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This appears to me to be a somewhat smashed axial lobe of a Ameura missouriensis, and the first one I have found with the thorax. I found it in the Winterset Limestone Member of the Pennsylvanian, Kansas City Group, near Kansas City, Missouri. Does this ID seem right to you folks? Actually, the thing I want to do is exclude the (highly remote, I know) possibility of an eurypterid. I'm not sure if there is much more to prep as the fossil just disappears into the matrix. Russ

I was going through my trilobite pygidiums and cephalons from the Winterset of the Pennsylvanian Kansas City group and I found this cephalon that seems different from the others I have. In particular, the genal spine seems curved. In the photos you can see both the internal mold and, in the other half of the split, the inside of the shell. I assume the pygidium beside it is belongs to the same creature, but I could be wrong. Any help with the ID will be appreciated. Russ

In praise of my faithful old walking stick and why I carry it fossil hunting: · To clear cobs’ webs from my path · To serve as a third leg on slopes and uneven ground · To clack on boulders advising the residents (especially snakes) that I am about · To extend to a friend helping him get up that last few feet of cliff · To probe among stones where I’m leery of putting my hand · To hold aside the leafy foe – poison ivy · Or the spiny foe · To help carry my bag of rocky treasures, suspended from the “handle” · To look very slightly less defenseless than an empty-handed old man · To act as a crutch when I have just stepped wrong and cracked my tibia and fibula above the ankle Here’s the story on the last one. Yesterday, I went with my friend, Mike, to a favorite fossil hunting spot. It’s a rock face (Winterset) about 100 yards of brush, small ditches, mud, rocky-rubble, and tangley-vines off the road. I was delighting in a couple of newfound trilobits and some cephalopod pieces as we gathered our finds and backpack and headed toward the car. A few yards later I stepped into a small ditch where my foot slipped and stuck at an odd angle between two large rocks, while my body continued forward. I felt my ankle wrenching. It’s an odd sensation and I knew I had done something nasty to it. Mike helped me get up and gave me a hand as he could along the way while we spent the next five years getting back to the car. My mainstay for this journey was my old walking stick. Imagine a single four-foot crutch – not ideal but worlds better than nothing. The doctor commented later that afternoon, “Well you really did it!’ I had. Tibia and fibula were cracked above the ankle. So, you may understand my sentimentality. It’s just a nicely shaped limb of osage orange, straightened a bit, with a metal cap on the bottom. My son (he’s forty) made it for me. But I’ve used it a hundred times in the last few years and it’s a sort of faithful companion. If I lost my 10x Belomo loupe, my Estwing rock pick, my phone, my backpack, or even (gulp!) a bag of newly-found fossils, I would kick myself; but loosing my old walking stick would sadden my heart. Russ

I could use some help with the ID for these tiny fossils. I found them in the Pennsylvanian Subsystem, the Kansas City Group, at the top of the Winterset L.S. Member and at another site in the Kansas City Group that I cannot identify (I don’t know what it is). Most of the specimens I have found were in fist-size nodules of tan/yellowish limestone. These specimens are all around 1 cm in size and the tiny nodes/spines are 1 mm or so. After having seen dozens of these specimens, I have observed that most of them consist of a round disc about 1 cm in size with the tiny “spines” pointing towards the center. Picture #3, however, shows one that is elongated rather than round. In picture #2 I have circled the specimen with the "cap" still covering most of the spines in black and circled some of the exposed spines in blue. In picture #5 I circled and area that contains the "cap" under which are the "spines". I took these photos with my point and shoot camera on a tripod and my 10x loupe held against the lense. It works surprisingly well, yet as you can tell the pictures vary in quality and are hard to focus. I use a photo editor to crop the pictures so the images you see below are about 1/10 the area of the originals. Any tips you can give me on getting better pictures of tiny fossils will be appreciated. I look forward to any help you can give me. Russ

This specimen was a surprise to me. At first glance, because of the delicate fibrous appearance and the wood color, I thought it was a modern piece of wood embedded in the middle of a boulder. Closer examination, however, revealed what you see in the pictures. This specimen is from the Winterset Limestone Member in the Kansas City Group, Pennsylvanian subsystem. It is about 1 cm long with a short branch off to the side. The specimen is split in half laterally and the pictures show the two halves that fit together. There were various brachiopods and half of a nice four-inch involutely coiled nautiloid (at least I think that is what it is) in the same boulder. The fossil is siliceous and has well-preserved, tiny fibers which are the color of wood. Although, it may be that the color is actually the same dusty red-brown or dusty purple as some other fossils in this member (mostly brachiopods). From the scant resources I have on hand for plant identification, I have guessed that it might be a Calamites. Any help with identification will be appreciated. Russ Russ

This specimen is from the Winterset Limestone Member in the Kansas City Group, Pennsylvanian Subsystem. It is somewhat fragile (I broke off two small pieces and then repaired it), so I have not be able to remove it from its matrix. The fossil is about 2x1 cm. There are small brachiopods and a bit of fan bryozoan on the rock as well. I have not seen any other fossils like this one in the area. It might be a gastropod, but the “base” of the fossil seems oblong, as though it came to a point (but is now broken) and the fossil does not really look spiral (although it is hard to tell). There are two photos of the front view; in addition there is a photo from the right side and another from the left side. Any help regarding identification will be appreciated.

I have been a fossil hunter for about two years and I suppose I have around 100 species in my collection. The vast majority of my specimens are incomplete/broken but even so I find them fascinating. Here in Kansas City I have enjoyed the Winterset, Middle Creek, and Sniabar limestone members in the Kansas City Group--all in the Pennsylvanian subsystem. Often, however, I am not able to identify the specific members or formations in the road-cuts that I frequent. Some of my grandchildren enjoy going fossil hunting with me, and it is great being in nature and hiking some with them too. Recently I have discovered the microfossils in some nodules/concretions and have made good use of my 10x loupe (I do not have a microscope yet). Beginning collectors like myself are fortunate to have a wonderful resource for this part of the country—Richard Gentile’s book called Rocks and Fossils of the Central United States, with special Emphasis on the Greater Kansas City Area (Univ. of Kansas Dept. of Geology, 2011). My copy is getting worn, wrinkled, and taped from steady reference and sometimes being in my backpack. The Fossil Forum has also been an important source of information for me these last two years, and now I hope to participate more actively. In addition, I hope to choose a focus or two to concentrate on and perhaps move beyond the beginning stages of collecting with this specialization. My thanks in advance to those members of the forum who will being responding to my questions.

Here are some Pennsylvanian gastropods I found years ago that are mostly free of matrix, which is unusual around these parts: Winterset Limestone Jackson County, Missouri They include Hypselentoma, Knightites, and one other that is too tiny to id. Because they are so pristine, I suspected that they were silicified. A scratch on a glass bottle confirmed it. The next thing that came to mind is that if I could find the limestone bed from which they came, I could extract some more with acid. I had returned to the exposure in the past, but I didn't find any more gastropods. I'll have to find them in the matrix. I plan to swing by the area tomorrow....