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I’ve been trying to ID this huge cephalopod I found from the Glenshaw Formation in Brooke County, West Virginia. So far, I’ve considered the following: Millkoninckioceras Kummel, 1963 Mahoningoceras Murphy, 1974 I was all in on the latter name until I noticed the sutures were fairly straight compared to the deep convex flank sutures. Whitney (1882) called the sutures deeply concave on the holotype of Mahoningoceras (original description in photos below). The umbilicus is open. The specimen appears to be flattened. I believe the ventrolateral shoulder is about the middle of the bottom whorl in the second photo with a scale. The largest coiled nautaloid I've found in this formation could fit within the center whorl of this specimen. It seems that the body chamber would add another 1/4 whorl length. With metric scale: Coated with paraloid:

Hey again everyone! I have a LOT of overdue trip reports, experiences, and finds I’d love to share. Ive been busy traveling around Texas exploring and having the best outdoor fun before I buckle down and start my academic journey. I want to start off saying Happy Holidays and Happy New Years to everyone here! I will never forget anyone who has been kind to helped me, especially this year, and I wish everyone only the best. I literally mean it! Some of you remembered me from years ago and scrambled to help me like a guardian angel- I’ll make you guys proud someday. These adventures are me trying and improving- handling life the BEST I can and spending time outdoors. This year for me has been… insane. Some of you already know this, if not long story short, only months ago I found out I was diagnosed with a serious and legitimate trauma-related amnesia where I lost most of my memory from a set of years which unfortunately included most paleontology related things I knew and did & any trace of my blossoming paleontology career when I was 17/18 years old when I even had a science job. During the pandemic I started remembering random terms & latin names, instinctively and luckily found my way back here but at that time only for collecting. It wasn’t until late summer this year I remembered who I actually was, what I wanted to DO and WHY I moved to Texas. The shock was… very intense. I have made phenomenal progress processing & accepting… having to relearn so much and move forward. The progress I’ve made in only months takes a lot of patients years to reach to my point of mental healing and I’m proud. I really believe if I keep at it I’ll catch up to my peers academically AND become closer to the person I used to be, become who I should have been by now. I’m even ready to relearn how to drive again so I can go on more adventures with other future paleontologists! This post is me trying my hardest and even seeing new things. My roommate is helping me study both for paleo-memory related things & for my placement test. Late in November I decided to join DPS! What better way to re-learn and meet people than to join a club. We went out on a private trip to the OK border and I instantly found a giant Eopachydiscus and a few other ammonites including multiple Mortoniceras & a baby Oxytropidoceras. Im actually working on a personal research paper for the giant ammonite- for FUN! I want to be able to publish this ammonite’s story someday- there appears to possibly be deep predatory teeth marks on one side of the “shell” and I want to know more about my prehistoric friend. That day was extremely important because I met Roger F. for the first time- the gentleman who co-wrote my TX Cretaceous shark book! He’s one of my favorite people now to talk to since we both love prehistoric sharks. I was SO flattered I was mentioned heavily in the December paleo newsletter for my recent finds- it’s reassurance that others see I already made significant progress! MORE PICTURES! In-situ too! Next adventure, I wanted to take a weekend off to explore the Red Beds of northwest Texas in early December! I went to the Seymour Whiteside museum and to try to find my own Permian freshwater shark Orthacanthus teeth! I came out here to also see an artist friend but I also accidentally met one of my female paleontologist heros, legendary Holly Simon, and she presented me with an Otodus meg. shark tooth- wished me luck on my paleontology career. I wasn’t prepared! While Mesozoic marine vertebrates are my career-goal focus I thought it would be fun to get my nails ruined in that red Permian soil and learn about other animals- especially Xenocanthids! The Diplocaulus on display were adorable. Ya’ll should definitely visit the Whiteside Museum of Natural history! MORE PICS Excited to get my own hands dirty and 3 hotel muffins later- we drove waaay out across Archer & Navarro formations to find a good public exposure. Some great nature shots! I found a giant centipede exo which I took home! I found an excellent exposure which we actually used a Permian lithography map of a formations in Utah (same age!) to help locate a layer where the teeth could be! (Successful btw!) I saw what I needed and scooped up some of this gravely stuff the rain washed out in a baggie for later. I surfaced picked a tiny microfossil fish tooth (?) and later when I got home- MY PRIZE! Tiny little Orthacanthus microfossil! When we were actually there we tried looking through the gunk and wet sieving it in the creek with no luck of a larger tooth. We were also very close to Wellington Formation in OK and another day took a trip out there. That drive was wild because we drove through a park for a picnic area that had like 15 wild turkeys appear out of nowhere running around and they were even falling out of the trees over us! It happened so fast… I couldn’t react to take a photo but I have an IG vid of it. We drove around EVERYWHERE in search of a famous pond- now super closed to the public btw. I eventually found out where it was and we got as close as we could in the “creek” off the roadside without actually potentially trespassing. I lucked and found the TINIEST gravely spot in the “creek”of what I was looking for, crossing my fingers, scooped a baggie for home. SUCCEESS AGAIN! Two more teeth and wow different color than my Texas one! I still have most of the bag to sift through! We drove alll that way. For micro freshwater shark teeth. xD MORE PICS TO BE CONTINUED- Reached photo MB limit

Howdy! I've been hunting mostly plant fossils in the Pittsburgh area for about two years. This is a sampling of some of my favorite pieces. I hope you enjoy! All are Glenshaw Formation finds. 1. Neuropteris fimbriata 2. Metacoceras 3. Metacoceras 4. Asterophyllites 5. Lepidodendron obovatum 6. Neuropteris Ovata 7. Crenulopteris acadica 8. Brachiopod, Linoproductus? 9. There are over 50 little fossils on this plate, lots of Cyathocarpus arborea and I think Calamites and Psaronius "bark" 10. Cyathocarpus arborea 11. Crenulopteris acadica and stem and bark? 12. Crenulopteris acadica and Alethopteris 13. Crenulopteris acadica, Altheopteris 14. Calamites 15. Neochonetes 16. Crenulopteris acadica 17. Neuropteroid, Neuropteris Ovata? 18. Crenulopteris acadica 19. Cyathocarpus arborea and Calamites 20. Neuropteris 21. Not sure about the one on top, but the other two look like Crenulopteris acadica 22. Big Calamite 23. Crenulopteris acadica and Calamites 24. Aphlebia/Rhacophyllum? 25. Neuropteris scheuchzeri 26. Neuropteris ovata 27. Asterophyllites 28. Sphenopteroid 29. Neuropteris 30. Alethopteris 31. Asterophyllites 32. Petalodus tooth 33. Brachiopod 34. Neuropteroid frond 35. Aphlebia/Rhacophyllum? 36. Annularia 37. Lots of brachiopods 38. Neuropteris ovata 39. Horn coral, stereostylus 40. Cephalopod, pseudorthoceras

This mazon creek pit 11 concretion opened a couple days ago and looks kind of like a ribbon worm but the preservation is different than examples I've been able to find. Any insight would be appreciated thanks. Also my word suggestion prompted me to say Happy Thanksgiving!

I will be using this thread to post what I have found fossil hunting in the Mazon Creek area, including the ESCONI Braceville pile, Mazonia/Braidwood, and any other sites I get a chance to explore. Although I had been to Mazonia a few times previously with virtually no luck, my first successful trip was with ESCONI last September at the private spoil pile they have access to. These first fossils are all from there. I have tried to give the best IDs I can- please jump in if you think I have anything wrong. I also forgot to put something in for scale on this first batch of photos, my apologies. First are three that I believe to be Essexella asherae, all very different looking though. The first is quite large, 7.5 cm across, and I love the red color. Next are two Achistrum sp., the first is my favorite fossil I have found from Mazon Creek thus far- curled up neatly in the nodule and nearly complete. The second is partially pyritized- I couldn't find any similar examples online, so it seems fairly unusual. Here are a few Mazonomya mazonensis, the top one is adorably petite- the shell is less than 1 cm across. This is small impression fossil of some bark- I'm still learning to ID the Pennsylanian flora, so I'm not sure exactly what this would be called. This appears to be a trace fossil, possibly a tunnel of some sort? I believe this is a coprolite. Finally, a few incomplete worms. The first I have identified at the tail end of Didontogaster, while the second nodule seems to have a few thin worm-like fossils preserved- perhaps Flabelligeridae sp.?

Possible Diplopoda-3.tiffHello all, I’m hoping someone could lend their eyes and give their opinion on something I found. This is from a small rock I found near the Narragansett Basin area of Rhode Island. I recovered it from an undeveloped plot of commercial land that is sometimes used as a construction fill dump, so I don’t know where it originally came from. It appears to have a symmetrical pattern, but I could be seeing what I want to see. Rhode Island fossils are from the Pennsylvanian Period (mostly ferns, horsetails, some trilobites and occasional insects). If anyone could shed some light on this I’d be very appreciative!

This one was sold to me as the acorn worm Mazoglossus ramsdelli... it seems to match photos I see, but I'd like a second opinion, please: This one was sold to me as Archisymplectes rhothon ('ribbon worm') but I'm less confident about this one, so, same question as above. If it's not that, what is it?

Would somebody please help me make sense out of some of the things I’ve found? The stuff looks like fossilized organic material to me, but I really don’t know what I’m looking at. These are embedded in Pennsylvanian period shale found in the Narragansett Bay Area of Rhode Island. Some were found in woods near the Blackstone river, others were found in an undeveloped plot of commercial use land that’s been used as a dump for all sorts of rocks used in construction, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hello all! I just recently purchased this specimen which was indicated to be from the Carboniferous, Bashkirian-Westphalian B, beds of Poland, dated to be Pennsylvanian at 314 mya. It was sold to me as a Trigonotarbid abdomen. The white square is 1 x 1 cm for scale. While I am no expert on arachnid orders, it appears to be lacking the segmented plates that surround the perimeter of the inner abdomen. Could this be part of some other segmented terrestrial arthropod, or could this feature be covered up by surrounded rock or have been damaged? I will be posting pictures of the specimen below, please let me know if you have any questions or need further information to support a conclusive ID. Excited to hear y'alls input!