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Found this on s stream bed near CapRock Canyon TX. My first thought was a trilobite casting but to be honest it could just be a neat geological form.

Hi all, I’m about to purchase this nice set of Dimetrodon vertebrae from the Texas Red Beds. Just wondering if they are in fact Dimetrodon verts? Thank you! Jojo

Hi All, This marks the final chapter of this years exploration of the Permian Fort Apache Limestone micro fauna found east of Payson, Arizona. This entailed sorting throgh thousands and thousands of tiny gastropods under the microscope, and catagorizing them into 22 types. We then set out to identify as many as possible. Here is a part of the photo tour, the rest can be found on our website! Gastropods / Monoplacophorans from the Permian Fort Apache Limestone East of Payson By far, the largest project in the Fort Apache Limestone series! We found more tiny gastropods than any other type of fossils in the acid fines. Literally thousands and thousands of pinhead sized gastropods and monoplacophorans were found, and after months of picking through the residues, we had several teaspoons of the microscopic fossils. The sorting process took weeks and we decided to sort them according to morphological type. This yielded 22 different varieties, some of which may have been duplicates that were preserved different or incompletely. Fortunately for us, Winters in his huge GSA 89 monograph identified scores of gastropods making many of the identifications possible for us. We also found several types which he did not show or mention. The conclusions that can be drawn from our gastropods is still clear - a very muddy bottom which preserved huge numbers of juveniles either because of inclement conditions for their survival or a high mortality rate. The preservation ranges from very poor to superb. Many of the smallest fossils show amazing details in their outer shells and large numbers of ornamented types were uncovered. The most common type was the small squat cones, ten times more common than any other type. They were also the very smallest to be found as well. Bellerophon sp. - Monoplacophoran There is considerable controversy as to where Bellerophon resides in the mollusk group. Latest papers seem to indicate that it is about half way from the limpet shaped basal primitive monoplacophorans and the accepted standard gastropod. No one has ever found fossils of their soft anatomy, and until this occurs, they will remain an enigma. Ribbed Cones (Paleostylus giganticus) Honey Buns (Apachella prodontia) 10x view of a nice collection of bun shaped gastropods with a unique proto conch region. Ornamented Rimmed Buns (Worthenia arizonensis) Fantastic ornamentation on these! Ribbed Bellerophon shaped Gastropods (Knighties modestus) These look very much like a Bellerophon but they do not have the same fine features defining that group. They are much smaller too, pin head sized. than Many Many more can be seen on our web site, Thanks for looking! our web site page: http://www.schursastrophotography.com/paleo/Fortapache-15.html

Here is a Melanerpeton humbergense. I acquired this lower Permian branchiosaurid recently from a well-known dealer in the Netherlands. I had been eyeing this specimen for some time and decided now would be a good time as ever to pull the trigger on it. Even with some bone missing it was a nice price for a nice creature that probably would have been about 12 centimeters long in life or close to it. Much of the fun of fossils for me is to find and read as much material on them as I can. The most prominent recent paper on Melanerpeton is TIMELESS DESIGN: COLORED PATTERN OF SKIN IN EARLY PERMIAN BRANCHIOSAURIDS (TEMNOSPONDYLI: DISSOROPHOIDEA) (Werneburg 2009) regarding a 19 cm long specimen of Melanerpton tenerum found at Börtewitz in Saxony. This paper describes a "spotted pattern of skin color" which feature patterned spots (gaps in the pigmentation?) of about 2 to 5 millimeters in width. The fossil I own has been identified by the seller as Melanerpeton humbergense and is from a completely different location, Odernheim in Pfalz. I am somewhat confident in those IDs of location and species. The stone closely resembles other branchiosaur specimens from Pfalz I have seen internet photos of. I can find no contra-indicatory features in my fossil to the rather detailed description of M. humbergense in THE INTRARELATIONSHIPS AND EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF THE TEMNOSPONDYL FAMILY BRANCHIOSAURIDAE (Schoch, Milner 2008). M. humbergense is a different species from a different location of a slightly different stratigraphy than M. tenerum. Still, there is color on the stone of my fossil that may suggest a possible pattern of open circles. I present this fossil to the forum for open consideration of this feature. I seek to avoid a confirmation bias and hope to get an understanding of what is there, whether that understanding is positive or negative. Hopefully there are some European collectors here who have seen many of these before in hand, and collectors familiar with the preparatory methods used. Per the seller, there has been no restoration. The fossil seems to show none of the protective surface coating often applied to branchiosaur specimens from other sellers. Factors that may be negative to a confirmation of patterned pigmentation to this specimen: M. tenerum and M. humbergense are different species from different locations from a different stratigraphic period. None of the possible 'patterned circles' seem to be evident on my fossil's tail, only a portion of the thorax, There is no counterpart impression to examine. Per Werneburg "Hundreds of branchiosaurid specimens are known from the vertebrate Lagerstaette Börtewitz, but only one is preserved with colored skin pattern. " This would suggest that finding a branchiosaurid with colored skin pattern would be very improbable. More photos will be posted after this initial photo. Thank you for looking, and I hope you enjoy this little bit of mystery as much as I do.

Hi All, This is one of a kind - we found only ONE of these in 250 pounds of Permian limestone that we reduced in the acid bath over the past few months. Its a lovely thing, I think its a stellate miniature ins branching sponge, but Id like your opinion. Its hollow inside the main tube, and no pits or chambers like a bryozoan. Anyone seen a tiny sponge like this? Here is top and bottom shots: (20 layer stacks!) Your opinion is appreciated!

Hi all, We are on the last two major topics in this formation before we finish off the entire Fort Apache Limestone Project. This week, we examine the enigmatic two species of Straparollus gastropods in detail, from pin head sized juviniles through teenagers starting to get thier whorl ornaments to 6 inch monsters. The shape of this flat planispiral mollusk is unmistakeable, and to actually be able to see an entire growth series in our fossils was highly enlightening! So without delay, here is a synopsis of our latest photo pictorial on Straparollus. (Full write up with many more images can be found on our palo web site: http://www.schursastrophotography.com/paleo/Fortapache-14.html) Straparollus (Euomphalus) Gastropods from the Permian Fort Apache Limestone East of Payson. This is the only planispiral gastropod to be had in any quantity in the Fort Apache Limestone. The size range of specimens is huge, ranging from pinhead size microscopic juveniles up to six inch monsters found impressed in the limestones. And to add as a bonus - two species are found here in this formation - Straparollus sp. and Straparollus kaibabensis. Straparollus gastropods are unusual in that they have a nearly square cross section of their tubes, and are quite flat on the sides as well. While most Straparollus are rimmed with a linear continuous rib on the outer coils, Straparollus Kaibabensis is nearly unique in that it has nodes or tubercles along its coils instead. This makes it appear at first glance to be a nautiloid, however without any septa or the pear shape opening cephalopods have, they are simply huge gastropods. Winters found both types as well in his GSA Memoir 89 from outcrops all on the Fort Apache Indian reservation. Our finds include many silicified specimens, most partials, and several limestone impressions as molds. Also, they can be very small indeed, the smallest members are best seen in the microscope at 30x magnification. This contrasts with the monstrous specimen we found back in 2006 that was over six inches in diameter! Straparollus (Euomphalus) Kaibabensis - Quick Cam shots The outer 2 or 3 whorls is where the nodes develop in mature specimens. This partial outer arc shows them very well. The entire outside rim of the shell is wider as a result of these ornaments. (Straparollus kaibabensis) Dorsal view of the same conch, which you can see the swelling of the width for every node present. This also gives it a very nautiloid like appearance. (Straparollus kaibabensis) Inside view shows the double wall that is characteristic of Straparollus. This is another feature that differentiates it from nautiloids in the field. (Straparollus kaibabensis) Straparollus (Euomphalus) Kaibabensis - Digicam Shots This big fella was found back in 2006 on an expedition with some museum members on an exploratory hike. I hauled this one back in my back pack over 2 miles to the truck. Its preservation is poor, but you can easily see the nodes. Straparollus (Euomphalus) sp. - Microscope shots A gorgeous miniature Straparollus! You can see the coils have gaps between them here as well. The ridges and nodes have not developed yet. This juvenile is starting to show the beginnings of the linear ribbing. It will grow very fast. While a bit distorted from compression of overlying sediments, this complete specimen shows the linear ridges well and detail all the way into the protoconch. I left it in the limestone along with some beautiful cone shaped gastropods for a composite view of the sea bottom. It almost looks as if its sitting in the bottom muds. Well thats it for this week. This was a really rewarding study of this amazing mollusk. Next week is the really big project - all the rest of the thousands of small gastropods. I promise not to show you ALL of them!

Antarctica's 260-Million-Year Old Permian Epoch Forests Uncovered (VIDEO), The Daily Galaxy, November 09, 2017 http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2017/11/antarcticas-260-million-year-old-permian-epoch-forests-uncovered.html Geologists uncover Antarctica's fossil forests November 9, 2017 by Matthew Wamser https://phys.org/news/2017-11-geologists-uncover-antarctica-fossil-forests.html http://uwm.edu/news/uwm-geologists-uncover-antarcticas-fossil-forests/ Other papers about other Permian Forests Luthardt, L. and Rößler, R., 2017. Fossil forest reveals sunspot activity in the early Permian. Geology, 45(3), pp.279-282. https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geology/article-lookup/45/3/279 Luthardt, L., Rößler, R. and Schneider, J.W., 2017. Tree- ring analysis elucidating palaeo-environmental effects captured in an in situ fossil forest–The last 80 years within an early Permian ecosystem. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 487, pp.278-295. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018217300974 Yours, Paul H.

My beautiful wife scheduled a three night stay at a cabin in a Thousand Trails campground near Lake Texoma. We were to arrive on Sunday and check out on Wednesday. So, I figured that, since I hadn't been fossil hunting in months, I would schedule a trip to central Texas to follow the Texoma trip. I set up a rendezvous point in Fairfield, Texas to meet my dad on that Wednesday, and head off toward Brownwood and Cisco, Texas. I figured that the fossil hunt would begin then. But that's not quite how things played out... My two oldest daughters and I met my wife and youngest daughter in Salado, Texas on Saturday, October 14th. They had left the previous morning to spend a day with my mother-in-law in Waco and Salado. We spent Saturday night in Salado and then parted ways with my mother-in-law on Sunday morning and headed toward Lake Texoma. As we drove through Waco, my wife asked if we wanted to take a detour. She had never been to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas, and she thought the girls would enjoy seeing the dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy River. I got really excited. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and at that time, the river was high and the tracks were not visible. So we adjusted our GPS to take us to Glen Rose. We pulled in and stopped off to get a map of the park. We then drove straight to the spot where Roland T. Bird made his first discovery. It was amazing. The water was low and gave us a clear view of the trackways in the river. Above you can see both the sauropod and theropod tracks, They are a little obscured by mud, but they are still very visible. We left the R.T. Bird site and went to another place called the Ballroom Track Site, where so many tracks go in so many directions, it was like the theropods were dancing. It was in slightly deeper water, but it was still beautiful! The rippling water was crystal clear and the girls couldn't help but get into the water, even as a cool front brought chilly winds down the river valley. My wife loved it. She told me that Dinosaur Valley State Park was our next camping destination. Before we left, we stopped off by the iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex and Apatosaurus models built for the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York. They were permanently installed at Dinosaur Valley in 1970 at the park's dedication. We left Dinosaur Valley and drove the rest of the way to our cabin at Lake Texoma, arriving just after dark. We settled in and tried to decide what we wanted to do the next day. It was Monday, and we figured there had to be something for the girls to do nearby. We quickly discovered that our options were limited. It had turned too cold for the pool at the campgrounds. The putt-putt at the campground was okay, but the girls quickly tired of it. And most of the other recreational equipment was not well kept, or available. So, we decided to leave the campground to find something for the girls to do. I had mentioned that I would like to check out the Permian site at Waurika, Oklahoma. It was only two hours away, and this was the closest I had ever been to the site. My wife was a bit miffed by the lack of things for the girls to do, so she said "Let's go." I jumped at the chance. I had done no research on the site, other than what I had read about it on TFF. I wish I had consulted the TFF experts before we left, because I had no idea of the best places to look. We focused mainly on the sandy floor and reddish rocks, and found nothing. When we returned to the cabin, I asked where we should have looked. Jesuslover340 informed me that the gray colored exposures were the places to find the best material. So, we came away empty handed, with only one major discovery. My wife wouldn't let me take it home, though... Continued in next post...

HI all, A new Sunday upload for you, we just finished our evaluation on two more types of fossils we have found hidden in the limestones of the Fort Apache formation. Now crinoid material and corals are very rare in this deposit - the blowing sands and silt from the nearby Schnebly Hill formation sand dune complex made life nearly impossible for any filter feeding organisms, and the constant rain of mud from above would clog their filter feeding apparatus. So its not surprising that crinoids and corals are almost never found in the acid fines we obtained from just over 240 pounds in limestones. In fact, only a few dozen echinoderm ossicles from a variety of unknown types which might include crinoids, cystoids or blastoids were found at all. No calyx or plates were found. As far as corals, ONE rugose coral was found, and its a tiny one at that! That at least was identifiable from Winters Memoir 89 as it was the same coral. So lets start with the crinoid stem pictorial: Sections of stems from stalked echinoderms are rare in the Fort Apache Limestone at all three of our sites east of Payson. This could include Crinoids, blastoids, and cystoids. There is really no way to identify the exact genus and species from scattered stem ossicles, so here I present to you anything that even remotely resembles a stem piece. The most common shapes are the small ovals with a round central axial hole, followed by more conventional round crinoid stem ossicles which are the larger sizes here. The extreme mud present on the bottom and raining down on the benthic community most likely prevented a large population of filter feeding crinoids from taking hold in this formation. This represents a low power view of nearly every recognizable stem fragment we ever found in over 200 pounds of limestone. Some are round, some are star shaped. Many are ovals. A few ring shaped pieces are questionably stems, however they are included here for completeness. 7x A three stack of crinoid ossicles, we can almost can call this one a stem! Very strange piece, a crinoid stem ossicle covered with an encrusting bryozoan. Few hard grounds existed in the Fort Apache, and we find quite a few shells, urchin parts and gastropods covered with such an encrustation. Next we show off our rarest fossil found in the entire formation, the rugose coral. Ten times rarer than trilobites, rugose corals are a very small part of the Fort Apache Sea benthic community. We only found one specimen in over 230 pounds of limestones that went into the acid bath. And its a small one - not even 1 centimeter in length. But its cnidarian features are unmistakable. Winters in his monumental monograph on the Fort Apache Fossils (GSA Memoir 89) found a very similar coral, in fact it appears to be identical to his photos - Lophamplexus sp. In addition to this rare coral find, just inside the calice was a coiled microconchid tube, which cemented itself to the coral after it had expired and was an empty husk lying on the sea bottom. Why corals are so rare goes along with the missing crinoids, blastoids, sponges and brachs. The bottom of the Fort Apache Sea was filled with gooey muck from settled silt and sand from the nearby Schnebly Aeolian dune field. With a constant rain of such fine material, the filter feeding mechanisms of such animals would not function properly and get clogged. So only silt tolerant organisms are found here. All images with an AmScope Trinocular microscope, 10mp camera and stacked with focus stacking software - Picolay. (free!) Lophamplexus sp. - 7x. Side view showing detail in the crenelations and bands on the exterior. Lophamplexus sp. with the microconchid tube on the left edge inside. 7x. You can see the septa defining the corals calice as ridges on the inside wall. Lophamplexus sp. This Close up at 20x shows the interior is filled with essentially sand that has been cemented together along with the coiled microconchid with its open tube on the lower left inside. The tube worm lived by cementing itself to a flat hard surface for an anchor. We have found plenty of them attached to urchin spines, shells and bryozoans. (Think similar to modern feather duster marine worms). Well thats it this week, hope you enjoyed my presentation as much as we did writing it.

Think this is a tooth fragment. Found in the Rico Formation near Potash, UT which is just outside of Moab, UT. 1 1/4" x 1/2".

Hello Forum, Hopefully one of you is able and willing to help me with the identification of the leaf in the photograph below. It is approximately 1.5 cm long and was found in the lower Permian (Autunian) of Lodève, Languedoc, France. Any feedback is much appreciated! Tim

Heres a really wonderfully scary maxilla from a Dimetrodon grandis from a few days ago. Maxillary fang is killer... This one is nicknamed Annie. She's an isolated specimen. This is one maxillae of 6 were working on, the rest in the field currently.

Found this on our bluff, part of Niagara Escarpment, tip of Door County, Wisconsin. Would love any more detail.

Well, here is the latest microfossil work on the acid residues of about 35 pounds in limestone collected a few weeks ago at our new Highline trail locality east of Payson. In all, we found perhaps a score of these fossils, mixed in with hordes of gastropods. They are pretty tiny, and definitely classify as microfossils. Every shot here is a stack of at least 5 frames of varying focus, the one killer serpulid tube at 45x is a stack of a dozen images. The background is a nice blue paint sample chip from Home Depot. They have all colors and they are free! Serpulids worm tubes from the Permian Fort Apache Limestone East of Payson - Serpula Spirorbis sp. Live serpulid from Canada: Over two dozen serpulid tubes have been found so far in the acid fines from the second site we have found in the Fort Apache Limestone. Serpulids have been around since the Ordovician and are indeed a very ancient lineage. These worms build small coiled tubes attached to either hard surfaces such as shells or other small invertebrate hard parts, or on the leaves of sea weeds. We have found both types in this formation. They are small, barely visible to the naked eye, yet their coiled tubes are very diagnostic when sorting the silicified remains under magnification. Here are a few of the better preserved specimens found from about 35 pounds of rock from the latest locality east of Payson. Note: captions are below images. Section of spiny Urchin spine, with three serpulids attached permanently. This view shows the coiled tube on the lower left corner. 10x view. Side view of flattened spine, showing two more. Flattening occurs when the sediment containing the fossils are compacted before lithification. A collection of loose Spirorbis serpulids. They would have lived on the bottom of the leaves of sea weeds and when the weed died, the serpulid tubes fall to the bottom to be fossilized. Seen here at 7x magnification. The head of a straight pin is just below. Close up at 45x of the tube spiral that is at the bottom of the above image. You can clearly see the opening coiling over the top of the earlier tube dwelling. It is preserved in nearly pure silica. Bottom side of same specimen, 45x. Note how it is flat - this is the side that attached to the sea weed and grew against it. The serpulid essentially glued itself on to the leaf, forming a flat on the weed side.

Greetings all, We finally finished our microscopic sorting from last weekends fossil adventure on the Highline Trail in the Permian Fort Apache Limestone. The last batch from the acid pans had nearly no microfossils, but many well preserved larger "Macro-Micro" fossils. Two new pygidiums preserved in silica were found, and something very new, we found FIVE free cheeks complete with eye cutouts and genial spines also preserved in silica! These fossils are beautiful shiny and translucent examples of a complete replacement of the trilobites molts in silica which is brown to caramel colored. You might say its a pseudomorph of "silica after trilobite". Im also getting a bit more experienced with the new microscope and stacking software. I found as I suspected, you NEVER want to leave in the .5x reducer lens in front of the two objectives when doing imaging. The addition of that lens causes noticeable astigmatism and chromatic aberration because it is by design ( and all stereo microscopes are made this way that use these auxiliary lenses) tilted at around 15 degrees with respect to the optical path. A doubler lens would do the same thing. These therefore are direct shots with no extra lenses at about 10x and are considerably sharper than previous attempts. First lets start with the new pygidium, a nice 4mm wide specimen attached to the back of a mollusk of Anisopyge: (thats a toothpick holding up one side to make it level) I got the focus stack to work great here - 11 parts using Picolay. The depth of this one was so extreme, only a tiny area was in focus on one shot. A straight pin is on the lower right for scale. Three sets of left side free cheeks: Two right side free cheeks. Well thats todays post, Im continuing to refine my technique on the trinocular microscope images, and hope to share more of my experiences with all of you soon! How do they look to you?

Hey guys, I'm kinda new in fossil hunting, but even from my limited experience I like it a lot. Does any one know of any spots in NE Kansas that are worth visiting? I'll probably visit a couple road cut outs and some spots near Tuttle Creek this weekend and post my findings, if anyone would be interested.

Hi all, Last weekend, me and paleo Wife found another fossiliferous outcrop in the Permian Fort Apache Limestone east of Payson, about a mile further down the Highway 260 trail. The past few days, we have been soaking the 35 pounds in limestone in 10% Muriatic, and have found more treasures in this localities rock than any other! In addition to the tiny microfossils I have been sharing with you from this area such as ostracods and tiny mollusks, we on occasion will find fragmentary bits of a trilobite called Anisopyge inornata. They preserve for some peculiar reason as yellow caramel colored translucent silica, and can be spotted easily in the sorting trays because of this. Tuesday night, a new batch came out of the pans from the coarse sieves, and we started going through it. I almost fainted when I found something we had never seen before in the sorting tray - We finally found the "Holy Grail" so to speak of the Fort Apache Limestone, a complete pygidium preserved in carmel colored silica! This "glass" trilobite is not a mold of the exterior or inside but a complete replacement of the original scleroprotein with silica, similar to how the trees in the petrified forest were preserved. Here are a few shots to share with you now, taken tonight of both the top and bottom sides. That huge 16 gauge nail in the photo - is actually a straight pin. The pygidium is about 3mm wide. So much more to come out of this amazing new site, I will share it with you as time permits! Top view at 10x Bottom View of the inside of the pygidium Me at the site last weekend Paleo Wife Unit searches for fossiliferous rocks... Well, thanks for looking, I hope you enjoyed this report! PS - Im still figuring out the focus stacking software, bear with me!

Hi everyone- quick post of a massive Dimetrodon post canine. The root is attached which is really nice. Have a large ddon skull nearby with an empty socket that this may go to. size is 3 inches. Still have a little bit of matrix to remove.

Hey everyone, here is a really gorgeous axis vertebra from a Dimetrodon. The ultra wide neural spine holds incredible neck muscles.

Hey gang heres another beautiful specimen from this week- wonderful sub adult ddon humerus. Really great bone to show the incredible musculature these guys had on their limbs. very strong animals. Planning on attempting to finish up plastering a block tomorro that contains 3 ddon maxillae and 2 lower jaws, all of which appear to be separate individuals of varied age. cheers chris. and JP i promise not to bleed on any bones tomorro.

Greetings all, I thought Id put together a write up on some of our most recent experiences in the Permian exposures around northern Arizona where we live. This is turning into a great project, we are learning more about permian fossils than ever before and have found quite a few new surprises as well. Here is what I have so far: Arizona has a rich sedimentary rock record both in the northern part of the State and south of Tucson. Trilobites, which are only found in Paleozoic aged strata can be found in many of them, although they are rare except in Cambrian rocks. The rarest and hardest to find trilobites are in Permian aged rock. This includes in northern Arizona the Kaibab and the Fort Apache Limestones. But the Fort Apache is a very thin bed in the Supai formation - only tens of feet thick west of Payson, and at a maximum of 100 feet thick in the inaccessible areas on the Fort Apache Indian reservation which is the easternmost exposure. East of Payson, the limestone contains virtually NO fossils. This starts to change around Strawberry north of Payson where very rare gastropods can be found. Finally, the easternmost exposures on Highway 260 just before you top the Mogollon Rim (southern edge of the Colorado Plateau) are the last you will find until a hundred miles to the east on the reservation. Fortunately, there are areas along the High line trail that cut right into the scree slopes of the Fort Apache Limestone outcrops. Here, for the very first time we can find fossiliferous limestones with silicified invertebrates which can be released by treatment in muriatic acid. (about 10% dilution) Very little has been published on the Fort Apache Limestone recently. Up until recently, the best I had was the 1964 paper "Stratigraphy of the Fort Apache Member Supai Formation (Permian) East-Central Arizona" by Thomas Gerrard of the University of Arizona. Although he discusses the stratigraphy and geology at length, very little information on the enclosed fossils is to be had. Fortunately, I was able to get through a very kind fossil forum member a copy of Winters epochical paper from the GSA Memoir 89 - "Supai Formation Permian of Eastern Arizona" written in 1963. (Nothing significant has been written since.) This outstanding 99 page memoir covers not only what is now called the Schnebly Hill formation which is a Sahara type dune complex that brackets the limestone above and below, but a superb treatment of the rare fossils which they found in the Fort Apache Limestone - From the richest 6 areas directly on the Indian reservation. What Winters did was truly inspiring as far as collection and field work. They spent 1947 collecting one ton of limestone from the best localities, and then trucked this huge crate of rock back to the Smithsonian where they spent years acid reducing the rock down to its insoluables! And it took them over a decade to write the Memoir in 1963 on the geology and paleontology of the formations. From that one ton of rock, they obtained a few fragmentary trilobite fossils and many other more common types such as mollusks. And this leads me up to the present. We have brought back so far over a hundred pounds in promising rock in our backpacks, and spent many hours dissolving it in the masonry muriatic to free the specimens. Then three sizes of sieves were used to sort them according to size. Amongst the countless tiny gastropods which dominate the fauna present, two or three trilobite pygidia and many fragments were found in the acid fines. The preservation is key - unlike all the other fossils present which are preserved in a white silica that is fairly opaque, the trilobites are always preserved as casts of a yellow translucent opal like silica, making pieces easier to spot in the sorting trays under the stereo microscopes. You can see this unusual caramel colored preservation here in this set of images from the first 120 pounds of rock we have processed. Winters partial specimens allowed him to get a good approximation of the genus and possibly the species. Below is what a complete pygidium of Anisopyge sp. looks like from the Treatise volume O. So rare are Permian trilobites, only a page is devoted to all of them! 10x microscope shot (field about the size of a dime) of many of the common trilobite fragments found. Winters identifies this trilobite as Anisopyge cf. A. inornata. (cf. is a Latin abbreviation meaning "compares to") In the most recent trip with 60 pounds of rock, this all we got - a few pieces of the outer rim of the pygidium. Most complete specimen so far a nice pygidium with the ribs visible. it is roughly 1 cm tall. The trilobite would have been less than an inch in size. Oblique view same specimen. Another pygidium (tail) still attached to some matrix. The specimens are so delicate, I am afraid to even try to pick them up with tweezers, as they will fall apart. To move them I use a wet toothpick and stick them to the fossils. A glabella (nose) both front lip and top part which fell apart. Here I am at the locality this morning (Sept. 1) looking for promising limestones. Usually, the ones with the most urchin spines on the surface seem to have the best fossils inside! Thanks for looking. Ill be posting a more compete version of this on our paleo web site. The exploration of the Fort Apache LImestones continues!

Hi everyone, got out this afternoon to work the site and found a beautiful large Dimetrodon maxillary fang, shed. Wonderful preservation. This would have come from a hefty size ddon.