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Sunday the 26th I took part in a DPS field trip to a plant site in Oklahoma. The locality is in the Savanna Shale which is Pennsylvanian Period, Desmonian (Desmoinesian) stage, 306-308 mya.

I found this dark blue coating on very dark red sandstone. Is this hematite? This was found in either the Thrifty-Graham or maybe even the Markley Formation in Jack County, Texas.

crane Hill, AL -Carboniferous Wondering if any of these could be fossils such as bivalves or brachiopods or if they are limonite concretions? Y the one below looks a bit like a lingua in person, but hard to see in the pic Would it be beneficial to try to dissect the one below? Also wondering if the area of interest below could be better exposed? Thoughts if fossil vs concretion? Thanks for looking!

I’ve been hanging around this forum for a while, and now that I’ve officially joined, I’m gonna start by going through my years’ fossil accumulations, particularly the ones that came from my backyard creek (The Portal) and see if I can’t get them them all correctly IDed. Maybe I’ll call it the Backyard Project, if anyone wants to follow along. So here’s the first item: I hope the picture quality is decent enough. It is about three cm long and one cm wide. I’m very sure it is a bone, and given the long thin shape of it I can only think rib. After a bit of searching the only close match I could find was that of a small mammal. The only thing is that that would seem like a very odd find for where we are, east Hickman, Tennessee, the edge of the Central Basin, which is almost exclusively early Paleozoic (in my fossil experience, specifically Ordovician period). A fish rib sounds more likely for our area, but I just haven’t seen any decent fish ribs yet to compare. Either way, this would be so far the only sign of a vertebrate I have ever seen in our area. According to our geological maps, the nearby waterways might bring in some Mesozoic and Cenozoic from westwards, which could make the chances of a vertebrate it a little more likely. Any information on identification and/or how to identify would be greatly appreciated, and if it is indeed a rib, mammal or fish, is it a lucky find? And how specifically can we classify it with what little we have?

Found these weird spirals in this chunk of agatized rock. Devonian from Bradford beach in Milwaukee. Thanks!

The preservation isn’t the best. Broke open a big piece of dolomite with a nice brachiopod. Found that I had shattered whatever this is and exposed some nice silicified chain coral. It’s sorta a hemisphere with internal structures. My best guess would be some sort of echinoid. Silurian Wisconsin, Hartung quarry

Found in the side of a building in Wisconsin, Cambrian-Devonian rocks here. Any ideas? Thinking bivalves or a bivalved arthropod. Sorry for the lack of scale! Each one is about the size of an apple seed

Sorry for lack of scale! Cambrian-Devonian rocks here. Found in the side of a building.

Found in Paleozoic gravel alongside crinoids, corals, and gastropods. Sorry if this is just wishful thinking! Thanks. The rock is about an inch tall

I'm working with Dr David Campbell on possible fossils found associated with the Murphy Marble Fm in Western North Carolina. In 1973. Don Hathaway was logging cores at the Nantahala Limestone Quarry when he found what looked to be organic remains in a couple of cores cut into the Murphy Marble Fm. The age of the Murphy Marble is enigmatic, because of the lack of fossils in it, and it doesn't have the minerals that could be used to determine radiometric ages. The metamorphic grade of the marble and associated formations are garnet to staurolite grade. It's believed that these units were metamorposed during the middle or late Paleozoic. Unfortunately we couldn't handle the cores, and we were only allowed to photograph them. Since neither of us hasn't done research on brachipods before we are looking for opinions on the of these apparent organic remains. I almost forgot to mention that these fossils were apparently in an unit above the Murphy Marble Fm in the base of the overlying Mineral Bluff Group. I didn't take the photos so I don't have a scale for them. I finally did dig up a old picture from a talk given back in 2019 at a NCFC meeting in Raleigh and got a screenshot of part of the article to give you an idea of the scale on these pics.

I find lots of these external moulds/trace fossils at the Milwaukee formation I hunt at. Any ideas? I’m stumped. Devonian terrestrial and marine deposit

There are few reasons why I would ever wake up at 5 am and begin a two and a half hour drive out to the middle of nowhere. When I saw that the PSoA was heading out to the Brownwood area, I knew it was an opportunity too good to pass up. Everything I had hunted prior might as well have been buried yesterday when compared to the mind-blowing ages of Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks. It's still crazy to think that those formations were roughly three times the age of the oldest stuff I'd seen before. When I peeled out of the parking garage to begin my drive under the stars, I didn't feel an ounce of fatigue. Instead, every part of me was overflowing with a general eagerness to explore a fantastic new chapter in the story of life on Earth. Not so long after the sun had risen, I finally spotted a glint of morning light reflecting off the end of a caravan of parked cars along the roadside. I abruptly shook off the daydreams of petalodus teeth and crinoid crowns as I got myself parked and arranged my tools. Melvin, the trip organizer, was quick to introduce himself and gave a run down of the day's itinerary along with what we were looking for. I must admit I was a little disappointed when he told me that petalodus, or any sharks for that matter, were not really known from either of our destinations. Nevertheless, there was still some pretty amazing things to find and he was adamant that the excursion would be an enjoyable experience for everyone. The first stop was in the Adams Branch Limestone of the Canyon Group, along a crumbly, slanted roadcut. No matter where I looked, the ground was buried in crinoid stems, bryozoans, and various shell bits. Carefully maneuvering my way around the cactuses, I poked and pried through the rubble at an area Melvin said was productive for smaller specimens. Faintly, I could hear the conversations up the road being carried by the wind. Some of the other folks in the party were repeat customers of the site and were on the search for trace fossils of starfish coming from an elusive layer. My involuntary eavesdropping came back to bite me when I found a strange little fossil that looked just like a leg of a starfish. When I proudly presented it to Melvin and the folks searching for traces, they kindly informed me that it was a piece of crinoid arm . Hash plates from the Pennsylvanian site. The one on the bottom is my favorite. Once I got back to my spot, I decided it was probably best to save show and tell for after I had some time to cool down and really think about my what I picked up. Luckily, the next few finds were pretty easy to identify simply off of my prior research (sporadic googling). First, I found some really pretty hash plates. Each one is like a slice of Paleozoic sea floor with so much detail it's impossible to not lose your train of thought when staring into them. Next, I snagged a handful crinoid plates and spines. When I reached down for what I thought was another plate, I stopped dead in my tracks. Laying before me was a beautiful crinoid crown. Ethelocrinus magister crown. The day continued on with neat little brachiopods, straight-shelled nautiloids, and the usual suspects. We had probably been there for a couple of hours when we got the heads up that we would soon be moving to our next location. There was definitely a little added sense of urgency to my movements from then, but I still made sure to thoroughly inspect every nook and cranny. As my eyes frantically shifted across the ground, I briefly spotted a small object of interest before losing it. With time running out, I tried to retrace where I had looked and thankfully I was met with a familiar image. When I picked up the tiny, black geometric stone, I noticed white pitting all over one of its side. If I hadn't seen something similar online before, I may have tossed it. At the time, I couldn't remember the name, but I had a gut feeling this could very well be the crusher shark/chimera, deltodus. I got to talk with Melvin one last time before we left the area. I was already pretty happy with the crinoid crown, but Melvin's excitement was contagious and made me feel even better. I took the opportunity to also show him the possible shark tooth. He seemed intrigued, but we couldn't come up with an ID for it at the time. Deltodus ~ After a quick break, we conga lined our way 45 minutes north to our next site. A short hike with lakeside scenery later, we arrived to an outcrop of Permian limestone on a private ranch. Melvin explained that this site was known to produce trilobites, unlike our first stop. At that moment, I set myself on finding at least one so I could cross that major trilo milestone in every fossil hunter's career. Permian outcrop From afar, the ground looked pretty similar to before. Upon closer inspection, however, I noticed a wide variety of brachiopod species I helped myself to. A lot of people were discussing the brachiopod, Wellerella which is known for its zig-zagged appearance. One person brought along his golf ball-sized specimen. In the field, the biggest I could find was the size of a pea . Thankfully, the lack of luck with brachiopods was paid back in full when I found my first trilobite!.. and another... and another! The two best pygidium trilos. The left one was curled in and flattened, so it appears to have some of the head still attached. I have no idea on any possible species, so I welcome any input from our resident trilo experts. The sun was reaching its apex and the temperatures rose accordingly. Lots of people called it there and the majority decided to head home after a long day of hunting. I and another family chose to stick it out just for a little longer; we drove all this way after all. Me and Brian, the father of the family, had a nice talk about our lives and the hobby (with our heads locked on the ground of course). I don't know many fossil enthusiasts in my personal life, so it was refreshing to be able to speak face to face with someone who had similar interests. Hopefully, we'll see each other again on the November trip to Brownwood. Here are some pictures of the finds: Pennsylvanian crinoid bits and bobs. The centerpiece is my "starfish arm" . Pennsylvanian Orthoceras?, Deltodus, various bivalves, and Euphemites? gastropod Pennsylvanian Lophophyllidium horn corals, various corals?, various brachiopods. The bigger one (Neospirifer?) I might get cleaned by someone else. It's complete and I don't want to mess it up. Far right Derbyia? Delocrinus inflexus? and Ethelocrinus magister Permian Neochonetes Permian brachiopods. Top right Juresania?, bottom right Wellerella, middle top Composita. Permian crinoid bits and bobs. One of the spines is regenerating. Permian horn corals, and Archeocidaris plates and spines. I like the spiky spines. And lastly an enigmatic Permian find. Some kind of weird brachiopod? Could be weird cephalopod maybe. Has symmetry. Outside looks "woody". Thanks for reading!

Here's a tooth I bought with several other specimens from the same locality (Upper Burlington Limestone, Biggsville, Henderson County, Illinois) back in the 90's. It has smooth enamel and is 1 1/2 inches (37mm) along its longest dimension. I have another tooth much like it but it is much smaller and I've seen other teeth like it but this one is the largest I've seen. Years ago, one collector thought it could be Chomatodus but that doesn't match what I see elsewhere. I think it is a tooth form that has been tentatively identified as Orodus or a relative in the past but I don't know Carboniferous teeth like I know Cretaceous-Cenozoic teeth. This may be a lateral tooth of a taxon with different anterior teeth.

I am new to this group and would appreciate any help provided in identifying this fossil. All I know is that it is a coral; I found it in the Wainfleet, ON area decades ago.

Paleozoic rock. I found this looking back through some scrap rocks. I think this is a stone I found some crinoids, brachiopods, horn corals, and a trilobite in before. .75 inches long (sorry for not including a scale in the picture) thanks!

Hi All, I have a bunch of brachiopods that got separated from their data and was hoping someone here might be able to restore some of it. They are apparently Paleozoic and likely from the US midwest. I see probable productids and maybe rhynconellids in there, but my knowledge of brachiopods is pretty limited. I strongly suspect they are all from one locality. Any help with locality, age, or taxa would be greatly appreciated! Best, Carl

I drive 8 hours with a friend to a location he remembers from his childhood as yielding a lot. Oh boy it did. 100% worth the drive. Lake Huron, among the agates, pyrite, yooperlite, has some extraordinary Devonian fossils. All fossils were collected from the beach of his family’s property except for the fenestelid bryozoan, which was found at a gas station on the way there. please enjoy this collection of gastropods, petoskey stones, various tabulate corals, crinoids, stromatoporoids, bivalves, Brachiopods, tenteculites, horn corals, an unidentified agatized fossil in jasper matrix, and a pudding stone I felt like showing off too. Thanks! I highly recommend the area.

Hello all. I am posting a link to a calendar I created for 2023. It showcases twelve different late Paleozoic gastropods I have recovered over the past three years in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. Eleven of them are from the Pine Creek limestone, and one other comes from the Brush Creek limestone. Each month features a different gastropod, photographed after coating it using ammonium chloride vapor, using an iPhone to capture photos through a microscope lens. The cover photo showcases all twelve, and the images for each month typically showcase an additional view at a much larger size. While this is a color print calendar, all the content throughout is black & white. If you enjoy natural color photos of fossils, you might skip this. I am selling this calendar without profit to me. I am still waiting to receive my copy, and I can follow up on print quality when I get mine. Lulu says this is 100 lb paper, but I'm still determining what to expect. Please PM me for purchase information.

Found in the side of a building and in the surrounding landscaping. From the Cambrian seashore sandstone of Blackberry Hill Wisconsin. The place is known for its fossils of mass jellyfish strandings and its trace fossils of some of the first arthropods, mollusks, and other animals on land. What are these? Thanks!