Search the Community

I am planning a fossilhunt at Cole Hill Road in Sangerfield New York, on 6-25-17. I invite anyone who wishes to go to meet me there. I plan on arriving somewhere between 9-10 am.

A couple weeks ago, I made a trip to Penn Dixie for the,"dig with the experts" event and had a blast! Found lots of great stuff, too numerous to post. Here is one of my favorites finds, a complete Eldredgeops rana with what looks to be a cephalopod(?). On the other side is/was a pyritized worm tube coming out of the bugs eye. Unfortunately, half the tube flew off while prepping. .

HI all, As we work through the thousands of slabs of Bright Angel shale from the last few expeditions, I thought Id post for fun some of the more fossil packed slabs we pulled out of the outcrop. Trilobites overlapping trilobites! They are all one dominant type - Zacanthoides Walapai, and are typically molts. Trilobites are not common here in Arizona, but if you get into the right layers.... http://www.schursastrophotography.com/paleo/Fossilfotos-4b.html Arizona Chris Paleo Web site: http://www.schursastrophotography.com/fossiladventures.html

Hi Everyone, This season I'm planning to do at least one fossil hunting trip outside of my usual stomping grounds in the Massachusetts area. I looked at a couple of trip options and have decided on taking a couple days off of work to drive up to Penn Dixie in upstate NY. It's roughly an 8 hour drive from Massachusetts to Hamburg, NY. Friday/Monday would be my travel days (with some stops along the way), leaving me Saturday and Sunday to actually do some digging at Penn Dixie. Many of the forums members here seem to frequent Penn Dixie and for good reason! I have yet to visit the quarry, but it looks like a great spot to dig for Devonian fossils and certainly seems popular. I'm primarily interested in digging for trilobites and with a little luck will hopefully find some Phacops and Greenops trilobites of my own. I was hoping to see if you guys had any tips so that I can make the most of my two days up there. Where do the trilobites like to hide?! Right now I'm targeting the end of June for the trip (Tentatively the weekend of June 24/25). My summer is pretty jam packed so if this date doesn't work I might be looking at taking the trip up in late August/early September. If any TFF members will be at Penn Dixie on June 24/25 I'd love to say hi and split some shale with you . Additionally, if anyone has any suggested tools that aren't on my packing list or papers worth reading any/all suggestions are welcome! Resources. https://penndixie.org/our-geology/ https://penndixie.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/penn-dixie-field-trip-from-71st-nysga-1999.pdf Packing List: 3 lbs hand sledge Chisel end rock hammer Assorted cold chisels Pry bar Eyewear Work gloves Thanks as always!

After leaving Sanibel Island, I decided again, to make a quick stop along the Conasauga River in Murray County, Georgia to collect some Upper Cambrian trilobites. For more pics and info see my post from 5-22-17 titled Georgia Cambrian Bug Hunt. Below are a couple pics of some of the fossils I found in an hours time of searching.

text and figures from: Zong, R.W., & Gong, Y.M. (2017) Behavioural asymmetry in Devonian trilobites. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 476:158-162 LINK Trilobites, like many extant arthropods, were in a soft-shell state without defensive ability just after moulting (Henningsmoen, 1975). It is possible that Omegops cornelius and Plagiolaria nandanensis would choose to get away from the discarded cephala to avoid any potential harm that might ensue by touching the hard old cephala. They were likely to turn left (counterclockwise) to move away if the old cephalon was discarded on the right side of the body, or otherwise to turn right (clockwise) if the old cephalon was on the left side. Therefore, the asymmetric distribution of cephala during the moulting process reflects the asymmetric motion in these two phacopid genera. Specifically, Omegops cornelius preferred counterclockwise motion, so that it would choose to push the old cephalon to the right side of the body (Fig. 3A), whereas Plagiolaria nandanensis preferred clockwise motion (Fig. 3B). As mentioned above, the behavioural asymmetry of two trilobites are opposite. It may be helpful in tracing the origin of the asymmetry. One plausible explanation is connected with their body structures, in which the most obvious difference is the size of their eyes; does the large-eyed Omegops cornelius prefer the counterclockwise motion, and the small-eyed Plagiolaria nandanensis prefer the clockwise motion? If so, the preferred direction of movement of Omegops cornelius and Plagiolaria nandanensis found in other areas should be the same as is revealed here. The statistical evaluation of the cephalon position relative to the trunk reflects that Omegops cornelius from the Upper Devonian of the western Junggar (Xinjiang), preferred to turn the cephalon to the right side of the body during the moulting process, showing a preference of counterclockwise motion, whereas Plagiolaria nandanensis from the Lower Devonian of Nandan (Guangxi) preferred clockwise motion. This phenomenon demonstrates that behavioural asymmetry existed in Phacopid trilobites, but may be opposite in different trilobites. The origin of such asymmetric behaviour is unclear, two possible explanations could be related to the body structures of trilobites, and the environment where trilobites lived in the specific geologic age.

If anyone is interested I will be taking / meeting some people from the Fossil Forum to go to Penn Dixie (Hamburg NY) on Friday June 2 and Brechen (about 1/12 hours north east of Toronto) on Saturday June 2. Please PM me if you are interested in joining us. Expect to work hard but come away with some nice goodies. Both localities are good for trilobites, Brechin also adds crinoids and cystoids to the mix as well as brachs and all those other things that I don't collect.

The fossil(s) in question here were collected during the summer of 2016 from the Liston Creek Limestone (Silurian) in northern Indiana. I am using them for my senior thesis project in which I'll be comparing Ordovician trilobites with Silurian Trilobites. Anyways, I have been taking a scientific illustration class during the month of May and for my final project I decided to do a stippled illustration of one of the Cheirurus cephalons I collected in 2016 (in total i have about 7 cephalons of varying sizes, all with identical morphological characteristics). I've been trying to narrow this particular specimen down to the species level since I plan include the binomial nomenclature on my final illustration. After a days worth of researching I'm still unable to confidently identify the specimen at the species level. The literature I have on the rock formation this specimen comes from lists Cheirurus niagarensis among the common fauna. From what I've seen online, I don't think my specimen is C. niagarensis. Two other possibilities I've noted are; C. infensus, and C. insignis... So far those are the only 3 Cheirurus species that resemble my specimen the closest, but I'm still not confident in any one of them in particular. As fossil ID information is notoriously hard to find on the internet I've decided to post some pics of my specimen on here to see if anyone can help me to ID it. The first 5 pics are of the specimen I'm using for my illustration. The 6th picture is of the previously mentioned specimen (right) and a larger specimen (left).

Today I spent a couple hours along the Conasauga River in Murray County, Georgia collecting trilobites at an exposure that I believe is Upper Cambrian. The trilobites are found in tan to olive colored mudstone. The trilobites are quite abundant at this location and I believe the ones I collected are all Aphelaspis brachyphasis. Below are some of my finds and a pic of the collecting area.

Yesterday was a planned get together of TFF member friends at one of my favorite Middle Devonian localities- Deep Springs Road in Madison County southwest of Hamilton. It is the easternmost exposure of the Moscow Formation and the Windom Shale- the same formation exposed at Penn Dixie- but a very different faunal content. Biodiversity is the primary feature of this site and this outing added to an already long species list. This trip was actually a long time in planning. Frank (frank8147), a long time collector in New Jersey's Cretaceous streams, had been expressing to me a desire to visit Upstate New York and try his hand at Paleozoic collecting. He told me he and his girlfriend were planning a trip and once we were able to set a date- which was right on the heels of my own trip to Germany, I decided to invite a few other TFF friends. Tim (fossildude19), Dave (Darktooth), Diane (Mediospirifer), Dom (Dsailor), and Tony (njfossilhunter) were able to make it. Tony and I drove up together. Thanks Tony for all of that driving. Dom and Frank were new to the site. Tim and Dave brought family members and a good time was had by all. A rain shower in the middle of the afternoon drove some away, Diane and her husband, Tony, and I remained and I made most of my best finds late in the day. Here's a few pics: Here is (left to right) Dave, Tim, Tony, and Dave's older son.

Yesterday morning my cousin Matt picked me up at my in-laws in Alpine, UT at 6:30 am and we travelled down to U-Dig south of Delta to dig for Cambrian trilobites and other marine life. It was a three hour drive and we came into the quarry at the perfect time. Robin (Rob), the helper on site brought out some very neat finds including an ammonite hash, ammonite, and an Asaphiscus wheeleri with a green tint to it. Rob guided us to a spot that had been ripped up the previous day by their onsite bulldozer. There were large slabs of shale everywhere for the splitting and we where the only ones out there besides another early riser who's name also happened to be Matt. I'll call him M2 (Matt the second). To my utter shame and disappointment I did not take any pictures of us or the quarry we where digging in because I was having so much fun splitting shale open and going through large slabs of shale as fast as I could. My arms and hands are very sore today but it was worth every second. Towards the end of the day Rob came over and let us split some shale in their 15 foot layer which is famous for containing large Asaphiscus wheeleri. These trilobites are much harder to find than the ever so common Elrathia kingi and the layer is usually off limits to the public. Within about an hour at the 15 foot layer I pulled out 3 complete A. wheeleri along with 3 large A. wheeleri molts and some E. kingi's. There were molts everywhere. It was a really good day and despite getting very sunburned I walked away with a large bucket of about 25-30 complete trilobite molts and complete trilobite remains. Unfortunately because I flew out to Utah I was only able to bring home about 5 nice ones from the trip. The rest are in the bucket and shall just have to wait for when I'll return to reclaim them. I might move out to Utah soon so hopefully they won't be in my parent-in-law's garage for to much longer. Rob showing off a large and nearly complete A. wheeleri. I swapped M2 a ryolite nodule from a nearby location for some shark teeth. He was more than happy to do the swap and Rob used the onsite rock saw to slice the nodule in half revealing the inner crystals. The bucket full of trilobites (Asaphiscus and Elrathia) in my in-laws garage. The other half of the nodule. Large E. kingi that needs some more polishing. I'm not certain that this is an Elrathia nor is it an Asaphiscus. The pygidium on an Elrathia is much wider. There's a slight chance that this could be an Alokistocare because a Bolaspidella's axial lobe would be much thicker. I would be happy if this was a Alokistocare because they are very rare. Regardless of the species this appears to be a molt. To bad it's not the real deal but I still like it and Rob did a good job at prepping it out of the shale. Rob puts mineral oil on the tops of the trilobites to give them a dark black coating. @Fossildude19 please call in the trilobite experts to assist in the identification of this one. It could be a compressed Elrathia but I'm not certain. This is a large Asaphiscus I found a few years ago and it has a greenish hue. About 6 diggers went through U-Dig that day and I found the largest Elrathia kingi. Doesn't that merit some kind of free dinner or gift card? ;-) Large Elrathia kingi. Another decent sized Elrathia. Rob showing off his green Asaphiscus from his own personal dig from last week. M2 showing off some topaz on a piece of ryolite. Rob gave me a little baggy to place my large Elrathia in and it had this cool info sheet in it. I'm very impressed at the way U-Dig has gone above and beyond to get everyone in the family involved in the thrill of paleontology and geology. Rob showing off a compressed ammonite he found a few weeks ago. I absolutely love the color on this rare (for Utah) fossil. The entrance to U-Dig. Really wish I would have taken a before and after photo of the quarry because we tore up so much shale that day. Here's a nice multi-plate of two Elrathias. One is a real specimen the other the molt. Perhaps the real specimen was buried shortly after it shed it's exoskeleton. I ordered some Riker cases a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised to see them at my door step upon arriving home from Utah today. Here's some of my nicer finds from U-Dig in a smaller Riker case.

I'm on a school sponsored computer so the best sites are blocked, keep that in mind because this is a bit of a dumb question and the reason I pose it, is because I have found two separate lists and I don't know which is correct. So my question is, what are the classes of the trilobites?

I went on a quick, 2 hr hunt this morning. I gi t up around 5am hit the road by 5:30 ,and after a stop at McDonalds for an ever so nutritious breakfast, arrived at Briggs Road at 7. I haven't hunted at Briggs too much because I have devoted a lot of my time to Deep Springs. But I swung by there the other day for a few minutes just to scope things out. I noticed right away someone had put a lot of work into the lower level of the pit. Upon inspection of the debris pile, I found quite a few trilo parts with very little evidence of other fossils. BINGO! I knew this had to be the trilo layer. So todays plan was to get a couple hours of digging into this layer, before I had to be home to start my wife's Honey -do list. I was pleasantly surprised when I found a complete Eldredgeops right off the bat.The body broke right at the cephalon, but it was a clean break and I glued at as soon as I got back home and you can't even tell. I could not believe how many parts and pieces I was finding. I found a small complete roller that I didn't even know was whole till I got it home and trimmed it up and then it popped out of the matrix. And then I found one last keeper, I decent size body with pygidium exposed. I can't tell if the cephalon is hidden, I may attempt to prep this with a dremel. I really need and want to learn how to prep. I didn't keep all the parts and pieces as they where many. But here are pics of the site and the better finds. This site happens to be pretty small. If you look beyond my car, almost in line with the front end you can see where I was digging. I need to spend a whole day there! And maybe I could find myself a gazillion trilobites like some people. Cough cough (Kane) cough cough!

Hey Guys, family member are going to meet up at Sodus Point, NY for an outing during June 7 thru June 11. Sodus Point is located on Lake Ontario east of Rochester. Although I know of some fossil hunting locations in upper NY, they are all located around Buffalo. I would like to take my 5 year old niece out on a fossil hunting excursion. She is well on her way to being a rock nut and wants to be the first paleontologist on Mars. Love it. If any of you guys know of some productive sites that would be kid friendly and would be willing to share the location(s) it would be greatly appreciated. If you'd like PM me. I am aware of the Penn Dixie site, but that may be too far to go. Thanks )s

Today 's plan was to hunt for Dipleura dekayi trilobites. I was hoping to go to the classic Sangerfield site which I have had good luck in the past. But the boys said they wanted to go to Deep Springs Road. Having found some Dipleura material there in the past, I wasn't to disappointed as I knew there was possibility to find one there as well. Today was absolutely beautiful. We arrived at the site exactly at 10:30. I decided before we even arrived to work a section the somebody else had dug in pretty good, and I have held back on digging in that spot the past couple times I have been there. Immediately i was finding Greenops cephalons, pygidiums and partial body frags. Eventually a found one Eldredgeops rana cephalon. Then finally there came Dipleura parts. I found mostly cephalons and isolated body segments. Then finally a pretty big pygidium. That is when I started feeling like I was getting close to a whole one. At this point we had been there awhile and I had moved a lot of rock. The boys were finding their own prizes. Every 2 seconds it was "Dad look what I found" "Dad what is this"" Dad what is that". Then I dug the chisel in one more time and I got a big chunk loose. I flipped it over and there it was a smaller but still decent Dipleura! But something is wrong, where is the cephalon? It did not take long to figure out that my chisel took out the poor trilos face! I can't lie, my heart broke right there. Especially because the body and pygidium looked pretty well preserved. Oh well. I went to work to remove what was there. The body came right off the matrix and left the tail behind. I was able to salvage it and superglued it when I got home. So not to shabby. What is there measures 2 3/4 inches. Also I found a pretty complete Greenops. One of the eyes popped off, so that got glued as well. All in all it was areally nice hunt and time well spent with my boys. Here are some pics. I hope you enjoy. 1st Dipleura with negative 2nd Greenops with negative

Hi All! My name is Kevin, and I moved to Pennsylvania in January for engineering. Now that things are thawing out I'd like to visit some fossil sites and get to pickin'. One of my coworkers in Geology mentioned that PA is a fantastic area for geologic formations and I've already seen some awesome faulting via road cuts while traversing the roads from Sayre (my base) to Mehoopany. I'm originally from Stamford, CT and have visited PA quite often but have never gone collecting. My grandfather was a geologist and I've got a ton of mineral/fossil specimens sitting around the house but would like to add a few of my own, although they will likely be less spectacular. I've been cruising the forums for a few days now collecting information but would still like to know who is in the area, and what other sites folks might recommend. I understand somebody has soured the St. Clair site (very distasteful action on the collectors part there) but would welcome advice on areas for ferns, Trilobites, or other fossils or minerals of interest. Pretty much anything within a two or three hour drive of Sayre is within reach for me. Any equipment recommendations are also welcome, my bud informed me of different sledges and picks and chisels, but as to the appropriate type for different digging I haven't had much elucidation. Looking forward to talking with everyone and glad to see a forum dedicated to such a cool hobby! Kevin

Last weekend took advantage of beautiful weather after a week of rain to check out the Platteville formation in SW Wisconsin. Here are some of my finds..please let me know if any of these ID's are incorrect.. Sinuites, extremely common . Ordovician sea floor Beloitoceras, measures 1.5" continued....

G'day TFF, I thought i'd share with you all the results of my recent trilobite hunting trip in country NSW, Australia. This is only the second time i have been able to collect trilobites and i am very pleased with the results! My family and i went out to a spot near Forbes that is part of the Silurian-aged Cotton Formation. The rocks are marine and date back about 435 million years old! It's crazy to think that at the time these animals were alive in the sea, there was very little life yet on land at all! The most common find here is the trilobite Odontopleura markhami, but you can also find graptolites and rare brachiopods and gastropods. We got to the site around about 11 am and quickly started splitting as many rocks as we could looking for the trilobites, and after being there for only about a minute i managed to split a beautiful near-complete Odontopleura markhami with both the positive and negative sides. It was only about the second or third rock i cracked open too! For the next few hours my family and i continued to whack away at the rocks and we managed to find at least 5 other complete trilobites during that time, in addition to lots and lots of disarticulated body parts (isolated heads, tails, sections of thorax etc). Mum and i got the best examples, but it really does tend to come down to luck (and persistence)! It was a great little trip and the specimens below are already proudly displayed in one of my bedroom glass cabinets. Now for the pictures! The Location: The Days Best Finds (complete or near-complete trilobites only) First of all i thought i'd include a picture of what the seafloor might have looked like in this part of Australia 435 million years ago. This was the Odontopleura markhami i found barely a minute after arriving at the site! My other favourite example that i found I love this Odontopleura markhami that mum found! The detail of the spines is amazing! Other great examples. All are again Odontopleura markhami. Thanks for checking this report out and happy hunting to all! Cheers, Nathan

Trilobite from the Tiskaouine Alnif area , Atlas Mountains, Morocco. (purchased from trusted dealer)

I'll be heading up to Syracuse this weekend for the Science Olympiad Middle School State finals. That means I'll be able to hunt Sunday anywhere in the area from Syracuse south. Who wants to join? The plan is to hit one or more of the quarries about an hour south of Syracuse, but I could be convinced to head towards Herkimer, Little Falls, or one of the Catskill quarries instead.

Short trip to St. Leon Indiana yielded 5 trilobites. 3 complete enrolled including one that is fairly but for St. Leon and probably the largest one I have found complete at at. Leon.1 complete prone trilo and 1 mostly complete prone. 4 of the 5 were typical tiny St. Leon Trilobites.