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First Post! I looked up online where I could possibly find fossils in Rhode Island, and I think I found one of the more popular sites. Unfortunately I visited the site during high tide, but I was able to discover a fossil fern. I ended up leaving the fossil at the site since I don't think I could have kept it. Attached below is an image of the fossil fern I discovered. From my experience at this location, you do not need tools to break apart the shale because the shale at this locality is extremely fragile. A small hammer and chisel could be handy to pry apart more stubborn rocks.

I’m an intern in the history collections department of a museum and the soon-to-be ex-husband of a geologist just donated six boxes of fossils, rocks, and minerals to us. Unfortunately I am the only person working in collections, and I really specialize in history. I don’t have any fossil knowledge at all, aside from the research I’ve done the past few days, and we don’t have a lot of information about the specimens donated. All we know is that some came from Germany and some came from various US states (but we don’t know which ones) and I believe many of them were found in the 80s based on the newspaper they were wrapped in. These pieces have been particularly frustrating because I can’t find anything on this forum or elsewhere that looks similar. I believe these were found in Gerolstein, Germany because the rock is the same as the trilobite and plant fossils we also received that we know are from there (I think shale? Again my knowledge is very limited). There also seems to be obsidian or some other shiny mineral included. All this to say, I’m sorry I don’t have more information, but I hope someone will know what this is/what caused it! I apologize for the lighting - our lights are dim to protect the artifacts so I did the best I could with a lamp.

After finding my pyritized ichthyosaur vertebra in the Grayson Formation last Friday, I decided that it was time to revisit previous exposures I had first discovered three years ago with a fresh set of eyes. I made a trip to several of those spots the following Saturday and one of the fossils I found is another vertebra. I initially wrote it off as a fish vertebra because it was so thick, then decided it wasn't flaky enough to be fish and the two holes on one side meant it must be a shark centrum, then thought maybe it could be an ichthyosaur caudal, and as of now I think it might be a plesiosaur caudal. As you can probably tell, I can be pretty indecisive! I also promise that the grooves on the face of the vertebra going towards the center weren't slips with the dental pick I was using; they were already there. It's about half an inch in diameter and a quarter of an inch thick. Let me know what you all think. This thing has me stumped!

Went fossil hunting in the cumnock formation of North Carolina and as I was rinsing some of my dirty fossils one of them caught my eye. The curved shape is what threw me off and reminded me of a tooth. I double checked on here and saw another person that had something that looked similar to this and was a tooth. But just be sure, wanted to see what you guys think. Your input is appreciated! (Bottom picture is the confirmed Phytosaur tooth)

Hi everyone, I'm a first time fossil hunter and I went up to Turimetta head north of Sydney with a friend to try our luck. We found a few things splitting shale, and I was wondering what exactly they were - I understand that they're all probably plant material, if they are fossils, but wasn't sure exactly what type of plant they were from. Hopefully someone can help. Thank you in advance!

Hello, NW Indiana here. They were doing some digging and in the sandy glacial deposit ish layers, I was finding some heavier sandstone conglomerates with Devonian era fossils(crinoids, shells etc) , and I also found some shales, they appear to be newer but I’m not 100% sure. Most are pretty flakey, haven’t found anything fossil wise inside (that could indicate a time frame better) but one of them did have a strange triangular shape inside. My question is, is it possible for other rocks to be in this type of shale? And that is just potentially what it is? Is it potentially something else? I broke it in half, (by hand, easily lol) and it’s a pretty well defined almost triangle. Not sure if it’s just a simple rock, or potential for fossil or artifact. Thanks! Jessica TLDR- can you find weathered triangular rocks with in shale, or maybe it is just shale forming around itself? Could it possibly be an artifact, fossil? Suggestions and comments are welcome. I’m not having much luck finding a lot about shale when looking online. Thanks! :) Ps-I should also mention, this was part of a larger, more jagged piece of shale, and I had broke some pieces off around the outside, pretty cleanly, to get this triangle to come out… I’ll put a picture of that in the comments.

Over the last 10 days I have made three trips to an outcrop in NY that exposes some Silurian material. After doing some research on the stratigraphic beds that occur in this unit I decided to head out and give it a shot. As soon as I showed up on the first day I found a negative of a complete Dalmanites sp. trilobite on a large boulder that someone decided to leave behind. I did not see any more than partials and brachiopods for the rest of the first day. I had much more success on the second and third day. Plenty more not pictured such as corals, brachiopods, and trilobite partials. Spent some long hours excavating this outcrop, will probably close the book on this one for the season. Pictures below. Complete Dalmanities sp. that I split open today. A Trimerus sp. trilobite that was broken apart when excavated. The rock that the cephalon is attached to was found adjacent to the body. The unit is very fossil barren so estimate the head comes from this body. Not entirely sure what this is, found by a friend. This straight line is also an unknown An interesting cephalon, not sure about this one either Graptolite fossil Eye of Dalmanities sp. trilobite. Did not encounter any other eyes while splitting shale.

So my friend found this in some shale in an area with a bunch of shale/slate so much detail so cool! Lol

I am back with another one I cant quite work out! Being quite amateur I am still learning, so apologies if I'm mistaken on rock type etc. This was found on the jurassic coast of the UK, on the beach near Charmouth and is in shale/mudstone so already trying to break apart as you can see. I've been wondering if it's a sponge or root of some kind, or just mineral like pyrite as it has a goldy metallic sheen in some light, although it seems too brittle for that and has got what looks like more calci(?) layers when I look at the ends. Any help from all of you lovely lot would be greatly appreciated! Side note: if it is a fossil is there a good way to preserve these delicate shale ones to avoid the crumbling? I've been looking at the guides but there is so much information I might be tying myself in knots a little

Last week took me back to my home state of Ohio in order to attend a conference. On the way home, I stopped at the Paulding Fossil Gardens to play in the Silica Shale for awhile before returning to the white landscape of Minnesota. There are a few unknowns that I ran across and am hoping for a little help! @Peat Burns These tiny squiggles are on top of a bryozoan covered brachiopod. The pores of the bryozoan can be seen. IDed as Microconchids. I thought this was a bryozoan until I looked at the enlarged picture. Now I feel it is crinoidal, but what? I have searched high and low for a bivalve in the Silica Shale that matches this. These tiny brachiopods remind me of an atrypa but are very small and fairly smooth. IDed as Athyris sp. Bryozoans are so common at Paulding and I assumed this was a brachiopod covered with one. But looking at the exposed edge, I do not see any evidence of a shell. So does the silica shale have anything that mimics Prasapora of the Ordovician? IDed as Fistuliporoid bryozoan. N Finally, no guess on this one! Well maybe a trilobite roller but that is a long shot!! IDed as Rugosa Coral.

I found some pyritized plants a few days ago and noticed that one looks like a stem with seed pods. The fossil measures 2 cm and is from the Glenshaw Formation of Beaver County Pennsylvania. I'm nearly certain that what looks like a stem is a stem, but what are the three round things seemingly attached? Help is appreciated, thanks.

Hey new member, Found this fossil at work. It is in shale rock and there is what appears to be ferns through the layers. There have been a fair few big and small. Found in Queensland Australia

I collected a number of these as a kid some 50 years ago. Only one is like this. I just thought I should try and identify it. I had always assumed it was a small tree trunk. Seems to match pictures of a calamite trunks (a new thing to me) with the distinctive ties at regular intervals. It comes from the old mining town of Brownhills UK. Coal, sand and clay were mined there. This came from the edges of an open pit clay mine. I went back to the site a few years ago but it's reclaimed now. You could still dig small holes and find fragments. So my kids found some. You just needed a bucket of water to wash the rocks off to see if they had anything because of the clay. This piece has a diameter of 4".

From the Mahantango Formation of Pennsylvania. Unsure which way to lean

Few weeks ago started breaking open some pieces of shale. I've found lots of trilobite fragments that I'll post later, but what's intriguing me is these small bits of things that I find quite a lot. I can't find anything on what they might be and my closest guess is perhaps some bits of crinoids? Does anyone have more experience than me with such things?

Hi I came across this while hunting for trilobites at a commercial Cambrian shale quarry in Utah near Delta and was wondering if it was a monoplacophoran or something else or just an odd rock formation. The shape is concave and about 2 inches in diameter. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Unfortunately I don’t have any provenance for this rock. I bought it years ago screwed to a piece of driftwood for my fish tank. When the driftwood had withered away to a twig, I was throwing it away, but noticed the fossil traces on the rock and kept it. Came across it a few weeks ago, and started messing with it. The fish store was local, and I would assume that this was created by a somewhat local person (in east TN), but I don’t know. The top of the “calyx” is translucent from the underside. Not the softest limestone I’ve found…I can see signs of bryozoans and brachiopods, but it’s hard to expose them.

Can anyone I'd this fossil. I found it in the west Humber River Toronto near Islington.

Hello My first post, Nice to meet you all, in advance. I am an amateur geology enthusiast/fossil hunter. Purely as a hobby and for my personal enjoyment. I found this stone in a very unusual place, stuck in the tire of a piece of construction equipment in The Netherlands close to Rotterdam. Pure random chance. Not where I would normally hunt. Unfortunately, this piece of mobile equipement could be used all over the country so it is impossible to say exactly what its origins are. It looks to me, to be a piece of shale or oil shale that has spent a considerable amount of time in the sea, as it is smooth and well rounded. I noticed the shell cast right away, but after I got it home, cleaned it up and examined it under light and magnification, I noticed something very curious. What looks to be some sort of fossilized/crystallized (?) insectoid. In the photos, you will see what looks to be some sort of insect abdomen, larva or pupa (plant seed?) along with some other interesting things I noticed that I thought might help with identification. Please see the photos. I have added notes to them. It is approximately 2.5 mm long. Under direct light and magnification it appears to have a green hue and translucence. Next to the "insectoid-looking-thingy" is a curious round cast (?) form. Crinoid, perhaps? It is approximately 3 mm below (downhill) from the insectoid-looking-thingy. The stone is black with, what I believe to be, quartz inclusions and possibly (always a tough call) extremely small bits of fossil material. Thanks in advance for your input. Looking forward to future collaborations and shares. Have a nice day

I live in southern Ontario County, New York State. I found this in my woods and am wondering if it could be a sea grass trace fossil.

Being a Colorado native, I have taken multiple trips to the public-access Florissant Fossil Quarry located near Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Florissant, Teller County, Colorado. This quarry provides fossil collectors fantastic access to the shale layers of the Florissant Formation, a late Eocene (Priabonian, ~34 million years old give or take) lagerstatte known for its diverse fauna of fossil insects, in addition to plants, gastropods, and very rarely vertebrates. Most fossils occur in very thinly laminated ashy grey shales. Other lithologies present include well-sorted tan course sandstones and well-sorted grey claystones. A lacustrine depositional environment is apparent, and though the Florissant Formation has previously been interpreted as the remains of a single large lake (the retroactively named Lake Florissant), it is now generally thought that deposition occurred across several smaller lakes, which of course shifted in their exact location throughout the period of deposition. This thread is for me to share some of my better quality (or more interesting) fossil insect finds from the Florissant Fossil Quarry, and to allow other people to share their Florissant insects. I intend on updating this thread as I make more collecting trips. Most insect fossils found at Florissant are of poor quality, however exceptionally beautiful specimens do crop up quite frequently. Regardless, identification even down to family level is usually very difficult, and some specimens I even have difficulty assigning to an order. Additional reading: https://bioone.org/journals/palaios/volume-27/issue-7/palo.2011.p11-084r/DEPOSITIONAL-SETTING-AND-FOSSIL-INSECT-PRESERVATION--A-STUDY-OF/10.2110/palo.2011.p11-084r.short Please note that at least for now picture quality is not ideal. I do not have the capacity to take good quality macro photographs, but I am doing the best that I can. The scale of the ruler is millimeters, magnification (when applicable) is noted. Order Diptera (True flies): Probably my best-preserved Florissant insect (and one of the first ones I ever found). Another fly. I'd like to be able to identify this one to family (and it almost certainly is identifiable to family) but I haven't been able to place it. This is a gorgeous fossil! Magnified 20X under a stereo microscope. Another gorgeous fossil fly. Possibly a gnat (suborder Nematocera), but I'm not 100% on this identification. Partial fly of indeterminate family, most of the abdomen is apparently missing. Both wings are preserved, the thorax and head are also nicely detailed. This is an example of a march fly (Family Bibionidae), probably the most common insect at Florissant. Many specimens (such as this one) are preserved without their wings. The head and mouthparts are very nicely preserved here, I feel shameful that I could not manage a better photograph. Crane fly, (Family Tipulidae). The preservation quality is not fantastic, but the gross anatomy can be easily made out (both wings, the abdomen, thorax, head, eyes, and even the halteres and some of the legs are present). Order Hymenoptera (Bees, ants, wasps, and relatives): A nice solitary bee (clade Anthophila). The details are not as high-fidelty as some other Florissant insects, but a nice complete specimen. Order Hemiptera (True bugs): Magnified 20X under a stereo microscope. A shield bug (superfamily Pentatamoidea). This is a really neat specimen because fossil Hemipterans aren't particularly common. Indeterminate Order: A large insect that I've never quite been able to place. Two wings are very faintly preserved which would normally be indicitave of a fly, but this specimen just doesn't look much like a fly otherwise. The antennae are interesting, it's a very large insect, and the tibia has an interesting flange. Unfortunately I can't seem to get a good look at the mouthparts (which has been very useful for me in the past for identification). Magnified 20X under a stereo microscope. At first I thought this might be an ant (family Formicidae) but under magnification the shape of the head is more suggestive of a fly. Very poor preservation, I'm not confident I'll ever get a solid answer here. Larvae: A nice plump fly larva, looks to me to be from a botfly (family Oestridae) or a relative. A very strange fossil. The segmentation and tagmosis definitely means this is an arthropod of some sort, and an insect larva is my current interpretation. Still, I've never seen anything quite like it. I've had a few people suggest to me this might be the abdomen of an earwig, but that's definitely not the case (earwig cerci do not look like this or articulate with the abdomen in this manner). Non-Insect Invertebrates: Just an example of one of the tiny gastropods that are common. It takes a keen eye to see them, but once you can recognize them you realize they're very plentiful. If you have some fossil insects from this locality in your collection, feel free to post them here too! Cheers!

Found on a mountain top in the rockies, any idea what it could be? I was wondering if it could be Cambrian?

I bought a box of shale from U-dig for my family to get some trilobites. This the 40lb box. Posting pictures for others to know how it comes. The shale is carefully packaged in a large flat rate box. The shale on the top shows trilobite fossils as soon as paper is uncovered. I am happy with the shipment. Definitely should be enough triolobites for the whole family.

I have collected wet clay or shale with many types of fossils embedded in it. I have found leaves, a fish, a pine cone, wooden bits, ect. Much of the fossils are there and havent turned to rock, so may not be considered an actual fossil. I am hoping some may have ideas on how to preserve these. I got them from Clarkia, ID. There is a youtube video called "Plants are Cool, too! Episode 2: Fossilized Forests!" that talks about the area. I am missing out on fossils opening it a wet clay because I can't split many thin layers, but splitting it in when dry it seems to crumble. Trying to figure out the best process without having to ruin more to get it figured out, any tips? What is the best way to dry it out, and for how long? I also dont know what to do with the pine cone, haha. I dont have the rock impression, I am regretting that I wasnt careful enough to keep it. It is weird that these are dated 15, 000,000 years old but I can pull out the actual biological items out of clay. Also, what do you do with your fossils that are unidentifiable. There are imprints that I dont know if it is from a seed or a bug. I have found actual seeds and such, so I am wondering if these are most likely bug remnants. Is there a good way to know a the difference?