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I found this rock (far Southwestern Minnesota) by a river in a pile of rocks placed their by the city. It’s possible it just came from construction and isn’t a fossil at all. But it’s also possible it was naturally occurring in the river as it was down near the water and the river has been a lot lower than normal. I have zero expertise with fossils, and was wondering if anyone recognized this as something. The “fossil” has 9 identifiable segments of concave rectangles all the same width and length, that curve around the rock. Any comments are appreciated!

I acquired these two slices of something from a rockhound couple in our club. They could not remember what they are or where they came from, but they could be from Arizona or somewhere in the Southwest US as they spend their winters in Arizona and always come back with stuff from collecting and wheeling and dealing down there. The bigger piece especially looks like oncolites to me, but I have been fooled before. Does anyone recognize either of these, and more importantly where they might be from? (If I can figure out the location I'll have a better chance of tracking down the ID/age.) Both pieces came already polished on one side. Smaller one has scratches. I tested both with vinegar and the larger one fizzes. (It would not fizz on the polished surface, but on the rough edge it did). The smaller one did not noticeably fizz. I thought it looked fossily but obviously different from the bigger one, so it might have been from a different chunk from the same site or it may be completely unrelated. Maybe not even sedimentary. The little 'bits' in the smaller piece seem to have crystalline interiors but surrounded in the same type of reddish 'buildup' that the oncolites(?) in the larger piece have. I'm not really expecting a decisive answer (I've not been too lucky in getting mystery items confidently ID'd lately, from the forum or otherwise... I seem to have a knack for digging up strange things). But I thought I would survey the forum in the off-chance someone recognizes the material. A Google image search did not turn up a perfect match for either. The color balance in my photos may be a bit off (indoor lighting), but it's the best I could do for now. I could try direct sunlight tomorrow. Side-by-side comparison of both pieces: Weathered edges (smaller piece on top) - the greyish patches could be either paint or rock saw sludge, it won't come off easily:

I acquired another thing the other day from the same folks who gave me the oncolite slabs I posted in this section... They felt this is wood from Arizona, but didn't seem as confident/precise as I'd like about the location, because of the unusual detail in the wood structure, though I can see it's still agatized and not as detailed as in other pet woods... So based on that and the color I would guess Chinle Fm from Arizona too, but I'd like some other opinions. Yay or nay? If Arizona, where in Arizona? Slab is about 14cm long and 5mm thick.

Hello Everyone. My grandaughter is in 4-H Geology and we found this specimen in Southwest Kansas. We have no idea what it is or how to label it for her exhibit box. Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I'm going to be taking a trip to the southwest (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and possibly Texas) pretty soon, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some ideas as to where I could go fossil hunting. I'll provide the specific areas we'll be traveling to; I also previously lived in Colorado and have already found a few good sites, but would definitely be open to any other suggestions. Colorado seems pretty promising with some good fossil quarries (Florrisant Fossil Hunting and the Morrison Museum), and I grew up with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science as well as Dinosaur Ridge. I'll mostly be in the Denver and Colorado Springs areas. Utah is where I'm having a bit of trouble; I've heard it's definitely fossil country, but I can't find a lot of tours or places where you're actually able to take fossils home from. The main one I'm thinking of right now is the U-Dig Fossil Quarry, although I don't have any other ideas as to where we'll be going in Utah (wherever the fossils take us, I suppose!) so we're likely just going to plan around where we hear the best fossil sites are. New Mexico is a state we're visiting not just to find dinos, but to see the lovely Santa Fe, which is the main area we'll be near. We don't really have any plans as to where we can go for fossils yet, but I assume there might be some good spots we can hit along the way. Texas is kind of up in the air right now. I found some amazing fossils last time in Glen Rose, and intend to return there as long as my family is also willing to make the trip. It's a bit far, but if anyone knows of any other fossil sites that would be worth visiting around the Fort Worth/upper Texas area, I would love to hear about them. I have a feeling we'll be able to go back there as long as we don't stray too far into inner Texas (i.e. anything further down from Dallas). Hopefully this is in the right place, and I would love to hear everyone's thoughts. Thanks in advance!

For the last week before confinement contrainsts, I decide to go to the southwest coast of Atlantic Ocean to find fossils I begin to the coast near Biarritz and eocene level. But it's difficult to dig here because there is a lot of constructions I've just found a level with fossil wood. But I think it's pliocene level I go to the south by the beach. The sea is high and I prospect on isolated blocks. I see a rarety. A bit of Cidaris. The first I see in this eocene level I continue and arrive at a geological point. The K/Pg boundary After this point, I'm in maastrichtian level I arrive on a scree area And I see Echinids like this Stegaster A few meters further, a Lampadocorys A Stegaster again I still continue south and find big Inocerams And just after the fossil of the day. First just a bit. After 3 or 4 hammer blows a big Menuites fresvillensis It's time to lunch in the sun. Then the maastrichtian level stop and I turn around to my starting point The sea is now low And I can see fossils in the rocks That's all for the day. My bag is already heavy and I have traveled 13km

Many roots of the Lepidodendron have been found here cast in fine grained, very hard sandstone. One specimen of bark has been found that is in a repetitive diamond pattern reminiscent of scales on a tropical palm type tree. Another one off specimen is of the interior trunk or wood of the tree--(presumably). All of these specimens are the same type of sandstone. This is definitely Lepidodendron country as no other fossils have been found here to date. Pics of individual specimens will be gladly posted upon request.

Doing alright since I moved down to FL! No more dinosaur footprints down here, but there is an abundance of teeth!

I'm a teacher, having entered the field late and now teaching for 12 years. The last couple of years I've had a combined 3-4 class, this coming year I'll teach 5th. My last class were avid amateur geologists, and since I had to teach the "rock cycle, in 3rd grade I started studying it more (I've mostly taught 4-6th grades). And since I have a great area to walk out my front door and explore high desert areas of the southwest - I started finding not only rocks, but a lot of fossils. As I started showing my students that they could even find fossils on our playground, they made up and awareded me a, "best fossil finder," award. I guess it takes one to know one. This summer I took a geology class for teachers at our local University. The professor was surprised at some of my "finds," from the area(s) I explained to her. Now our house is filled with rocks/fossils. While trying to identify fossils on a motorcycle forum (yes, they do that on the worldwide forum I frequent) - I somehow meandered onto this forum/blog and I'm very excited about learning a lot here and also getting a lot of your expert opinions. I'm looking forward to gettng to discuss and lurk a lot, and was already up late night before last "looking" around here. edit P.S. I just found out you can't edit out grammatical errors from the title, doggone it.