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Does somebody know if the Jince quarry is still open? Greetings, Jasper

Hi all, here is another of my recent models. It is a full-scale Olenoides serratus trilobite I did this summer. Like my Archaeopteryx skeleton, it was modelled in Blender and printed using an Anycubic Photon printer. I used clear resin and painted it with very thin layers, such that the model retains a realistic level of translucency, especially on the legs, gills and antennae. Attached are some photographs and a render of the parts. You can download the model files at thingiverse to print your own one. The length without antennae is about 7cm. Cheers, Thorsten

Does anyone know anything about the possible hyolithid fossils found in Newport RI? Is it legal to collect over there?

Hey everyone, I’ve been meaning to get this post up for a few days but I’ve been dealing with my poor cat inky (Sweetheart of a cat) who is on her final day of life today. I will have to put her down November 1st. Very sad time as she’s been my companion the last 13 years. I’m sure many can relate. I’ll try to keep the chatter short and just get up as many photos I can for you kind people on the forum to enjoy. I just got back recently from an amazing trip to Utah and Nevada (Oct/11/2020-Oct/18/2020) Where I was camping in the field and trilobite collecting for 6 days straight. It was a very rewarding trip but it also required some serious gusto and hard work in the field. This type of collecting I did isn’t for the faint of heart with many days stacked on top of each other. With that I’ll try to get to the photos cause we all know that’s what we wanna see. These will consist of mostly field shots of finds during the first moments after discovery. My prep lab is under construction and it’ll be a couple months before I can start prepping these amazing bugs. First time to Utah requires pictures upon arrival. This was home....the nights got very cold and the days were comfortable but dry and sometimes kinda hot. Avoided some serious heat so I was lucky. This time of year is a little more forgiving in the desert. field shots incoming! It may take a hour or 2 to get them up.

Micro-CT lets scientists see telling 3D details in arthropod evolution Juan Siliezar, Harvard University The open access paper is: Liu, Y., Ortega-Hernández, J., Chen, H. et al. Computed tomography sheds new light on the affinities of the enigmatic euarthropod Jianshania furcatus from the early Cambrian Chengjiang biota. BMC Evol Biol 20, 62 (2020). Yours, Paul H.

I had attempted to ID similar fossils awhile ago but feel they were lost in the trilobite photos. So today, I will only present these new unknown "blobs" from the Cambrian , Eau Claire Formation of western Wisconsin in hopes to definitively ID these. Maybe they are even geologic. Good Luck!!!!! Mike

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hunting with @GeschWhat and her daughter. We examined the Eau Claire Formation of the Cambrian in western Wisconsin. Lori had little interest in the trilobites that frequent this formation. She kept busy examining the matrix for trace fossils and other goodies it may reveal. She left the trilobites for her daughter. A large slab had broken free from the cliff during the winter and Lori discovered an interesting pattern on the surface. We worked on extracting a substantial chunk for her and in the process found a deeper layer of trilo-bits. I am a hash plate fanatic. So after she was done with the slab, I extracted a large sample containing the trilobites. Here is a corner of the hash plate: So the contest is a mindless one!!!!!! My kind of event. The person that guesses the number of trilobite cephalons and pygidiums on the hash plate is the winner!! The count was made using identifiable bits. Three counts were made and then averaged. One guess a day until a winner is found. At that point, I will share the hash plate with you and mail a smaller version to the winner. (Unfortunately postage out of the US can be spendy, so I will pay $20.00 if those overseas would like to participate). Good Luck! Mike

Last year, to celebrate finishing my undergraduate degree, my girlfriend and I went on a long (9,000+ mile) road trip around the western US and at long last (a little over a year since their discovery) the last of the fossils we found are out of the refrigerator and I’ve finally gotten all of them photographed. Here are some of the highlights and best fossils we found. A rough map of the route of the trip While the trip wasn’t entirely fossil centric we wanted to hunt at a few cool spots along the way. We chose to visit 5 fossil locations, the first of which was Clarkia Fossil Bowl in Idaho, a fantastic location for Miocene age leaves (Langhian Stage, ~15Mya) tucked behind a motocross track. These poor fossils have been through it all in the year between when they were found and when I finally got them dry. They’ve been soaked several times, gone mouldy twice, frozen at least once and flown across the Atlantic Ocean, all before spending the last 8 months in the refrigerator. Amazingly all but two of them survived perfectly including one of my favourite finds, a tiny flower. A maple leaf (genus Acer) still partly covered in matrix but with the stem intact. At some point I hope to get this one prepared. The best leaf find of the trip, with beautiful red coloration and mottling from fungus. A partial leaf, with beautiful vein preservation. The next spot was the American Fossil quarry in Kemmerer Wyoming to look for Eocene fish (Green River Formation, Ypresian Stage, ~53-48Mya). Splitting though the material left out by the quarry we found a few fish, primarily Knightia and Diplomystus. The best Knightia, including the best fish of the day with its head still partly covered. Some of the Diplomystus. The first needs some repair as it broke through the tail. The second has a counterpart as well and I’m hoping to frame it soon. And a mystery fish, I don’t know what species this is, it could just be Knightia or Diplomystus but it doesn’t look like the others we found. The star find came close to the end of the time at the quarry, a section of a puddle layer packed full of Knightia, at least a dozen fish piled on top of each other. The quarry manager was kind enough to let me take the blocks without splitting them thinner since the material is full of fractures and likely would not have survived. The layer as it split in the quarry (US size 13 hiking boot acting as a rough scale). The three pieces I managed to recover. The blocks are currently in a storage unit in Washington until I can figure out how to get them prepared. I am hoping the first two pieces can be reunited and the part and counterpart can be mounted side by side but I’m unsure about how to accomplish this. If anyone who prepares Green River fish has any ideas please let me know. The third locality we visited was Westgard pass in Inyo California, hunting for Cambrian archaeocyathids (Poleta Formation, Cambrian Stage 3, ~ 520Mya). We were only there a short time as there was a lot of driving to do that day, but I still managed to find one example in cross section. My girlfriend was more lucky, finding four examples. These are our favourites, particularly the third, which exhibits some dimensionality in addition to the cross-section. I’m absolutely thrilled to find anything Cambrian, and to make things even better the fossil locality is just down the road from the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, home to living trees more than 4,000 years old and one of my favourite spots on the whole trip. We also visited Capitola Beach to search for rolled cetacean bone. I found two examples with one clearly showing the cancellous internal bone texture. To cap off the trip I wanted to do a fossil hunt in my home state of Washington. Since I still don’t know where to go to look for the elusive Pulalius crab, we decided to search the West Twin River site for shrimp concretions (Pysht Fomration, Oligocene, ~22-33Mya). We found over a dozen of these containing partial shrimp. I think they are all Callianopsis clallamensis since this is a common species at this locality. The first concretion that I found after identifying the right material. Another shrimp nodule containing a large section of claw. The head of a shrimp. Two non-crustaceans, a gastropod internal mould and a beautiful white bivalve in a small concretion. A mystery concretion with something eroding out from both ends. And last, one of the strangest concretions I have ever seen. The outside is hardened but the inside is a soft clay consistency with several bits of shrimp shell, completely the opposite of the hard in the middle concretions I’m used to. In all, it was a fantastic trip. I would love to go back to all the sites we visited, and there is so much more to explore next time I’m stateside. I’m looking forward to getting out hunting again. Stay tuned for the next big trip to celebrate finishing our masters. Benton

What is the oldest and the youngest fossil in your collection? My oldest fossil is a Elrathia trilobite (Cambrian) and my youngest, maybe some shark teeth (Cenozoic)

Hello again Fossil Forum, Last week I posted a few pictures of what I thought might be fossil wood that I found on my property in Southeastern PA (Montgomery County, just over the Philadelphia County line). It seemed that it was possible that my rocks were fossils, but also maybe not... One helpful user suggested that I might polish some of the ends (hopefully crossections) of a few pieces. So below and in the next few replies I will post some pictures of a few pieces, for the polished parts I used a cabbing machine. I live at the bottom of a relatively steep hill and these pieces were all found within about 50ft of each other. If there seems to be some variety, that is in keeping with what I found after consulting several geological maps of my area: my property appears to lie at the precise intersection of precambrian, lower paleozoic, and cambrian regions and includes both sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. If not fossil wood, possibly stromatolites? ...or just more interesting rocks?? For discussion purposes I'll number the pieces and put them in separate replies. Thank you again for any thoughts, information, and opinions!

Hi All, Recently I purchased some Shale from U-Dig, UT. The trilobites inside were super swell, but one of the more interesting finds was this...thing... It appears to be a circular mass, with some veins or something radiating from the center. My hopeful brain began to think it could be a jellyfish, though realistically it is highly unlikely, and I've never heard of anything like that being preserved in the shale from U-dig. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as I am at an ABSOLUTE loss. Thanks, -Snag

Meet Cambroraster falcatus, the sediment-sifting ‘Roomba’ of the Cambrian This crustacean-like critter stalked the seas half a billion years ago. Katherine Wu, NOVA,, July 30, 2019 Moysiuk, J. and Caron, J.B., 2019. A new hurdiid from the Burgess Shale evinces the exploitation of Cambrian infaunal food sources. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 286 (1908), p.20191079. Open access Proceedings of the Royal Society B PDF Brantford Lapidary and Mineral Society PDF Sun, Z., Zeng, H. and Zhao, F., Occurrence of the hurdiid radiodont Cambroraster in the middle Cambrian (Wuliuan) Mantou Formation of North China. Journal of Paleontology, 1(6), p.2. More research by Fangchen Zhao Liu, Y., Lerosey-Aubril, R., Audo, D., Zhai, D., Mai, H. and Ortega-Hernández, J., 2020. Occurrence of the eudemersal radiodont Cambroraster in the early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte and the diversity of hurdiid ecomorphotypes. Geological Magazine, pp.1-7. Open access Pates, S., Botting, J.P., McCobb, L.M. and Muir, L.A., 2020. A miniature Ordovician hurdiid from Wales demonstrates the adaptability of Radiodonta. Royal Society Open Science, 7(6), p.200459. Open access Yours, Paul H.

Found this guy while cleaning out a drawer today. From the Wulongqing Formation (Lower Cambrian, Series 2 Stage 4) in China. I would have guessed Eoredlichia but the long spines (on the third thorax segment I think) are throwing me off. The specimen is quite small, barely 1cm at the longest dimension, so maybe an early developmental stage? It was a bit hard to photograph, let me know if more pictures are needed. Thanks.

I just received this "phyllocarid" valve from the Marjum Formation (Middle Cambrian) of Utah. It was sold as Canadaspis perfecta. It measures about 1" long and 3/4" tall. Although I don't have a compass, the angles between the hinge line and both the anterior and posterior margins of the valve look to be less than 100 degrees. Several papers I've read state that these angles are usually closer 120 in Canadaspis. Any thoughts on what this might be?

Hey there everyone. I’m currently up in New York hunting for fossil, and tomorrow I’ll be riding through PA and have been itching to collect at the Kinzers Formation and was wondering if anybody in the forum was familiar with any public access areas to find any Cambrian material? I’ve done a fair amount of reading and it seems like a lot has either been over-collected or is in closed quarries. Any information would be greatly appreciated!

A friend has a trilobite marked as Eoptychoparia piochensis from the Cambrian of Pioche, Nevada (Pioche Formation). I wasn't familiar with it and looked it up but couldn't find much info at all. Is that genus valid (maybe just rare)? I collected a couple of different spots out there about twenty years ago - didn't find much - and don't remember hearing about E. piochensis. Thanks, Jess

Hi all, Once again we are back from a weekend of fossil sleuthing in south eastern Arizona south of Tucson. The Upper middle cambrian Abrigo formation is mostly limestones, but the lowermost member is either a dark grey shale, or green glauconitic micaceous shale. Gorgeous stuff! Three main localities were visited - the 80/90 Roadcut (mostly trilobits and brachs), Ajax Hill near Tombstone (trilobits), and and area near Colossal Cave just south of Tucson. (tons of trace fossils). Trace fossils are very abundant in both the Abrigo Formation and the slightly older Bright Angel Shale in northern Arizona. Nearly all trace fossils found were in a micaceous glauconitic green shale, in isolated beds found throughout the Abrigo, especially in its lowest beds. The most commonly found types were from sediment ingesting worms, with a number of disks and rings from stemmed Echinoderms where they attached to the sediments. Also found were the attachment depressions of solitary and colonial cnidarians. Years of searching did not however reveal any trilobite tracks or traces. This was surprising since there are so many trilobite fossils in the Abrigo. Most fossils are in a single bed or plane and represent variations on Planolites, or Paleophycus. Another surprise was that no Skolithos was found either. This seems to indicate we are in a deeper water environment rather than near shore like the Tapeats or Bolsa sandstones. Collecting of the shales was pretty easy. Most were in big piles at the bottom of small cliffs, and often did not have to be split. Nearly all were on the bottom of the slabs (positive hyporelief) and you had to flip over the slab to see what was on the bottom. Here is a representative selection of fossils we have found at the three sites. Paleophycus Hold fast traces of a stemmed echinoderm, possibly Gogia. Bergauaria - A prize find. dozens of Cnidarian (sea anemome) suction cup marks can be seen clustered in a group on this former hardground. Thanks for looking. we put together a far more extensive write up if your interested on our paleo web site, please visit for more exciting specimens: http://www.schursastrophotography.com/paleo/Abrigo-6.html Chris

Hi all Were going through the last fossils from our long series of trips to the Cambrian Abrigo formation in south eastern Arizona, and we have a few fossils that I have not seen before. My thoughts are some sort of stem ossicle or foram like animal. What do you think? Have you seen such a thing before? Thanks.

Hello Everyone, As someone who grew up in Washington and goes back on occasion when university is out (still haven’t found a crab yet though, they’re elusive) I have a passionate interest in the fossils of my state. I have recently been going through the fossilspot.com list of find spots for Washington and noticed, much to my excitement, that there are some listings for the Cambrian. I didn’t realise we had any Cambrian, I thought it was all a little North and East of Washington. Has anyone ever gone out and tried to find these? I’d be really interested to see if these reports are valid since they are relatively patchy. I’ve tried to find where they are talking about on Google earth with a geologic map overlay. Benton

Aloha! Planning a short trip to California before I move further away, I was always fascinated by fossils. Are there any dig sites in California that rent out tools? I would love to find a trilobite or ammonite! Any tips would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

Well, not oldest but earliest. Parasite attached to brachiopods https://www.livescience.com/cambrian-parasites.html

Hey this little thing is driving me bonkers, most times I’m close to ball parking what some thing is but this I have no idea. Is it just sediment ? It’s ivory white on the outside with a chocolate brown inner layer and a light brown swirl at the center.

I’ve decided to take a break from dissertation writing and write up something else instead, one of the greatest fossil hunts I’ve been on, my trip to the Burgess Shale. Its been a little while since I got to go but here is the story as I remember it. I’ll write this up in a few parts since I took a lot of pictures and I’m going through and editing them as I go. Part 1: Going on an Adventure A little bit of background to start off. When I was younger (around 12 I think) I got the opportunity to go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Of all of the displays my favourite was a small board under glass with a half a dozen or so small dark slabs of shale, the museums display of the fossils of the Burgess Shale. I can’t remember if there actually was a Pikaia on display but I distinctly remember the Pikaia and when it came time to exit through the gift shop I went the book which had the closest looking thing on the cover. That book, needless to say, was Stephan Jay Gould’s ‘Wonderful Life’, a book which was admittedly a little above my reading level at the time but one that I was enthralled with nonetheless. I knew that one day I had to go see where they came from for myself. Fast forward to five years ago now, I had finished high school a few months previously and was one week away from starting university. For my graduation present I had been given tickets for a guided tour, my father and I were going, I was going to get to see the Walcott Quarry in the Burgess Shale. The whole trip was going to take three days, my father’s car (a beaten up red Ford Windstar which we weren’t sure was going to survive the trip) was packed was packed with tents, a small amount of other camping gear, my trusty blue backpack, and the requisite 5lb bag of trail mix and we set off on our way since the driving would take the better part of the first day. The folks at the border were a little suspicious when we told them we were going to Banff for only two days but after a half an hour or so of checking over the car we were allowed on our way again into Canada. After a few hours we started to get into the Rockies. Growing up in western Washington I’m used to big mountains but while the Cascades were large these were different. I took a few pictures out the car window, the sharp treeless peaks of some almost looked a little like teeth. After a long day’s drive we reached our campsite, just a few miles away from the parking lot where the tour would start the next day and set up camp. The next morning we were up with the sun. Our tour group consisted of about 8 of us in total, my father and I and a handful of others, mostly retired petroleum geologists. Just a few minutes up the trail and the scenery was already breath-taking with a waterfall thundering over the nearby rock face. Soon we had properly left civilisation behind and after about an hour or so of hiking, stopped at the edge of a crystal clear glacial melt water lake where the ranger went over a little about geologic time, using the ever popular calendar analogy (that humans have been around only for a few hours on the last day of the year compared to the age of the rocks we were going to see). The hiking became tougher as the incline increased, through the forest. I’d been on a fair number of hikes during my many years with scouts but I was definitely out of practice compared with the rest of the group, mostly septuagenarians, who seemed to make it up the trail like they were part mountain goat. After another little while there was a sign on the side of the trail and even though the surrounding mountains were shaded by the trees I knew we were getting closer. We stopped briefly to go over the regulations of the area, there is of course no civilian collecting in the Burgess Shale. The ranger also explained how rare the soft bodied preservation present was and passed around a map dotted with the locations of all the spots on the globe with Burgess Shale type preservation. I quickly took a picture in case I was ever nearby another one before we started on our way again. Continued in Part 2 . . .