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Hello fellow fossil peeps, I am finally adding myself on here as I was told to do by Asa Kaplan almost a year ago. I love finding fossils and making new discoveries or new to me discoveries. I love to learn and I am joining here to learn more and possibly spread some of the things I have learned as well. I live in Missouri south of St. Louis in Jefferson County. This is primarily where I collect in various groups and formations including the decorah group, plattin group, kimmswick fm, warsaw fm, fern glen fm, and St. Louis fm. Favorite fossils right now are cyclocystoids. I have found the one in my profile pic and several hundred more individual submarginal ossicles and 2 more partially articulated rings (one that is also nearly complete). 2nd favorite thing to hunt for is either cephalopods or trilobites and it depends on my mood and location I am searching. Locally we can find a lot of straight cephalopods such as endoceras, actinoceras, cameroceras but coiled nautiloids and ammonites are rare to non-existent in these formations. In Missouri full or even close to full trilobites are also rare finds although I have been lucky to find a few over the past 2 years they are still very rare. Bryozoans and the wild diversity are also a favorite and very diverse in my area. Archimedes, Evactinopora radiata, diplotrypa, and others are prevalent locally. Thank you,

Sometimes, when you go on a fossil hunt, you find more than just fossils. Some friends and I traveled to southeastern Iowa in Spring '18 to scour the Mississippian for fossils, but while there, we noticed that many of the homes that we drove by sported geodes in their front yards. Intrigued, we decided to investigate for ourselves. As it turns out, the area is well-known for its geodes (Iowa's state rock is the geode), so we promptly decided that we had to collect some for ourselves. We eventually found a privately owned piece of property where we could fill a bucket with geodes for about $20, descended upon a stream cutting into the bedrock, and filled a bucket in short order. Then, on a return trip to Iowa a month later, we found another outcrop of geodes along the Mississippi River. Once again, we collected handfuls. Then, once we got back, we split them with a geode cracker. They varied in quality; some were stunningly beautiful, and others were less so. They were filled with all manner of minerals: some had chalcedony fillings; others had quartz crystals, and still others had minerals that I didn't recognize. The colors varied, too: pink, white, light blue, red, and brown. As it turns out, we were a little overzealous in our efforts; we collected about 50 pounds of rocks. We've given them away to as many friends would like them and have only just now run out of them a year later. Pictured below is a fraction of the haul. If you happen to find yourself in this neck of the woods, then remember: the Osagean of Iowa and Illinois has more than just crinoids. If you would like more information on them, where you can hunt for them, or even the annual Geode Fest, then check out this link. http://keokukiowatourism.org/geodes/index.php