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I found this heavy triangular piece of what appears to be a bryozoa colony ,but at different angles and lighting I find it to show several other possibilities. This was retrieved from a receding river bed amongst many more corals and lingulla plates I also gathered. If anyone has an input or correction to my guess ,I greatly appreciate it.

Hello, I’ve recently been starting fossil hunting excursions at the last place I’d ever imagine — a parking lot. Put simply, there’s some piles of rocks near a big store around Champaign, IL, and in them I’ve found fossils. However, the rocks did not come from there, and because I’m anything but an expert geologist, I have no clue what rock I’m working with, what formation they came from, or in general what to expect. My guess is that it’s Silurian Dolomite but I’d appreciate some secondhand opinions, and nonetheless I’m still unsure of what particular formation the rocks belong to. Here are some of my finds: A bunch of brachiopods, and what looks like an external mold of a crinoid stem, I'm guessing. A few more brachiopods i’ve found as well. This is the usual stuff I find, just lots of brachiopods and (I think?) the occasional bivalve. Oh, there’s also this thing. I’m guessing some weird type of brachiopod but I’m not 100% confident, any IDs would be cool. Anywho, if y’all can figure out where these come from, is there anything else I can find in that formation/in these rocks? And if so, is there any sort of specific techniques/strategies i can use to know which rocks will bear fossils? Because some, like the first image, would be chock-full of them, but many would have only one fossil in them, and most wouldn’t have any at all. (Oh btw, I should note that these are pretty big rocks, like 6-10 cubic inches) Furthermore, are there any rarer fossils i could find (trilobites?? ;-;), and are there ways to find em as well, or is this just gonna be a matter of smashing open rocks till you’re lucky?? Oh, and lastly, whatever kind of rock I'm dealing with, it’s very hard. If I want to crack a rock open, I kinda just smash it with my sledgehammer; but I'm not really able to get precise cuts into the rocks with it, so I wonder if maybe there are times when I’ll crack open a rock, think there are no fossils in it, but in reality i just didn’t crack the right part of the rock open. Is there a way to know? Or a way to crack open the rocks more precisely? (I also have two pickaxes and some chisels, but the pickaxes are much worse at working with rocks, and honestly I’m too scared of breaking my hand with the chisel if i miss my hammer). Sorry if this is a lot, and kind of all over the place. I just have a lot of questions and a lot of inexperience. Thank you so much for any help!

I return once again to the Forum. Recently I was asked about something which someone on Discord found in Maine. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to think of it as I'm not entirely familiar with the geology surrounding Maine: What my Discord companion does know is the area which they found it in, right around Caribou by the local river, which appears to be underlain by Silurian strata (based on Rockd) I'd love to get to the bottom of this mystery!

All found in Wabash County, Indiana. Any assistance is appreciated. 1. Is this a trilobite? If so, can a specific species be identified? 2. Is this a blastoid within all these crinoid pieces? 3. Is this a fossil or just geological? 4. I know these are crinoids, but is there any way to tell what that dark piece is at the end? Trilobite?

I found several remains of an orthoconic nautiloid yesterday while hunting in the Drakes Formation. I was showing it to @FossilNerd and he was unsure if it could be from the Ordovician Drakes Formation, or if I found it where the Drakes overlaps with another younger formation. Is there anyone who knows of such a formation or if this is indeed an Ordovician nautiloid? If it is Ordovician, that would most likely make it Endoceras, as this is the only nautiloid that I have found to have some kind of record in this area. The area in particular of the Drakes Formation is the Bardstown Reef. Here's some websites I frequently use to identify things from the Drakes. https://www.mindat.org/paleo_loc.php?id=19139 https://www.uky.edu/KGS/fossils/fossil-kinds-found-in-ky.php

Just picked this up minutes ago at one of my ordovician spots in Northern Kentucky. Any idea what it is?

Hello. I found this strange fossil a couple of weeks ago and I cant figure out what it might be, my guess is a part of some sort of coral or sponge. It was found in the eastern part of the Siljan ring formation in Sweden, the layer is possibly silurian or ordovician. Any clue as to what it might be?

Hello everyone, I am currently staying at the Mountain Lake Biological Station in Giles County Virginia doing research on evolution (on living animals not fossils) and yesterday I decided to take a walk around mountain lake. This lake and the hotel next to it was actually the location that the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed in but due to natural geological processes the lake is now almost completely drained. This draining has revealed a lot of the sandstone and limestone that once made up the lake bed. I was not going here looking for fossils but when I sat down to rest I saw the Pygidium of a trilobite! I am pretty sure that this trilobite is probably of Silurian age but could also be from the Ordovician. I am not sure if its genus can be identified but I thought it was a cool find nonetheless and worth sharing. I will be returning to the bank to see if I find anything else and will post them in this thread if I do.

On a recent trip to Lockport, NY, I found some fossils that I would like help identifying. For those familiar with Lockport, these were found in an outcropping of sedimentary strata along a walkway down stairs from the Pine St. bridge over the Erie Canal locks, leading to the Erie Canal museum. At first glance, I though these might be crinoid stem sections, but on closer examination they don't have any internal structure. I'm not sure if they could be worm tubes, coral, or something else. At 25X magnification, the matrix appears polycrystalline, and I'm guessing it may be some type of sandstone. Thanks.

I'm not even sure if this is a fossil, but I can't figure what this could be. Specifically looking for the ID of the "clover" shapes, as well as the small segmented formation on the underside.

This came out of my garden in Big Rapids, Michigan. It has a ridge on one side, which is the close-up picture. The two sides look a little bit different, which is throwing me off. Most of what I find is sponge, horn and honeycomb coral. Honestly, I am rather obtuse when it comes to fossils, although I love them so. Considering this, any insight would be greatly appreciated. (I think I find mostly Devonian period items)

I thought this might be a trilobite, but it isn't quite matching up. I found this is Big Rapids Michigan, in my garden. The overall rock is 2.25 inches in length, while the section in question is about .75 inches in length. The second picture is the back side of the rock because why not. Thank you kindly for your help, Lord knows I need it.

Below is another fossil from my garden in Big Rapids, Michigan. There seems to be more than one thing going on with it. Again, any info is appreciated.