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I was invited to set up an educational booth at the Cranbrook Rock & Lapidary Club's Mineral, Fossil & Gem Show in October. It was a huge hit with the local collectors and members of the public. I was able to chat with a diversity of people ranging from families to fanatics and even some familiar faces from social media swung by to say hi. I am excited for the next event and will definitely be spending more time in Cranbrook. Such a welcoming community of fossil hunters and great number of Cambrian sites. Here are some photos of my table display. I wanted to spice things up and add fossils from around the world for this event as well as feature some of my current work.

I have some images of a trilobite fossil I am interested to collect. Can I have some opinions if it is worth collecting and if it’s legit please.

One of my favorite orders of trilobites has always been the Harpetid trilobites. I find their unusual appearance fascinating and enjoy their rarity compared to the other trilobite orders. I would love to see your Harpetid trilobites as I don't see them frequently on the forum. Also, I have purchased a couple Harpetid trilobites over the years: Bohemoharpes bupthalmus A split Harpides sp. Eoharpes sp. Dubhglasina yunnanensis

Got these for not very much at an online estate sale most money went to charity so thought I'd gamble. Three questions What are these? Can I prep anything out? Should I try and carefully split any of these rocks? Each photo has at least one picture of the whole rock and then zoomed in of interesting looking things

Hi! I am 53 years old and I have been interested I prehestoric animals since I was a kid. My interest in collecting fossils started when I visited a friend at his summerhouse on the island of Gotland in the Baltic sea at the age of 11. My suitcase was very heavy when I got home that summer. When I became a teen there was a lot of other tings that was interesting and I almost forgot about how interesting fossils really are. In later years I have come back to Gotland and the fascination for fossils suddenly came back. I still have my collection of trilobites, brachiopods and other fossils since childhood and now new ones as well. I am now very curious to start to remove some matrix and take my newfound hobby to the next level. Thanks for having me!

In my Secret Santa gift last Christmas from @connorp I received (among other nice items) a very nice little hash plate from the Mifflin Member of the Platteville Formation (U/M Ordovician, Blackriverian, ~453 MY) from SW Wisconsin. The picture below is the plate as it was received and in my 12/20/22 post about getting it I said: “A great hash plate. I already see two or maybe three different trilobite types with a couple of them tantalizingly partially buried and an interesting gastropod that I am not familiar with. I think a little prep work will make this even more spectacular. As an added plus, it represents my first fossils from the state of Wisconsin.” I finally got around to doing the prep I talked about and spent a little time exposing some of the more prominent fossils and giving it a gentle going over with air abrasion to bring out some of the features. I think it looks even better than it already did and I was even more impressed with the wide variety of fossils on the small section of rock. Below is the cleaned up plate: Here is a collage of the plate just turned at different angles to the sunlight in case it helps to bring out any features: There are hundreds of fossil fragments on this one small piece of rock, but I want to highlight the top couple dozen specimens. With the help of some TFF members via previous posts and replies in a couple of ID threads I put out (thanks @Tidgy's Dad, @connorp, @piranha, @minnbuckeye and others), I have identified several trilobites, brachiopods, gastropods, ostracods, bryozoans, and a crinoid and want to show you this wonderful diversity in such a small space. If anyone sees changes to my ID's please feel free to chime in. Some will be very specific ID's and some will be a bit more general. The picture below is the key to where each of the numbered specimens is on the slab (see number in upper left of each specific picture). We will start with the trilobites. Although each is only a partial, there is enough present to get a pretty specific ID on most of them. All are new genera or species in my collection. Here are the brachiopods: Here are a couple of specimens of a really neat gastropod which was new to me. So often it seems Paleozoic gastropods are just internal molds or rather plain forms, but this first one is very nice. Here are a few bryozoans and one very small horn coral. There were several of these small corals, I'm not really sure of the ID, I didn't research them much yet. Just a couple of small crinoid columnals were found. And last but not least are the ostracods. I am used to small ostracods (which some of these are) but there is also this one form that is huge (by ostracod standards) coming in at about a centimeter long. At first I thought they were brachiopod fragments until I looked at them closer. These things are the size of a kidney bean! Note the scale difference between the Eoleperditia and all the others. Most of my ID's are questionable as I was using a reference that is for the immediately overlying Decorah Formation until I can find a listing for the Mifflin Member. OK that is everything for now. I hope you have enjoyed the wonderful diversity of this small slice in time. With a little more investigation, I may yet tease out a few more specimens worthy of an ID. Thanks for looking. Mike

My sons and I went on a Boxing Day expedition to the Mahantango Formation in West Virginia, and lots of fragmentary trilobites and brachiopods but also some nicer more complete specimens. We were really happy with the two Eldredgeops Rana specimens. We also found a trilobite fossil with its impression (see second photo). It was like opening a present when we split open the layer and lifted it to reveal the fossil! Not sure what the second one is, though. We're all new to this, so any identification suggestions would be welcome. Thanks!!

I went out to the Marble Mountains with my brother recently and checked out the area to find trilobites. I’m a novice and this was my first fossil hunting trip, however, I couldn’t really get to the site due to nearby roads being closed off. Before I go back and hike to the site, what are some advice you guys can give for fossil hunting in general? More specific advice for a site like the Marble Mountains would be greatly appreciated! I recently bought tools and hope to get more into paleontology! Thanks

I recently bought a bunch of trilobites from an old collection. The seller didn't have much information on the trilobites besides them originating somewhere in the midwest. (He bought the fossils as part of a collection). I'm wondering if anyone recognized the possible formation they could have originated from and the IDs of the trilobites? Here are the photos:

I found a trilobite I posted a bit back that was clearly ate in half. I found a lose trilobite piece that came out on split and looked a bit like the first I found but wanted to check if others thought same? The back end looks normal, middle area looks crushed like, then head missing. I was trying to look up photos of wounded or ate trilobites but could only find ones with small healed wounds. Wanted to find out so don't just throw in bag of bits and parts if it really is a ate one. #1 #1(closer)

Trilobites found in the Wheeler Shale, Utah. I think Elrathia? College ruled paper, each line 7.1 mm

Hi, I was recently looking at some small fossils under magnification and think I might have a couple trilobite parts mixed in with a bunch of brachiopods? One fossil appears to be a "cheek" and is about 8mm on it's longest axis, the other appears to be the side of the body and is only about 3mm long. These are from the lower Silurian in Door County, Wisconsin, USA. This area is part of the Niagara Escarpment and trilobite fossils are pretty rare in this area (although I'm sure they were here). I work at a local museum and I'm trying to put together a comprehensive list of confirmed silurian fauna specimens actually found in the county. Thanks in advance for your help! Joe Taylor

i think this trilo is from wales, any help with id?

Well, after a year of searching, I finally found my first trilobite! They are relatively rare in my area (KC), so I’m pretty ecstatic. Decided to take this prep nice and slow, here’s the bug how I found it: Rock is thankfully not really sticky, was able to spend 40 min on this yesterday: As you can see in the last photo, I used my chisel tip to scribe excess material from above where the head might be. I took it down as far as I was brave enough to do so, because I’m worried that the head might be curved upward. I’m no trilobite expert, so any premature guesses on the species? Update possibly coming tonight. Have a great weekend everyone! -Jay

I went out today and found some cryptolithus cheeks (my first), which was my goal, and I am stoked about. While looking at them at home I noticed that one of them has what appears a glabella. I am new to all of this, but could this possibly be a full trilobite in matrix? Some photos of the finds.

Hi, i collected this specimen from the carboniferous strata of northumberland. i was wondering if anyone could help id?