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Hi all! Since Covid I have been able to get out in the UV Covid killing rays and do some fossil hunting...a lot of fossil hunting! I've collected a lot and shutter to think I have to clear out what I have to make room for more. I'm not a morning person by no means but had to get up at the crack of dawn to go on this 2.5 hour trip north of where I live and it was an extremely foggy, chilly morning. The day didn't disappoint. Here the finds of the day from a road cut out in the middle of nowhere. Foggy early morning hours The road cut... Horned Coral Brachiopods Crinoid Stems Archimedes Punctospirifers? Blastoids, my favorite Mississippian fossils. 3D versions as well as in matrix. Just love the matrix. The compositional value natures lays down millions of years ago is just astonishing!

Usually I go with a paleontology class to a quarry in Alabama, where the Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) Bangor Formation limestone is quarried for cement. The upper layers are too shale and silica rich for cement, so they are stripped and piled to the side. This material is what we are allowed to search. The last time we went (March 2019, no 2020 trip due to Covid-19) I brought back a small crinoid calyx that was showing on the side of a piece of rock. The rock seemed pretty solid and my experience has been that if there is more to the crinoid, forcing a split tends to break through the fossil. So, I put the rock on my back deck and forgot about it. A couple of days ago I was cleaning up and noticed the rock, and also noticed that a year and a bit of exposure to the Georgia weather had caused the rock to split. I lifted the top off and found this very nice surprise! The only prep it has received is cleaning with a tooth brush. Nice to find something, as I have not been out collecting since November. Before: After: Phanocrinus bellulus crown 4.6 cm. Don