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Richard Fortey on the Trilobite Chronometer Geology Bites • Nov 06, 2021 The ‘trident’ trilobites of Morocco Dr Kendal Martyn (UK), Deposits Magazine Yours, Paul H.

I recently stumbled upon this informative gem of an html article discussing modern trilobite lookalikes. Being a trilobite-cephalon myself, I found it fascinating, so I wanted to share it with you all! The article: Trilobite imposters

Well took a trip about a week ago ran in to another member of TFF we both did well. I’m holding up on prepping until I get some new bits in. However here is a preview of what I collected think I even scored a whole one time will tell.

On my eighth trip to the locality, I collected fossils at the famous St. Leon roadcut. Exposed were the Waynesville and Liberty formations, which date to the immense coral reefs of the upper Ordovician, or 450 ±5 MYA. The site was heavily picked, its erosive forces slowed during Indiana's summer heat. My drops of sweat evaporated on the sun-tempered limestone faster than I could count to ten. Despite the setbacks, acquisitions were generous. Best for last. Behold my brachiopods. The top row is Strophomena sp., the top-left sample demonstrating encrusting bryozoan. The second row is Vinlandostrophia ponderosa. The third and fourth rows are Lepidocyclus/Hiscobeccus, though I am of the opinion the genera are synonymous and are just sexual dimorphs given their identical ages, appearances, and regional occurrences. I am curious what other brachiopod enthusiasts think of this similarity. (Four boxes on the grid is 25 millimeters.) I continue with the bivalves. The top row is Caritodens sp, the top-left sample being a particularly well-preserved example. The bottom-left sample is Anomaladonta sp., and the bottom-right sample is a near-perfect Ambonychia sp. Life is incomplete without the gastropods! I didn't take French in high school for nothing! The top sample is unknown to me, despite being the second I have found of its type. The middle-left sample is too buried. The remaining four are all Paupospira sp., the middle sample being a good example. Interestingly, the bottommost Paupospira has a partial Flexicalymene sp. trilobite cephalon on it, which makes me question if the trilobite was consuming the calcium to augment its own development. However, considering the sample is a messy storm deposit, it is likely pure luck. I have to mention the numerous Isotelus maximus fragments at the site. When looking for fossils at St. Leon, one must wonder how many beautiful I. maximus lie under the surface, only to crumble down the slopes of the roadcut and into my hands. Of interest is the long, delicate genal spine on the top right. Now to the more interesting fossils. I follow with three of six total straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopods. The middle sample is a rare, (calcified) Anaspyroceras sp., and the right sample is also calcified. The beautiful, ancient calcite crystals within the dull-appearing right sample: Now to the next three. The left orthocone is all associated and is very large. The middle sample is also quite large. Species-level identification of orthocones can be difficult even with a clear cross-section of the siphuncle, so "straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopod" will have to suffice. However, I suspect these three samples are likely Treptoceras sp. Excellent samples to say the least. I kept saying "straight-shelled," so perhaps some of you guessed it: I found a coiled nautiloid cephalopod! These are very rare. I have found only a handful of these. Behold the curved Beloitoceras sp., a member of Oncocerida, to which the modern nautilus owes its existence to! It's unbelievable how this rock from half a billion years ago directly led to the existence of modern nautiloids! The continuity of life is incredible. The penultimate is a bryozoan fan. Yes, a fan! The bryozoan tapers off at the upper edges. I have never seen anything like it! It is 8x4 cm. And finally... ...a giant bryozoan! This is my biggest single fossil find ever! The caliper on the left is set all the way out to 15.00 cm! It is easily 15 inches in diameter and four inches thick! After crashing my bicycle a few weeks ago, this immense find could be my new wheel! Hear me out. In ten years of collecting, I have found many rare trilobites, behemoth cephalopods, and more, but this colony of tens of thousands of individual animals takes the cake for the most interesting fossil I've ever had the privilege to collect. On top of being huge and complete, it's riddled with trypanites (trace burrows for you bone hunters out there) from all a manner of creatures that used to reside in the Ordovician. I'm sure my fellow amateur paleontologists appreciate that this isn't just a fossil coral, it's an entire ecosystem! It's literally a window into life 450 million years ago! It's riddled with traces left by crinoid stems, scolecodonts (boring worms), parasitic encrusting bryozoans, brachiopods, bivalves, and so much else! I'm considering donating it to a museum. Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed.

Hello to the Fossil Forum, I am an independent paleo worker from Ottawa, Ontario who first became involved as a recreational collector at a young age. My father Dimitri was a mining geologist and my mother Polly was an economist who created artworks from gems and rocks. Rock hounding was a favorite family pastime and as children we searched among the rocky breakwaters of the Quebec City shore for quartz crystals which Polly would use in jewelry and collages. On these limestone boulders were also trilobites of Ordovician age that became imprinted on my young mind and fueled an interest in fossils. Later in life with skills and knowledge acquired over the years I began working for museums as a paleo technician. One of these jobs was at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History where I was employed by the Dept. of Vertebrate Paleontology to boost their casting program, mainly reproductions of Dunkleosteus, the giant predatory arthrodire that dominated the Devonian seas. This led to field work, lab preparation and collaboration on research. After returning to Canada I tried to fashion an independent career in paleo that would allow me to support work on the family farm. The most convenient path was to build a fossil preparation lab for contract work that would also make it possible to earn money from selling fossils on the commercial market. I remained committed to the science of paleontology and continued working collaborations with researchers and museums across the world. While deeply gratifying, contributions to science rarely create a living income outside of a museum or university. In this respect, a healthy commercial market for fossils was very helpful, both in supporting myself and subsidizing the research projects through donations o f material and field data. It is no secret that this economic model is marginal at best. In 2013 I made the discovery of rich fossil beds at a Tomlinson quarry near Brechin, Ontario that were significant enough to attract research collaborators and might produce fossils in an abundance that would cover the cost of developing the site as scientific resource. The occurrence consisted of reef communities of marine invertebrates, mainly echinoderms, that established themselves on hardgrounds and were subjected to repeated burial events. Some of these were catastrophic in scale and preserved entire faunas at the moment when disaster struck. I hoped to find collaborators at Canadian universities but was unsuccessful in attracting interest. Instead, I was able to persuade Carlton Brett of the University of Cincinnati to become lead investigator on a project that would involve graduate students as well. Dr. Brett had begun his career in paleontology with some post doc work on the same fauna of the Kirkfield formation. At the time I was a research associate at the Cincinnati Museum and the connection seemed natural. The project lasted some ten years and generated multiple abstracts, a PhD thesis for Tim Paton at UC and a subsequent paper (Paton et al 2019) that described the occurrence. A second paper formally revised the stratigraphic record of the quarries in the Lake Simcoe area. Among the goals of the project was to generate a collection of material that would become part of a Canadian museum collection. Happily, this coincided with a project by the Royal Ontario Museum to build a new invertebrate gallery. The present curator of Invert paleo, Jean Bernard Caron became a valuable collaborator and now the collection cabinets are and exhibit spaces of the ROM are well stocked with important material from this research site. Recently we published a paper (Moysiuk et al 2022) describing a new arthropod, a marellomorph named Tomlinsonus dimitrii (after the quarry company and my father respectively) showing exceptional soft tissue preservation. The specimen itself was collected by Marc Haensel (pictured on my profile page in the background photo) who made important contributions to site work since 2019. In the end it is important to note that the project was very costly to undertake and even the acquisition of a collection of material by the ROM was only made possible by a personal subsidy of my own. There are few ways to make a decent living in the world of paleontology. Competition for jobs is extreme and markets are also very competitive as well as complicated by the specialized nature of fossil collecting. To conclude this introduction I would like to express my gratitude for the support received from academic colleagues and individual collectors. I have not yet visited the ROM to see the specimens I excavated and prepared on display but hope to soon. I would encourage anyone passing through Toronto to stop at the ROM to see the new gallery and marvel at the work of so many individuals brought together to show the fossil heritage of Ontario. Images show representative fossils from the site George E. Kampouris

Has anyone on here had a good experience with fossil preparation services? I’m not asking for specific companies (as I know this might be a breach of TFF community rules), just wanting to know if anyone has had good results with fossil prep companies in general. I’ve got a couple of nice-ish Devonian trilobite partials in need of prep and am too impatient to prep them myself. Also full air scribe setups are extremely expensive, this isn’t even taking into account that there are no spare rooms in my house for a fossil prep workshop. Meaning, I would either have to build onto the house or build a shed for my prep equipment. I apologize for rambling on a bit here, just wanted to make it clear that I really don’t have any other options.

Just started searching for fossils since moving to central New York. These are some finds from Madison County. I was hoping for some help, I know they are trilobites, but not the species. There were also some shells I was curious about. Thanks.

Found these in mid June 2022 in broken up shale on the bank of Nowadaga Creek in east-central New York. The cephalon head was found 1 foot away from that body. To make the image “pop”, I doused a rag with a few drops of mineral oil and gently rubbed it on the shale. Unsure what the actual trilobite species is. Triarthrus eatoni, beckii, other?

FINALLY getting around to posting about my first time ever fossil hunting in Oklahoma! Went on an extended weekend with the Paleontological Society of Austin to a variety of locales in Central OK - places I have heard about, read about and dreamed about going! I finally made it! And it was so very worth the drive, even if I did end up with a stupid cold the last two days (the drive home was a little....weird. Cold "fugue" makes for interesting driving- I really don't remember much of it, which is either good or bad....) But the FOSSILS! I've never hunted the Ordovician and Silurian so it was a real treat to find some new fauna. Of course I also brought home some micro matrix to extend my "hunting" fun. I was happy to find what I most wanted - a decent flat trilo and some good rollers. The rollers still need to be prepped a bit, but that is not my forte, so I have to find someone to get it done for me. But I also found some great stuff I wasn't expecting to find! I got there a day early and had scouted out some places to check - a lovely creek which supposedly had lots of species of trilobites, but all I found were some brachiopods and such. It was HOT. 98 degrees and humid, just like I had left behind in Central Texas. It was much greener though! Beautiful rolling hills and a lovely creek, but I didn't stay there long. I had another spot which I was pretty sure would be a winner. And yep, it was. Turned out some of the Society was there also, so I joined a half dozen of them already hunting. I was hoping to find an echinoderm called Oklahomacystis. The group had already found a half dozen or so, so I asked to see what they looked like. I had seen pictures, but it's always good to see something in the field to know what you are looking for. I was super happy to find a nice big one, fairly well preserved. I wasn't there very long, so I didn't find a lot, but I found a few nice things. Some cool Bryozoans and lovely Brachiopod with nice color: A Gastropod: The next morning was our first "official" PSoA site - Yellow Bluff. The weather took a dramatic turn overnight and we woke up to cold and drizzle! We hoped the drizzle would stay just that or quit altogether. It turned out perfect...the occasional drizzle but a wonderfully cool mid 60's day!! Apparently last time the Society had been out there it was in the 90s and miserable. So we lucked out. Yellow Bluff is on private land and we had made arrangements ahead of time. What I was NOT expecting was the scramble up a creek bank ravine followed by having to hop a barbed wire fence (which other members assured me had NOT been there before) and then found out the other group had found a much easier way up..... ah well. It was an adventure. This place is BIG...I didn't even really get to explore the Silurian stuff up above. I stayed mostly in the flat area and found wonderful crinoid parts, the occasional trilo bit, some great brachiopods and bryozoans. And FINALLY, after getting a little frustrated because all around me I hear "I found a Trilo!" (not everyone, but it seemed like it...) I finally found a whole trilobite and I have to say, it's pretty nice. cleaned up as much as I could A few more finds: A desegmented crinoid cup: a really neat little curled crinoid arm a little floating crinoid We were all looking for a newly described species of starfish that one of the PSoA members had found last time they were there - about 3 years ago. Alas, none were found. His is still the only one. I was hoping maybe this was one, but I think it's crinoid. A Gastropod Platyceras and some cool little tiny things from my micro matrix We finished out the day with some good food and conversation and got ready for the next day which I was most excited about - Black Cat Mountain! I had made arrangements to go to this amazing site and boy did it exceed my expectations. I found 49 Trilos -some just bits, but most whole! The place is enormous. Some of the group went off to hammer away at the stone to get the fossils- I prefer surface collecting. I just put my nose to the ground and found all kinds of great finds! Granted, they may not be the best finds, but I was super happy with what I found. I wasn't looking for the fancy stuff, I just wanted a couple of good rollers. I love the eyes!! And these aren't even cleaned up....just washed a nice big pygidium A Huntoniatonia impression with the part of the tail visible And of course there were some other really cool finds, like these button bryozoans: and of course a plethora of brachiopods: plus some nice size Cephalopods Oh, and last but not least, this cute tarantula and his little house: I was warned about rattlesnakes and was all prepared with my snake shin guards, but I think the temp was too cool for them so no sign of them this trip! Which was just fine with me. I'll stick with bugs and spiders, thanks so much!

I was wondering if anyone had a good list on different species found in the Conasauga Formation? I've found a few references to trilobites, but I was especially curious about non-trilobite species such as brachiopods, sponges, non-trilobite arhtropods, etc.

My grandson sent me photos of his little haul from today on his beach He is nearly 8 and loves checking his local beach. He has compared what he found with photos in his kid’s books of fossils. He’s wondered if these are trilobites and crinoids all- the last 2 photos are the same find. He has been asked to show some of his fossils in a special exhibition in the Laing Art gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne called “These are Our Treasures “ which will coincide with the display of the Lindisfarne Gospels. He feels quite excited by this!

I was able to take another trip to the Leighton Formation today! It's been a while since I've been able to visit (months and months), but I've finally been able to. Unfortunately, during the winter the place is completely covered in snow and ice. Not really the best collecting conditions... My last trip there was in August of last year, and the spring has been very busy. Today it was time. It was supposed to be overcast with a chance of rain, but it came out sunny and bright. Absolutely beautiful day out. The collecting was very good. I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the site. I was working in the same spot as last time, and at another outcrop a little farther down the shoreline. Place hasn't changed much, still as minuscule and weathered as ever. I had a better idea where to look though. Last time, I collected a lot, but I was mainly working in layers where the fossils were very evident. These layers contained a plethora of brachiopods, ostracods, tentaculites and other invertebrates - plus my first conodont. This time, though, I was going to try something a little different. The layers between the extremely fossiliferous layers had finer sediments, and generally seemed to keep the specimens intact better. I chose to mainly work in what I now call the "Chonetes layer". It's the only layer in these outcrops that contain Chonetes bastini brachiopods. The layer doesn't shatter as much as the other shale, so the pieces come out without a lot of cracking. It was also the same place that I found a nice trilo-bit, and I was hoping it would pay off. It did... The best finds of the day went to the trilobite cephalons. I found two Acaste cf. zerinae sp. - mostly intact, but an eye cracked off on the first, and both on the second. I was (luckily) able to find them, and I intend to glue them back on. At least the external molds are completely intact. In all of the following pictures, internal molds come first, external molds second. Cephalon #1, the one-eyed wonder. Cephalon #2 - missing both of the eyes. Sad, it would have been so nice too... Then came the pygidia - four of them! I believe that they are all the same species as the cephalons - A. zerinae - but I could be wrong. I'm sure the trilo-experts here can help me with that. Pygidium #1, the nicest one. Pygidium #2 - this little guy got a bit beat up when the rock split. Pygidium #3 - little bugger needs to be prepped a bit. Pygidium #4 - the internal mold of this cracked in half - and it's missing a piece. This one's a neat little trace fossil. It looks like an infilled burrow to me, but I'll set up a separate thread for that - with better pictures. And this very odd little guy. Another one I'll have to take better pictures on, and as soon as the matrix is pared down a bit I will scrutinize it under a microscope. It's not very evident, but it feathers out at the right end. It could be mineral staining or something, but I'm not sure yet. Then the stuff I couldn't bear to leave behind. I was trying to keep my collecting to new stuff, but some of them just sneaked in there... I feel like we've all experienced this before. Orbiculoidea sp. brachiopod. Lingula sp. brachiopod. Leiopteria rubra bivalve. It was a pretty good day. On top of these finds, I brought back some promising shale pieces to look for micro-fossils in - and a few more interesting unknowns. But that's for another time.. Thanks for reading!

Hello! I saw this Dicaranarus monstrosus fossil online, I want to know if it's authentic or not. Thank you for any help!

Hello all! I'm looking to do some more fossil hunting this summer and I would love to find a good spot for trilobites. I am in western Maryland, and am willing to travel up to 2 hours. Most of the sites I've searched so far have been largely dominated by brachiopods and crinoids (which are still cool), but I really would love to find other species. If anyone has a good site which has trilobites (or anything else super cool) please let me know!! Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated! PS: I understand wanting to keep your spot secret, so if you don't want to post in this thread, don't hesitate to PM me!

I've been out quite a bit this season, but still haven't had my "wow" trip-maker yet. Due to various situations, most of my digging has been very local, with one away trip to Quebec. For local sites, I've been prospecting new spots and doing due diligence on old ones, too. Around me is Devonian, and more particularly the ugly portions of the Devonian of Ontario that are parsimonious, tough, sometimes lacking in bedding planes, occasionally blank or cherty, and generally displaying fossils as they might appear after being thoroughly whipped in a Ninja blender. But, hey, it's always fun to get out. New site #1: Amherstburg Fm material (L-M.Devonian) Not the best facies of the Amherstburg Fm, but certainly some stromatoporoid action for those who enjoy the lumpy-bumpy spreaders. It isn't the mid Devonian of my city without bumping into a rostroconch. I swear these things are stalking me. A chalk-cherty mass and a view of a very busy coral layer. Another coral layer Bryozoans galore, and some of these can spread quite an area. All bryozoans, but indicative of the diversity among them in this material. More coral horizons -- a colony and some solitary cups Giant colony Big stromato... and close-up:

Hello FF! I’ve recently taken home some neat fossils from the Waldron Shale in southern Indiana. I’m new to taking fossil collecting seriously, and thus have little experience in trying to properly prep them. For some, the surrounding matrix often crumbles when I take so much as a dental pick to them, though a toothbrush and soapy water hardly yield results after scrubbing for a while. For others, I can hardly get anything to work (such as the large trilobite mold below). The tools I have present are a dental pick, a toothbrush, water (and dish detergent), a small chisel, a hammer, and a jug of muriatic acid, though I have read the muriatic acid should be used as more of a last resort. I just don’t know if I’m doing the methods I’m currently using wrong (likely), or if I need new methods altogether. For the trilobite mold, I’ve been scrubbing and dental picking for 2 hours with little to show, so perhaps I should alter my methods. Lastly, I plan on purchasing an air scribe in the near future, so is that something I should get before working on these further? Thank you kindly for your time and help!

Anybody know the species of these two trilobites?

Today I had the pleasure of fossil hunting Deep Springs Road with @Dean Ruocco, Alan Lang, Cynthia, and Marcus. This was my first trip to hunt in NY, while I was hoping for a Dipleura, I was able to see a nice big one be found (I will let Dean post it) Additionally I had some fun take homes that are not too common for my PA honeyhole. The day mostly consisted of Dean, Marcus, and Myself cutting in a bench and working it hard. Cynthia was wearing down some of our spoil piles and providing insight into what exactly we were looking at. Alan was generous letting us use his tools and providing valuable pointers on digging practices. My take homes include: Greenops (Pretty uncommon at my Honeyhole) Eldredgeops (While common in PA, I hear they are uncommon at DSR) Various Bivalves and Brachiopods (I'm always a fan of matrix free shells) Photos of my haul:

Hi! I am a fossil enthusiast with no formal education in the field. My day job is a jeweler/metalsmith and most of my work is fossil and mineral related. I've been lurking on the forum for years and I'm excited to finally be a member! Maranda

Booking a family trip to northern Arkansas! Finding a trilobite is on my daughter and my “dream come true!” list! Any recommended destinations or places to look would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Took another trip to the Mahantango (Devonian) over the weekend. Went with @Dean Ruocco While my haul was not too terrific, I did manage to grab some stuff to use as trade pieces / donor pieces. Dean did manage to get some nice trilobites but I will let him post those Brachiopod plate: Normally I would leave this as they are a dime a dozen at my locality but figured I would grab this to give to a friend who is trying to get some material to use in a display cabinet at the college he teaches at. Trilobites: Again not the best stuff but always fun to get more bugs. All these I believe to be Eldregeops rana

Hey everyone! So recently I purchased some unprepared Moroccan trilobites. I am having a very hard time preparing them and am making a lot of mistakes. And I was just wondering if these maybe are not the best for practice for a beginner, or is it just me? Thanks, @fossilhunter21