it was hard to find a foothold, but at least I didn't have to return home empty handed. Looking back through the quarry from the spill heaps along the north wall Can you spot the fossils amongst the limestone blocks from (presumably) the Liesberg-layer? Looking at the south wall from the spill heaps Beautiful lighting when returning back to the car towards the end of the day Here are some of my finds of that day. Paracidaris florigemma echinoid/sea urchin spines; much more common and of better quality than I've found at Vaches Noires Millecrinus horridus crinoid/sea lily stem (left) and arm (right) segments Millecrinus horridus holdfast/root system (a special find for me) that I entered into Find of the Month contest Serpulid worm tubes (left) and evidence for parasitism on crinoids (right) Echinoids/sea urchins: a partial in matrix on the left and crushed and silicified specimens on the right Shells, from left to right: fragment of trigoniidae indet. (?Myophorella sp.), Galliennithyris galliennei brachiopod and a piece of an unidentified clam Section of horn coral