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I found some interesting specimens as I was probing soft reddish colored Rock (sandstone?) that had been dumped in a field near my house Atchison Kansas. I could be wrong with my assumption is that it's from the nearby Missouri River. A handful of interesting observations pictured here but I'm not sure about. 1) The hard oozy substance on one rock. Is that amber? 2) the half dollar sized impression that looks like it's an Amber upon another rock. Could that be some kind of plant? 3) one rock has a thin black band across it. Wondering what ancient event might be known to cause that? 4) most interesting, I found a few Trilobite looking figures. From what I've dug into so far, looks like they might bea Carolina praying mantis oothecas. I have read that these can be hard, but they feel hard like the rock, or at least close to it. Nearby I did see s momome cotton-like material that look like it could be another stage of this creature. But then again it wasn't very thick and just a little bit of cotton material there. I have the suspicion that perhaps these were more ancient oothecas partially fossilized. But that was only a wild guess. Any insights into any of the above would be most welcome. Thanks for any help you can provide.

I acquired this specimen from an amateur fossil collector acquaintance of mine so unfortunately, I don't know where it was found and when it dates to. It is roughly the size of a dollar coin.

I recently bought this strange Cyphaspis from a French dealer. Due to the great diversity of species in this genus, I have not found anything about the exact species. Can you help me in this case?

Hi again, it has been a long time since my last post. I think I have found another trilobite Pygidium today. It is quite small so I am unsure if it is truly a fossil or just a weird rock formation. If it is, does anyone know what type of Trilobite it may have come from? I found one a few years ago and Kane said it was likely Anchiopsis anchiops. Could it be the same? Any help is greatly appreciated! I am also wondering if the rest of the Trilobite could be hiding under the matrix.

Hi everyone, Thought I'd take a minute to share. So, here's a Trilobite that I purchased about 20 yrs ago. Unfortunately, I lost the details of origin, etc...🙄 Measures about 2.5 " long. I named him Ernie 😄

After recent lessons about fake Drotops Armatus, I try to be as cautious as possible when making new purchases. I recently found a really nice double Drotops megalomanicus for sell. To me, it is just too pretty to ignore. But since this is my first time seeing such specimen (two huge Drotops megalomanicus stacking together), I think it is better to ask for options before making the expensive commitment. To me, this looks like a real one because of the white line (silica vein) running across the body. But a draw back is the not so detailed eyes, which seems suspicious. Let me know your opinions!

Someone call it Paralejurus spatuliformis and others Paralejurus hamlagdadicus. What is this?

Hello - I am interested in sharing information I have regarding Trilobites in Weymouth & Quincy.

Hello everyone! Especially the experienced trilobite collector I need some reccomendations for my trilobite collection, kinda like what trilobite i should get and some demanding trilobite i should know and have in my collection.

Yesterday afternoon, I had some time to visit the Hoppin Hill Reservoir, in North Attleboro. At my first trip, apparently the water level was extremely low, as this time it was ~4-6 feet above the previous line. Some apparently extensive outcrops were now covered. In the path before reaching the exposures, I picked up a piece of shale from an outcrop, which contains limonite?-stained trilobite fragments, as well as a possible brachiopods. Pleura of a Strenuella strenua? I found near the end of my first trip, a fragment of drift containing a small trilobite cephalon. That area is now covered by water. However, knowing the character of the rock in which the trilobites are found, and the general area, I fortunately found the source exposure above water. Unfortunately, the rock was somewhat heavily metamorphosed, so most of the rock turned into a sort of quartzite, where I found very few trilobite fragments. Some rock turned greyish-white, probably due to the heat. Although most of the rock was like this, some of it was not metamorphosed. Some rock retained its shaly-limestone form. Shaw (1950) states that when the limestone is weathered, and the calcium carbonate leaches out, the rock is reduced to a soft siltstone that “can be crumbled in the fingers.” This was unfortunately the case for most of the rock. I managed to recover some small amount of material that had not completely weathered away. Here is a single thoracic segment preserved in the metamorphosed material. It appears to be silicified. Some fragments of trilobites were recovered from the soft siltstone. I found that upon drying completely, they become slightly more solid. Thoracic segment and free cheek, probably Strenuella. At the end of the day, I took a block of what seemed to be the fossiliferous layers, to split. I found a partial Strenuella strenua, exhibiting the stouter type, with a shorter anterior “flange.” Also, in that same block, I found this quite nice specimen, though it was very fragile. It has a more prominent “flange,” and the occipital spine is rather well preserved. Also, I prepared the trilobite cranidium from the first trip. I believe it is a Dipharus attleborensis, with a nice palpebral lobe preserved. The specimen was much more stable than the ones found on this trip, so I think the layers probably are much better below the water-line. Here is I think Anstey’s map of the reservoir, showing Shaler’s locality 2, as well as where I found the trilobite fragments. I believe the shale layers are a few meters south to where they are represented. Also, I think Landing’s (1988) revision of the formation is unneeded. He puts the Weymouth and the Hoppin formations into one, and names the lower quartzarenite layers the North Attleboro formation. As I have seen the quartzarenite layers grade into the shales and slates, I think this is unnecessary. Also, the species in the sub-trilobitic layers of Hoppin Hill are found throughout, so I think they do not need a separate name. The Hoppin Formation (with the exception of the unusual “Paradoxides walcotti” ) is a preolenellidian fauna, and the Weymouth at Mill Cove has a distinct Callavia fauna with many olenellids. Shaw suggests that the Mill Cove locality is younger in age. I agree with this conclusion. In fact, the only trilobite present in both layers, is Strenuella strenua. Several papers imply that the Pearl Street (Mill Cove) locality does not conformably overlie the sub-trilobitic layers. Correlations have been made between Mill Cove, and Nahant and Cohasset in the faunas found in the sub-trilobitic layers. I propose the Hoppin stay seperate from the Weymouth Formation, and the sub-trilobitic layers in the Weymouth be given a different name, or perhaps be a seperate member of the formation. This may only be a local thing, and somehow the two faunas were separated in some way and they could be of the same age. This is how I think the Formations are aligned. *Not to scale! Overall, I had a fun trip, though the water level at the reservoir was somewhat high.

Hi everyone! I believe I have found trilobite (or other arthropod) tracks. Photographing was challenging. They are not the best but I believe visible enough to identify…hopefully! I found this in Crawford County, IN. Any help is appreciated!

HI! I think this Austerops looks like Austerops smoothops. But it's eye lens are slightly different from Austerops smoothops eye lens fomula. Is it Austerops smoothops or other species??

Hello! The name's Keith from Pennsylvania. I've loved all things prehistoric since I was a small child. Dinosaurs and fossils of all kinds. I still scavenge when camping or at the beach and almost never come home empty handed.

Hi? I think this trilobite looks like Keyserops megaspina. But Keyserops megaspina's genal spine is more longer. So I 'm not sure. Is it Keyserops megaspina? or other species?

HI? I purchased Ceratonurus from morocco before. I wanna know about species of ceratonurus. But, In google all ceratonurus from moroccos are Ceratonurus sp. What is Species of Ceratonurus from morocco?

Today, I went on a quick early morning fossilhunt. I have been anxious to get out hunting, any chance I can considering how mild winter has been so far. I decided it would be best to start today with little, to no expectations and just see what the day would bring. At about 3:30am I woke up to use the bathroom and when I played back down all I could do was toss and turn. So I did that until about 5:15 and I finally got up. Got to the hunting grounds about 7am, just as the sun was making it's presence known. Unfortunately it was only 20° at the site. There was some snow covering the site as well as ice. Obviously this made digging and splitting slabs a real chore. So much so the there wasn't a whole lot I could do. I was hoping that with the sun out maybe it would eventually warm things up enough to make digging a little easier. So for the first 2 hours i kinda putzed around surface scanning and flipping slabs over, looking for something worthwhile. Eventually I started trying to remove slabs. I was actually starting to make a bit of progress, but then the ground got hard again. While trying to remove the slabs, I picked up a small chunk of matrix that fell off. As I inspected the piece carefully I noticed a small Dipluera pygidium and partial thorax exposed on the very edge of the break. I could tell that the rest of it was underneath some matrix. I would of normally been static but the area where the Dipleura was sitting was pretty fractured and I didn't really think I was going to be able to extract it without the whole thing crumbling apart. But I put it in the truck and decided to give it a shot when I got back home. Other then that I only brought home a bivalve and a brachiopod. There really wasn't anything else worth keeping. When I got home I inspected the trilo very carefully and looked at every fracture going around it, I started breaking off small bits of matrix till it got to the point where all that was left was the portion covering the front half of the trilo. I took my angle grinder and made a notch. Then I took a screwdriver, twisted and popped off the top! That is when I got very excited! Now I have found Dipleuras smaller then this one, but this is the smallest one the I have found in this good of condition. It measures at 1 7/16 of an inch. Totally made the trip worth it! Here is before and after pics.

I found this trilobite of the Paralejurus genus and now it has been prepared and I would like to know if is possible to know the species. It was found in Ihandar formation, near Alnif. It's a lower devonian formation. The trilobite measures 7cm. I will tag you @piranha as I think you are my best hope.