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Last Sunday, our rock club took part in Morrison, Iowa’s Pioneer Craft Fair, with a goal of educating the children in various topics of paleontology and mineralogy. I took the opportunity to discuss ancient sharks and show a variety of specimens that I have accumulated. Even the adults had a hard time grasping that one of my display of teeth were actually from Iowa. The children then had the opportunity to split open some “rocks” revealing sharks teeth within. It was a hit and I enjoyed it more than the kids!!!!!!!! I did have the opportunity to explore a few fossil sites before the fair. My first stop was Bird Hill in Floyd County which is Cerro Gordo, Devonian. Brachiopods abound here. Hopefully, I can get a post of that hunt soon. The second location provided more Devonian finds but from the Solon Member, Cedar Valley Formation. My purpose was to collect some nice spirifers, Platyrachella iowensis. The wings of the spirifers are fragile so the specimens were left in the matrix for the trip home. Last night, while a few spirifers were extracted from a piece of matrix, I encountered two odd things. Oddity #1 The brachiopods were mostly PINK! The spirifers were not. What would cause this???????????? Preservation was obviously poor. Here is a piece of matrix where you can see where the spirifer was attached (The shiny white area). Oddity #2 On the other side of the above pictured matrix, a root beer colored polished object was peeking out. A dremel was used to expose it more. I would say it looks manmade, but knowing it had spirifers next to it, I am without an explanation. It is for this reason that I ask for help. Actually, it reminds me of a piece of Green River Formation that I found containing glass like scales of a gar. Could this also be gar? Any explanations for the unusual find would be appreciated, as this has me stumped and in need of an answer. The final picture shows there is structure in spite of the surface appearing smooth as glass.