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Location location location...I have 2 acres of my yard on a floodplain. In the middle is the source of a spring, and the far edge there is a creek. Atlanta is near, about 10 miles to the east. Etowah Indian Mounds are to the west about 10 miles. There was also a civil war battle in my yard as well. Plenty of bullets found there still. As I do metal detecting I decided to pull all strange looking "rocks" and put them in various piles. I've done this for the past 2 years and I have quite a mess..or eh, treasure. I just let the rain weather off the thick Georgia clay from the "rock piles" over the span of time and finally have something to show. I'll need a considerable amount of space to put the pictures of all the things I've found, but this forum is only allowing me a small amount right now. Check my last photo against the one Troodon posted here and let me know if you also think they are from the same beautiful beast. Mine is almost a foot long and half a foot wide and weighs just under 1 Thor's hammer. Actually - it weighs 18 pounds. That's about 3 pounds heavier than the egg shaped thing I found near it (not pictured). (note: pic above is from Troodon's thread here: "http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/81257-my-jurassic-park-ankylosauria-hell-creeklance-formation/" As compared to pics from my yard below:

My children have been begging us to spend a couple of holidays with them, so this year we drove from Fl to Michigan for Thanksgiving, and then over to Maine for Christmas. It was way colder than we are used to...so, LOL, last trip to Maine in winter. I had planned to stop in Mich near Alpena to fossil hunt but it was too cold. I did stop at familiar places on the way up/ The Conasuaga river bluff of mudstone, which I am still cracking, but have including one nice image from it. And then I stopped along the road cut north of St Leon, Indiania, and found my first rolled trilobite, a little flex...but also a rolled isotolus, however with a crushed face. I posted those previously, I was so excited. After Michigan, on the way to Maine, I stopped at the La Farge Quarry piles near Paulding. I only stayed briefly there, as it was late in the day, however the next morning my good wife suggested I go back for a couple of hours while she slowly got ready to travel. I jumped at the chance, even though it was only 34 degrees and raining...I thought, "Hey, I'll get there and the fossil gods will stop the rain for me" . True. I got there, chipped out a couple of things...all the shale and rock is quite hard, so I generally only had big chunks of stone. I was taking my changes. I kept looking for trilobites as I know they are common, but not easily found here. At any rate, no trilobites. Once I got back to Florida and started looking over my loot with my 10 x loop, I discovered a couple of trilobite eyes..I have been slowly cleaning them with a pin, but so far it seems like they are either singular, broken off eye pieces, or at best a cephalon, with no complete body. The larger one I posted is so interesting, because the lenses on the top of the eye are missing...there are just round little holes filled, or not with clay. However on the bottom of the eye, the lenses are in place... they even show up glassy looking under my loop. I could look at them for hours. I also found some interesting brachipods in Paulding, I am including images of those, in case anyone can help me i.d. them. They are shaped somewhat like eggs...with a fold about a third of the way in from each edge, and quite deep. I thought the first one I found must have been more circular and had probably been forced into its current shape by nature, however when I found a second one like the first, I began to question that theory. Any help would be great.I may end up posting them in the ID help area as well. Overall it was a great trip, I have much to clean, and am so thoroughly glad I can now sit outside in nice warm temperatures to do it....hey, even 65 degrees is better than the 22 below we endured in Maine.

Well, my wife wanted to attend her college reunion in Wisconsin. She was scheduled to fly out of ft Myers Sunday am, but with the hurricane scheduled for the same time, I suggested we travel to Atlanta, evacuating, and allow her to catch a plane from there. That being accomplished, I found myself with at least three days to hang around Atlanta. I remember reading about Tibbs Bridge and so decided to check it out. what a beautiful place, and if you like trilobites, this place has one in practically every piece of muds stone. There are 6 - 8 different kinds of trilobites here. Many pieces, but some nice impressions also. I did find a pygidium and thorax molt that was intact and loose in its little impression niche, but the muds tone broke in half. I felt guilty having such a good time while Irma was assailing my home town, but it was a way to keep my mind off the possibilities... However horrific. The good news is my house is intact, guess those hurricane windows were a good investment. Please keep our area and all of Irma and Harvey's victims in your thoughts... And contribute if you can. I'm am adding an image of one of my favorite finds from this trip. Don't know what it is yet, I'll have to do some research when I get home.

Hi all! I am a teacher of 23 years. I have taught all subjects and all grades 4-8 (9-13 years old). I have coached the Fossils events and I have taught earth science for many years. I have a giant collection of rocks (mostly in boxes scattered around the house) and a good number of fossils that I have accumulated over the years. Most them I know what they are, but there are few that I need help identifying. I got sparked into joining the forum because of a "rock" one of my students brought to me last week. The rock my student brought to me was found in Montenegro this summer. I was not there so I do not know the exact location, except for she was on a "beach". I will post photos I took in the fossil ID section because I know absolutely nothing about the geology of Montenegro and searching gave me some information, but most of it I could not read. She is going to write down the name of the place she found it. Once I get that information I will post it.