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I hadn't blogged in a while, but here's my latest excursion (I have more but I'll have to dig up the information, and some are still pending field work/research) On July 5th I went for a drive down Beaumont, in the Memramcook region in South-Eastern New Brunswick (Canada), to check how bad the road along the coast had eroded with time since the last time I went down there rock picking. I stopped in a few places to check on the rocks down the beach wherever I could go down, and spotted the cliffs of Dorchester Cape across the Memramcook river. Hopped in the car and proceeded to make the short few kilometers trek to the other side. Location indicator shows Dorchester Cape on the map (Google Maps) Location of the cliffs The geology of the area is mostly formed of Upper Carboniferous rocks, and the location I was at is mostly Boss Point formation. The Boss Point formation is also found in Cape Enrage, Rockport, and Upper Joggins, to name a few places. The fossils that I find at the Dorchester Cape site is mostly discombobulate plant material, with dark grey to tan sandstones with some sandy conglomerate boulders lying about. Chunks of gypsum and some Albertite can be seen on the beach, as evaporites abound in the Albert Mines area, and some other unspecified locations in the Memramcook area. Albertite, and then gypsum, were an important part of the local economy, especially in Hillsborough across the river, as the geology of the surrounding area sees large deposits of various evaporites, a relic of the ancient Windsor Sea which would have receeded, giving way to vast forests and rivers. But what was most important for Dorchester Cape was the copper found in the sedimentary rocks. This copper ore, chalcocite, was discovered in the late 1860s and mined until all operations came to a stop before the First Great War. Dorchester Copper Mine. K. Vanderwolf. New Brunswick Museum. From Memramcook, I drove down the 106 towards Dorchester. Once in the village, you take the 935, which is Cape Road, heading towards Dorchester Cape. The road turns into a dirt road about 2 clicks after the train tracks. Turn into the dirt road across the Atlantic Industries Limited business site. Make your way down the road, avoiding pot holes and man made roadblocks, and you'll eventually reach the old wharf. Make your way South (left of the wharf) and head towards the cliffs near Cole Point. Looking back, view of Fort Folly Point slicing Shepody Bay. As we get closer to the rock cliffs, you can already spot coal and petrified wood on the beach. The plant fossils are mostly fragmented, showing signs of turbulence. There's some micro faulting in some places, and large sections of the cliffs are coming down in large segments. Plastered with plants/tree parts (hat for scale) The beach is littered with petrified wood, plant fossils, and chunks of coal. Middle section replaced with orange calcite crystals Some pieces are quite large (dirty hat for scale) Common theme: plants sticking out to catch some Sun One of the few holes where trees used to lie in situ The cliffs have coal seams that can reach a few inches thick. Tree imprint Nice tree sticking out (squished hat for scale) Close to the tree NOT sand (chances of lithification?)

Hi all, My friends recently visited Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia. While they were there they went on a fossil hunt with a geologist who curates the local museum. They were told that they could collect the small, loose stuff, and so brought back plenty of nice fossils. They gave a couple specimens to me, and I’m just wondering about IDing them. There are a lot of Calamites fossils among what they brought back, but I’m having trouble with the rest. I live in the Ordovician and don’t have a lot of experience with Carboniferous flora except finding a few pretties in Pittsburgh. First pic (1) has what they were told is an early seed cone. Can anyone corroborate and specify species? I was looking at Lepidostrobus but the shape seems different. Second pic (2) is one of the fossils they gave me. They thought that the top left might be part of a seed cone but I think it’s Annularia. Thoughts? And are those oval-shaped leaves Pecopteris ? Alethopteris ? And just for fun, I’ll add a couple more pictures (see comments) if anyone wants to have at it. Anyways, thanks!

So, I'm looking to get a good week-ish long trip in before July. Can't head out to Green River as planned, so I have to stick to the southeast. I have heard quite a bit about Pennsylvanian plants from 'bama, so I've decided to take a trip there while I have the chance. Any pointers as to good localities?

In the last two weeks i have found two new very promising fossil sites. They are on private land that i have permission to be on. And please don't ask where. There are so many things that i have to leave many behind. I hope i am lucky enough to find something truly amazing from these sites and share them with science and ultimately all of us. I believe this to be the first Orthacanthus sp. specimen ever found in this area of Illinois. It would be pretty neat to add this awesome predator to this fauna. As found: After prep: On the same trip i found a bone block associated with crinoids, a Metacoceras, a shark denticle, possible shark cartilage and what i believe are tetrapod bones. Please feel free and let me know what you guys think about the bones. A deep water environment with tetrapod material???? This strangely shaped bone has a thin outer layer on the "ornamental" end, almost like tooth enamel, but it's not thick enough. Continued..........

Saturday was a good day to make a new hunt in my carboniferous sites first site

Been trying to prep what i believe is a Carboniferous shark skeleton and it is just......well.....hair pulling. My severe colorblindness really does not help and my tools are very limited. This is truly a prepping nightmare on such a rare piece. Thinking of just sending this to someone who knows what the heck they are doing. So, anyone deal with cartilage before?

Found this last Sunday. And i can't seem to narrow down who lost it, Xenacanthus or Orthacanthus. To my knowledge neither has been formally described from the location it was found. And, no, i will not say where. I'll simply say LaSalle county, IL. Still not sure if my site is Permian or Carboniferous. I'm 90% convinced it's Carboniferous. Any ID help is much appreicated. I'm leaning more towards Orthacanthus. Sorry, i'll add mm later. As found: After some needle prep:

I found these fossils in a single rock in Gelsenkirchen (Halde Rheinelbe) at the weekend. I believe most of them are Alethopteris, but with some of them I'm not sure (e.g. #1, 3 (tree bark?), 7) Maybe @Nimravis #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8

The whole area where I found it in Bochum, Germany might be on an old dump of the local colliery here, so it might be carboniferous. Is this an Alethopteris "leaf"? 1€ coin for scale Greetings!

This week I was fortunate to go on a school trip to Ecton Mine in Staffordshire. Aside from the minerals we were tasked to look for, I found some fossils in the spoil heaps. First one is a brachiopod in carboniferous limestone. There is a mystery object to the left of it. (Photo 1) Initially I thought it looked like the interior of a sand dollar, but the regular structure below the cavities reminds me of a coral. Similar features can be seen on one of the other faces of the stone. (Photo 2) As well as that, I found a small rock with an almost L-shaped fragment containing serrations or ridges on both sides. I don't have the slightest clue what it is, and any ID would be appreciated. The first photo is the 'top' side, second is the 'bottom' side, the third image is the space between the top and the bottom side, with the top side facing up, and the fourth image is a front-on view which best demonstrates the L-shape. Cheers, and I look forwards to hearing from you Xiang

So I finally have an answer to the identity of this fossil I found in a rock quarry in Crescent, Iowa back in 2015... it has been identified as the back half of a eurypterid with the telson attached and nacre. This is a very unusual find for the location and the age of the shale.

Kate and I were having a bit of a day yesterday so we decided off the cuff to visit Offerton 8 miles from Home to chill out. Hit an amazing vein, I’ve never had such a variety.

This is another piece from the Mazon Creek Chowder Flats site, it was shattered into quite a few pieces, but I was able to reassemble it. However, I can't tell what it is. I am certain it is some kind of crustacean, based on the texture and color of the shell and the presence of a long segmented antenna. But it seems to be rather flattened, and I can't make out many other details. There does appear to a segmented piece extending from the top edge of the blob to the edge of the nodule, but I can't make out any clear segments or limbs. The shape is reminiscent of Mamayocaris, perhaps just a poorly preserved one? The only other Essex Fauna crustacean that seems to roughly match the squat shape is the rare Dithyrocaris.

Over the winter I was freezing and thawing nodules found in reclaimed coal mine spoils from the Pennsylvanian Shelburn Formation, Busseron Sandstone from Vigo County Indiana. These contain flora and rare fauna similar to the Braidwood Biota from Mazon Creek. This nodule split off a tiny bit on one end and I set aside for further investigation after a quick glance revealed an interesting pattern. Then I forgot about until I was recently unpacking from a move, and re-examined it under magnification. Unfortunately, the piece that split off the end was lost, so I only have the one side, but it shows a small rectangular patch of texture, about 10 mm wide. The piece preserved shows folds and wrinkles, as well as what looks like a tear in the center, and looking under magnification reveals the entire piece is covered with tiny pebbly bumps. My first assumption would be plant material, but it doesn't match the texture of any of the other plants I have found at this site. A much less likely option would be a patch of skin from some sort of animal or egg casing. I would like to get it under greater magnification and will try to find an expert to look at it, but I wanted to put the best pictures I was able to take here for y'all's thoughts. Thanks!

A near complete, partly enrolled Paladin sp. found a couple of days ago, lying in three pieces in a pile of disintegrating mudstone. Brigantian stage (Mississippian), N.E. England, UK. I spent ages unsuccessfully looking for the missing bit but never mind, it's still the nearest to a whole one I've found for about four years - decent Carboniferous trilobites are generally hard to come by though moulted bits are quite common at the site. This stuff falls apart when wet and another spell of rain would have completely destroyed it. Apart from gluing, no prepping was needed. 1.5cm long

Hi there, I’m currently exploring the region of the cantabrian mountains in Spain south of Villamanin, in the aptly named cantabrian zone, but I’m struggling to identify this small trilobite I found on the las hiruelas road east of La Vid. Granted it’s only a pygidium exposed but I don’t want to risk damaging it for now. From the geological map I know it’s from the Furada/San Pedro formation which spans the Silurian to Devonian boundary but I can’t find any comparable images online. I’m hoping someone on here can help. Thanks for your time L.

I was going through some material from Cory’s Lane, a Carboniferous fossil site in Rhode Island, when I noticed this fern. It didn’t really look like anything else I had and so I came here for some help. I’m very new to identifying fern fossils, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi there! Wanted to share links to a mini documentary series created recently by Will Beckett. The series showcases sites, such as Belfast and Point Prim, on PEI that result in spectacular finds, some made very recently, that put this tiny Canadian province on the map. (WARNING: these links take you outside the forums to the external website YouTube) Cheers! - Keenan Episode 1 - An Introduction Episode 2 - The First Islander Episode 3 - Footprints in the Sandstone

Trilobite or worm trail? Or something else? Found near red river gorge in Kentucky. Size: 5" x 3.5" x .5"

Also found, Somerset County. Photo #1 and 2 - Interesting structure, coral? #2 is a closer-up view! #3 - We brought back a LOT of this type - Coral? #4 - A Rugose "horn" coral - The other coral to the right - What kind, please? #5 & #6 (closeup) - Is this even a fossil? Or some type of mineral? Found in the same place!!!!

Hey guys. This is a pretty random selection of the Carboniferous fossils that my kids and I have collected. I have a lot at about this quality, and some better ones but we'd rather not sell them if we can help it. I hadn't planned on selling any of them, but life throws you curve balls and here we are. Whoever responds to this, thank you so much.

So yeah as the title says decided to go here the day before my birthday to hunt for some plant fossils was good fun only found the one outcrop...umm yeah and thought I would share it with you guys also good piece of advice if you go here bring consolidate with you and wear wellies.

Due to the current instability of the cliffs, I headed west Sunday. @EMP helped me out with a ton of info, so I knew I could hit a few sites in one day. My dad and I drove to Allegany County and got to Hunting. I messed up the directions so probably didn’t get to the exact site, but I found a few exposures of mid-late Silurian material, probably McKenzie and Tonoloway formations mostly. The yield was a huge amount of ostracods, some brachiopods. My dad saw a strange rock so I climbed some talus and picked it up. Upon closer examination it had not only ostracods, but tentaculitids on it! Think that will be my IFOTM entry. My dad also found a beautiful calcite vug at one of the sites. I saw a bryozoan in one rock but I didn’t pick it up as the rock was too big. No trilobites, but for a few short stops not bad. I encountered some oriskany sandstone near as well, but as those who have hunted in it will know, it’s badly metamorphosed and almost never yields trilobites. After that, I continued to the conemaugh FM, a Carboniferous terrestrial unit. There was a water filled ditch right in front of the outcrop so I had to do some ninja moves over it here and there. The sandstone was mostly barren aside from a few fragments and the shake was too fragile to survive long but nonetheless I made it out with a few nice plant pieces. A day well spent, I returned home, fossils and a few good memories in tow. I haven’t taken many pictures yet, but I will. Here are a few to whet your appetite. Vug and worn ostracods and brachiopods from Tonoloway limestone

Janvier, P. & Lund, R. 1983 – Hardistiella montaniensis from the Lower Carboniferous of Montana with remarks on the affinity of the lampreys. J. Vert. Paleont. 2, 407-413. Janvier, P. & Lund, R. 1986 – A second lamprey from the Lower Carboniferous of Bear Gulch Montana. Geobios 19, 647-652. Robert S. Sansom, Sarah E. Gabbott, and Mark A. Purnell Decay of vertebrate characters in hagfish and lamprey (Cyclostomata) and the implications for the vertebrate fossil record Proc. R. Soc. B. 2011 278 1709 1150-1157

I use a common for Lepidodendron, Diaphorodendron, Synchisidendron and some other arborescent lycopods name - Lycopsid. So, big stem fragment of the Lycopsid The middle size stem with two attached branches The leaf cushions shadded from the stem Some close-up samples of the bark Decorticated stem Branche with attached leaves Cone Stigmaria (the root system) inside Bark covered by Microconchida (that's mean underwater time at the sea) And some pictures with great details