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I don’t want to say more about the specifics of the location quite yet- i’d like to actually make sure this place is a fossil bed, and that this one find wasn’t just a fluke. I also have to talk more with the land owners, ensure they’d be okay with the site becoming publicly known, as well as work out if they are okay with me doing some more extensive searching and digging in the bedrock. But nonetheless, i wanted to share the find itself because i am so so so happy, as this is my first fossil (and potential site) that i’ve ever found by doing my own geological research, and i wanted to share it here. I hope once i speak with the landowners more, as well as find at least one more fossil to confirm its not a fluke, i can get permission to post the location!

Here is a story about my worst collecting blunder yet. This happened about a month ago at this point, I am still embarrassed by this story but I thought it would be worth sharing for a few reasons. As many can agree, one of the biggest struggles in this hobby is the amount of space these fossils can take up. I live in a smaller apartment and the way I make this work is by trimming some of these fossils with a wet-saw. This has worked very well for me for years and does a better job keeping the fossils safe rather than the force of striking with a hammer and chisel. If I find something really remarkable, I don't risk breaking it in the field and I take it home to cut with the saw. I was cutting a disarticulated Trimerus sp trilobite from a boulder that I found in the Rochester Shale this winter, field picture here: I found these pieces separated like this and thought that this disarticulated cephalon went to this body. Cool find, my first Trimerus partials. But just in case there was some more fossil under that matrix I gave it some clearance until I buy some prep equipment. I cut the rock in two places to section out the thorax. Assuming that the cephalon above was associated with the body was my first mistake. My second mistake was not saving this rock until I had a chance to prep it. Since the remaining rock was a good sized chunk I decided to check for some Rochester Shale fossils A few hits with my hammer on the side of the shale revealed this.... Another Trimerus head sliced cleanly by the saw, just over 2 inches long (the size of my largest trilobite). Terrific. If there is any bright side to this, I think the cephalon is cut along the border where it would connect with the thorax. The picture above doesn't show it well, but the fossil is folded under the surface. It looks like this is where the second eye might be (about where my ring and pinky finger are pointing). At first I thought I sliced it in half, but now I am not sure. Here is everything puzzled back together as well as I could. Either way, a big lesson learned here. I am still interested to see how these connect with each other, or if there is any more in this matrix. Have to get some prepping tools now.

Hello, I don't usually make separate posts to show off individual fossils, but I had to make an exception because this one is very special. It is a near-complete crown of a crinoid known as Macrostylocrinus striatus from the Silurian Waldron Shale of Shelby Co. Indiana, USA. I didn't really know what it was until I had it prepped and identified by experienced collectors. Though small (2 cm) and seemingly unassuming, this fossil is exceptional because as far as I know and am told, no crown of this species has ever been found from the Waldron Shale. Until now this crinoid has only been found from this locality as armless calyxes, and even then fairly rarely. So this specimen would be the first and so far the only Waldron Shale Macrostylocrinus striatus crown in existence. I would call it a very rare fossil, but really a more appropriate descriptor might be "one-of-a-kind". Of course, one can never be 100% certain, as there is no telling what material is sitting in old collections. In any case, there is no doubt that this is an important specimen.

I found this Dalmanites sp. specimen in an exposure of early Silurian Rose Hill Formation rocks. From what I can see, most of the trilobite is there, which is pretty rare for this area. From what I can see, there are two species of Dalmanites reported from the Clinton Group (which the Rose Hill Formation is a part of) in this area: D. limulurus and an undescribed species which was labeled in one report as "Dalmanites clintonensis", whose only difference from the other is, it seems, that it has fewer segments on the pygidium. Both species are reported from the Rose Hill, however the report (which is rather old and probably outdated) isn't totally clear whether or not the Rose Hill is too old for D. limulurus and all of the Dalmanites specimens should thus actually belong to D. clintonensis. I'm having trouble counting the number of segments on the thorax and the pygidium, but it looks like it has less than the number reported for D. limulurus. However, it also appears to be missing a spine at the end of the pygidium, unless that just wasn't preserved and/or I'm mistaken. I was wondering if anyone might be able to tell which, if any, of these species this trilo is? Tagging @piranha since I know you have a lot of experience with trilos. Zoomed in a little: Thanks for any help!

Calymene blumenbachii (enrolled) “Dudley bug” Wrens Nest, Dudley, England. Much Wenlock Limestone Fmn., Wenlock, Homerian, Silurian. c. 422.5 – 427.5 Ma age. Species exclusive to the Wenlock Series of England. A unusually nicely preserved old Victorian piece exhibiting the dark honey coloured patina often found in such historical specimens from being handled over the many years since it was collected by a Wrens Nest quarryman. This specimen makes a nice accompaniment to my outstretched (unrolled) specimen.

Found this odd little thing in my Micro matrix I brought back from Oklahoma - Silurian Henryhouse Formation. It looks crinoidy, but I know there are starfish that can be found in this formation too. Any thoughts? Aprox 1/4 inch

I’ve been a little dormant in the forum in the last couple year but it’s not for my lack of interest in fossils!! Sometimes it’s just hard to set time aside for everything. I have some fossils I want to donate to the forum and I hope writing it here will help me hold myself accountable to make the time to post them I moved to Frankfort, New York last year which situated me 30 minutes from the well known Lang’s quarry and only 15 minutes from an exposure of the Bertie formation (great place for looking not finding haha…the rock is bulletproof). Moving with a massive fossil collection is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy!! I’m still not fully unpacked and set up my library display. Anyways, I was able to schedule a day with Al Lang to dig at his quarry. He’s not doing many pay to digs these days. Kinda winding down on those ventures but I have a little back history with Al so he was generous enough to have me over. Pictures incoming!

Llandovery. Only 4mm but the pattern is reasonably clear. Rock with mostly brachiopods and corals.

It's been a couple of weeks but it's taken me this long to take all the photos of my fossil finds from my trip to Oklahoma with the Paleontological Society of Austin! Our yearly trek to find Silurian, Devonian and Ordovician finds (not much of that in Texas!) was a great success again, thanks to our OK friends! Since it's just over a 6 hour drive for me, I went up early on Friday to hit a couple of "non field trip" spots before our "real" field trip on Saturday and Sunday. I had heard about a Permian site that I was excited to check out. It's a weird barren moonscape in the middle of a field. It was a bit warm.....and the sun radiating up from the baked clay was....intense. Fortunately a cold front was on the way so I kept reminding myself that the 90's of this Friday would recede into memory. But yeah...it was hot. There were bone bits everywhere....everywhere! But they were pretty crunched up. I didn't find much more than a few not-well preserved vertebrae, some okay bone bits, a few nice little amphib teeth and a couple of quite nice unbroken orthocanthus teeth. Tiny tiny ones, because all the big ones break easily. While I didn't find a lot of quality stuff initially, I did haul out about 60lbs of matrix so I can look through at my leisure at home! I learned a valuable lesson though...take two smaller buckets rather than one large bucket. It's a LOT easier to haul out two 30 lbs instead of one big haul a quarter mile over rough terrain! A little amphibian tooth: EDIT:...I thought these were Amphib teeth, but apparently....they are Orthocanthus Shark coprolites! hahahhha They are 1/4 inch each What is most amazing about these fossils is the color of the preservation. Astounding reds, yellows and purples. The little Orthocanthus shark teeth that were mostly complete. The Permian "moonscape": I decided to hit one other site before I headed to Ada where we were all meeting. It was the Ordivician site that I found a lovely Oklahomacystis echinoderm last year. The cold front had moved in and the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees and was just LOVELY hunting! I didn't find any more Oklahomacystis and wasn't finding much except a few nice brachiopods, but then I saw a crinoid calyx piece upside down (all I saw was the edges but I recognized it as crinoid) picked it up and got a nice surprise!! Too bad it's not the whole thing and just one segment, but I'll take what I get! It's a beauty...the geometric patterning is amazing. It is a Pleurocystites echinoderm. It's 1 1/4 inch wide. Early on Saturday, the whole group goes to Yellow Bluff which is a huge area above a creek and up a hillside. It's a great site with a plethora of fauna. It is completely possible to spend an ENTIRE day there! But first we had to drive through the pasture and the cows! They were nice cows. Yellow Bluff - It is primarily Silurian with a cap of Devonian at the very top of the hill. It is Henryshouse formation (which I keep wanting to call Harryhousen.... hahahha - that's for any of you old school animation lovers out there) And not only were the fossils abundant, so were the Missouri Primroses! A few nice finds in the field- A Gastropod Platyceras, Crinoid cup - I think this might be Ollulocrinus? A pink Brachiopod! Here's that pink brach again: I found a couple of Trilos, nothing quite good (last year I found the best one!!) but I did find one large one which still has lots of matrix on it, an interesting half a one, split vertically, not horizontally and then some others not very well preserved. This is an odd bit of crinoid : not sure what it is: So aside from the above pics of the in situ pieces, my only other really good find was this brachiopod Dictyonella. It was originally thought to have a bryozoan growing on it, but turns out it is actually the pattern of the brachiopod! There was also this cool bryozoan which I thought was a horn coral when I picked it up, only realizing it was bryzoan as I photographed it! It's 1 1/2 inches in size! But I did bring home a bucket of matrix and am having fun going through it, so will post some of those at a later time. Oh, and there were scorpions out and about enjoying the cool weather too. Hopefully no scorps in my bucket of matrix..... if so, now they are Texas Scorps. So Sunday was Black Cat Mountain Day. If you are not familiar with the trilobites from Black Cat Mountain...you are in for a google treat. Of course, finding the rare trilobites is.....rare. But there are plenty of other amazing things to find at Bob's quarry! The Quarry is Devonian with Haragan and Bois D'Arc Formations. But the trilobites are of course, the favorite. While I love the rollers the best (not sure why, I just do) I actually found better "open" ones this time than rollers! All of these are about an inch long. Paciphacops sp. Kainops sp. and not sure what this one is...probably Kainops and a surprising find of a (sadly not complete, but more complete than the typical) Huntoniatonia huntonensis Usually you just find the pygidiums...they are ALL OVER THE PLACE and they get HUGE. The biggest pygidium I found was 2" x 2"...just the trilobutt! It would have been a monster trilo. But the brachiopods are almost as amazing as the trilos. My favorite is this Howollella (I think) covered in Beekite: This is a big silicified Anastrophia (1 inch) An interesting Meristella with some crystals Orthostrophia and a neat coral which I think is Syringaxon perhaps? And one of my favorites to find - straight shelled cephalopods. This by far the most intact one I found. They are usually only three or four chambers but can get to be almost an inch in diameter. This one is 5 inches long And finally , my other favorite find from Black Cat Mountain.....a beautiful bryozoan ring:

I'm wondering if these trilobites are IDed correctly. 1. Deiphon fleur From the Czech Republic, Wenlock Formation, Svatý Jan pod Skalou locality 2. Staurocephalus murchisoni From the Czech Republic, Wenlock Formation, Svatý Jan pod Skalou locality

Thank you for looking at this fossil from Silurian Herefordshire. I believe it's Wenlockian. Size 2cm x 2.8cm. One side is bumps up (sponge?). Other side has remarkable detail even by local standards ime. I'm hoping someone can tell me more. Links to any relevant academic papers online would also be welcome. Sorry about the photos. Thank you again.

Found near Altoona, Clinton Group, Silurian. Is it a brachiopod? And what are the vibrant yellow and red parts? Is it from mineralization? Thank you.