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I am currently traveling up north toward NE Ohio. On the way up while driving on US-40, I stopped off at sizable outcrops of the Monongahela Group just NW of Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. In fallen blocks of sandstone, I came across these compressed fossilized wood. 7.1 mm between lines on the paper. Stupidly I forgot to grab my scale bar from my truck. I also stopped by Washington PA to check out the outcrops reported behind the Walmart and Sam’s Club on Trinity Point Drive. It appears these have become very badly eroded and overgrown. Maybe there’s a trick here or some better options to find fossiliferous material here but I couldn’t work it out.

Hi group! What is your opinion? I bring you this rarity, which seems to be divided into segments, something I had never seen around here until now in my Carboniferous area. It reminds me slightly of an arthropod, maybe it could even resemble an arachnid. Or maybe they are just plant remains! Note that there are some sort of indentations in some of the fossil segments and there is an area (vaguely reminiscent of an abdomen) that is oval. It comes from the Upper Carboniferous Estephanian B (Saberien) of León, Spain. Alethopteris zeilleri megafloral zone. Thanks you!!!

I have found several of these in an outcropping of shale and limestone in the Iola Formation in Northeastern Oklahoma (middle Pennsylvanian). The longest dimension is about 15 mm (≈ 5/8 inch). Some of the other specimens are slightly larger, but all have the same pattern of bumps. (I photographed this one because it shows the least wear.) I’m wondering it might be the carapace of a phyllocarid or some other crustacean. Alternatively, it might be a bivalve or other mollusk. Any help with ID would be appreciated. Focus and exposure were difficult, so there are several images. Best wishes.

Hi Everyone, I've been working through quite a bit of shale from the Stark member and have a specimen I would like your thoughts on. My brain sees a crustacean claw due to the shape, but I think its more likely that it's a fin. What do ya'll think I have here? Dimensions are 1 cm by 1 cm. My "holding the phone camera to my microscope lens" method isn't working so well, so here's a rough outline of the shape: And the counterpart from the split Thanks,

The Namurian cyclothems in West Clare, Ireland originate in an environment of delta systems which deposited sediments in an offshore basin (Clare Basin) and are referred to as the Central Clare Group. There are five cyclothems comprising marine bands (conventionally considered to form the ‘base’ of each cyclothem) and upwards coarsening fine-grained and sandstone sediments. The five cyclothems are named (from oldest to youngest): Tullig, Kilkee, Doonlicky, Cyclothem IV, and Cyclothem V. The marine bands contain - among other fossils - index fossils in the form of ammonoids (goniatites). These index fossils are used to determine the stratigraphy of the cyclothems. Central Clare Group marine bands and goniatite index species (youngest at top) Cyclothem V top - R2c1 - Reticuloceras superbilingue alternatively Bilinguites superbilinguis (Bisat, 1924) Cyclothem V base - R2b - Reticuloceras wrighti alternatively Bilinguites metabilinguis Cyclothem IV base - R2 - Reticuloceras bilingue alternatively Bilinguites bilinguis (Salter, 1864) Doonlicky base - R1c - Reticuloceras reticulatum Kilkee base - R1b3 - Reticuloceras stubblefieldi alternatively Phillipsoceras stubblefieldi Tullig base - R1b2 - Reticuloceras nodosum My problem is the differentiation between these goniatite species in the field. Some of them look quite similar - to me - and in addition, they are preserved as very compressed, often crushed shells. At one location, they are firmly incorporated into concretions which appear to have dried out at some time, showing polygonal cracks filled with calcite; very handsome but even more difficult to identify. Under this topic, I have grouped images of goniatites by location and added information regarding the goniatite species recorded on the Geological Survey Ireland Spatial Resources website for each location. Any help with identification is greatly appreciated! So the first batch of images from Seafield beach, near Quilty village, County Clare, Ireland is in my collection 'ID of goniatites / ammonoids - Seafield'. The Geological Survey Ireland Spatial Resources website records Reticuloceras superbilingue, Reticuloceras bilingue and Reticuloceras stubblefieldi for this location. But which is which in the images?

Hey everyone, a few weeks ago I came across this strange object in an Upper Carboniferous, Westphalian bone bed in the Midland Valley of Scotland. This bed is full of bones, teeth, scales, coprolites etc. and is especially rich in Holocephalian tooth plates and Rhizodont bones but this object has me totally stumped, the material its made from has more of the appearance of a tooth plate than bone from this formation but I cant find anything like it. Its 14mm long. Any ideas greatly appreciated! Regards, Sam

If you have ever collected fish from the classic vertebrate locality near Linton, Ohio or have obtained fish specimens from there, I would like to share some of what I have learned about the type of fish called paleoniscoids (also spelled palaeoniscoids) that occur there. Paleoniscoid fish have thick, rhomboidal scales made of dentine-type bone with a surface of hard enamel-like material called ganoin and on the external surface of the ganoin there are pits and fine canals. They resemble (body-wise) what most people think of commonly as a “fish-shape” except they have “armor-like” scales. They are set apart from the chondrichthyans (sharks), the dipnoans (lungfish) and the coelacanths, which also occur in the Linton cannel. The Linton paleoniscoids can be divided into two family groups, the elonichthyids (1 species) and the haplolepids (6 species). I’ve attached a pdf file called “1. Identifying Linton Paleoniscoid Fish” which describes the fishes for species identification. I tried to keep the terminology minimal, but to describe the differences some was necessary. To aid in identifying haplolepid species, I have put together an illustration called “Linton Haplolepids”. The accompanying jpegs show the illustration and most of the different paleoniscoid types. Because I no longer have any specimens (see pdf file: “2. My Linton Collection and Recollections”), I cannot provide photos of two of the species. I hope this information will be useful and bring about more interest in learning about and collecting in coal measure deposits wherever they occur. 1a Identifying Linton Paleoniscoid Fish.pdf 2 My Linton Collection and Recollections.pdf

Hi. When looking at the Goniatite multiblock, from West Yorkshire, UK, I found I noticed it contains what seem to be tracks. I think they may be Trilobite tracks. They're quite hard to see but the sides of them are lines of dots. If anyone can identify them I would be very greatful. The second picture shows where the tracks are. Thanks, Daniel

My husband found this yesterday, at about 2 400 meters of height, in a place were there is no living trees. The rocks are slates and schists. It was on an hercynian volcano, rose up from the sea with the formation of the pyrenees mountains 200 million of years ago. I think it is a piece of wood. It is lighter than the stones of the same size that were around. It also exist a little chance that someone brought it there and forgot it.

I was going through some fossil containers that I haven't looked at in a long time. This came from a fossil hunt in 2009 and I noticed a tiny nodule I had picked up. I opened it the other day.. It is Pennsylvanian (upper carboniferous) and from Palo Pinto County, Texas.. At first I thought it might be a hackle fracture but once I took pics I could tell it wasn't. I am hoping someone might know.