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I was reading through some posts talking about members' donations of fossils to museums, and was wondering how I would go about this, if/when I believe I have discovered something notable. Are there specific dates where fossils can be brought in to be evaluated, or do I contact the museum or staff by email? The ROM is the closest museum to me, and I would appreciate if I could find out more about their system.

As promised here is another of the specimens that I prepared that will be included in the new "Dawn of Life" gallery at the ROM. Not sure it belongs in the Preparation topic as I only have the single picture. Moderator feel free to move. Those that know me realize that I hate taking pictures. There are occasions when you get to work on a specimen that you absolutely do not want to return at the end of preparation. That was certainly the case with this one. Of all the specimens I have ever prepared for someone else, this plate is probably the one that I most wanted to keep for my own collection. This is natures art at its finest. This is in my opinion a stunning associated pair of trilobites a large Gabriceraurus hirsuitus (synomynous with G. dentatus) associated with a much smaller Ceraurus globulobatus. Hopefully a long awaited paper will be coming clarifying the naming of all these cheirids. This specimen is the plesiotype for the species and is catalogued as ROM specimen 46105. This specimen was selected to be featured in the new permanent "Dawn of Life" gallery at The ROM opening late 2021 (Covid permitting). Thank you Dr. JB Caron for permission to share. This specimen was originally described in a paper by William Hessin back in 1988 and was collected Bill at Brechin Quarry in the 1980's Truth in advertising. I was asked to do a repreparation and minor repairs to the specimen prior to public display in the gallery. Some preparation had been performed back in the 80's. I spent approximately 20 hours on this specimen. This work was done probono and was my pleasure and privilege to have been involved. It was done exclusively under an Olympus SZ30 stereo microscope using a COMCO MB1000 air abrasion unit using only sub 40 micron baking soda. All work was performed with .015 and .010 nozzles at under 10 PSI. (Hence why it took 20 hours). A small amount of scribe work was performed using a Pferd MST31 with fine styl;us and a Paleotools microjack-2. Some Minor repairs were completed using Bob Smith Industries Instacure super thin cyanoacrylate and Milliput super fine white 2 part putty. Unfortunately I only took a single picture . So here it is for your viewing pleasure. Definitely one of my favorites. Yes they are different species but as I was prepping this one I kept thinking of it as "Madonna and Child" So here here is what I refer to as "Madonna and Child" Please feel free to ask questions or you can PM me directly

Hello everyone! I wanted to share some good news with you all... On Monday, March 16, 2020, I visited "Formosa Reef" in Ontario (Amherstburg Formation, Lower Devonian) for a little fossil hunt. One of the rocks that I found at the site had a trilobite piece that @piranha identified as the hypostome belonging to the trilobite Acanthopyge contusa. When I asked him if he knew of any museum/researcher who might be interested in my specimen, he suggested that I contact the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), and so I did. First, I emailed David Rudkin, and this is what he said: "Thank you very much for getting in touch and offering to donate your splendid little Acanthopyge hypostome! I've been retired from the ROM for 3 years now and am not permitted to act on behalf of the Invertebrate Palaeontology section, but I am copying these messages to the Curator and Collection Manager with my recommendation to accept your generous offer." "Acanthopyge contusa is indeed a relatively rare component of the Formosa trilobite fauna and the ROM collections do not hold any specimens of the elusive hypostome. Like your contact on The Fossil Forum I've not seen one from Ontario before, so your discovery is quite exciting ... at least for a self-professed trilobite geek such as myself! I'm hoping that my ROM colleagues, Dr Caron and Ms Akrami, will follow my recommendation to accept your offer, but I must leave the final decision in their hands." Just last night, I received two consecutive emails from Maryam Akrami (the current Invertebrate Paleontology Collections Manager at the ROM): "Thank you for sending the images and the information for the trilobite specimen. I am glad to let you know that we will accept your offer of donation. Just want to let you know that the ROM is closed until at least 5th April. If you would like to ship the specimen to us now, I can give you my home address. Once we have the specimen, I will send you a letter acknowledging your generous donation to the ROM." "Following up on my previous email (below), given the current situation and the advise against leaving our homes for non-essential reasons, perhaps it would be a good idea to wait till things return to normal and then ship the specimen to us. I hope that would be ok with yourself." So, once the ROM is up and running again, I'll be handing over my little Acanthopyge contusa hypostome to the ROM! I'll update this thread as soon as the donation has been completed. Here are pictures of the specimen in question: Thanks for reading, everyone! Monica

I’m in Toronto this weekend with my fiancé to have an engagement party with her Canadian side of the family. I’ve been to the ROM once but now that I’m on the forum I figured I would give a 2019 update on what’s here!! I’ll add photos throughout the day. This place is amazing

Zuul crurivastator is a genus of herbivorous ankylosaurine dinosaur from the Campanian, Judith River Formation of Montana that was described earlier this year. The name Zuul was inspired by the monster Zuul in the movie Gostbusters. Some images from the ROM that is ongoing in the preparation of this monster. Took 8 weeks to dig up and will take 4 years to prepare. 3D Skull DL4BnoMW0AEDqLj.mp4

Hello again, Here another fossil that I bought at the same time as the shell in the previous topic. It's an ammonite coming from Rom, near Tours, in France; and the age of it is around 185mya (Pliensbachien stage of the early Jurassic). The seller did noot know what species it was exactly, but he was thinking of possibly Harpoceras sp. If yes, then what species of Harpoceras is it? If no, what is it then? Best regards, Max