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Hi all, Visited Norfolk, UK last week and made a trip to Happisburgh (site of oldest known human footprints and handaxe in NW Europe) to see what we could find. Would love any input (I'm still learning on a lot of this stuff). The site has a real range of geological formations, primarily various lower/middle pleistocene layers and then cretaceous flints. Firstly, my friend found this rather lovely handaxe half buried in the sand: My thought was that maybe it is too well crafted to be Acheulean and maybe is more likely to be of Mousterian era? I'm still an absolute newbie when it comes to all this early human stuff but enjoying immersing myself in it now... As for myself, I found this interesting item which looks like it has been crafted in a similar way, at first I thought it might be an unfinished attempt at a handaxe but the top part does fit very well in the hand so I was wondering if it might be a primary flake repurposed into a scraper or similar? Somewhat smaller than the handaxe above, maybe suited to female hands? Also found lots of smaller flake items that I think may be mesolithic but will leave that for now! Found this amongst the shingle, which looks like it comes from the early pleistocene rocks formations of the region, at first I thought it was fossilised wood but could it be of animal origin, eroded horn or antler or tooth or something maybe? just looks a little different to wood to me.. Then last of all for now (I have plenty of other bits band bobs but don't want to bombard the board!) I collected a few flinty nodules that looked to me as though they had sponge fossils in them which is pretty standard (some researchers think a lot of the flint nodules of this region are the remains of large sponge reefs and a lot of it certainly looks like it, rather than the trace burrow type nodules) but this one had some more unusual elements embedded in the surface - was wondering whether they could be armour-plating elements of some kind of echinoderm perhaps? Actually last last of all - is this as I suspect an iron concretion and would it ever be worth cracking these open to see if there are fossils inside? Many thanks for looking and massively appreciate any thoughts at all! Joe

I wanted to show off this spectacular Cretaceous coprolite I found at the North Sulhpur River Texas my last hunt.

I recently bought a lot of 3 unidentified dinosaur "bones" from Isle Of Wight. But one of them have got me in a bit of a pickle. There's not really any cell structure present anywhere, except from one small spot that seems to have some. Which makes me suspect it's wood. But the overall structure of this piece is really puzzling, because it looks like there are sockets or roots from a jaw in it. I hope someone with more knowledge about IoW fossils can maybe explain what this is.

nice little hunt today in the streams of new jersey,was cool running into hokietech96 as well......

Hi everyone, I have this strange fossil from the New Jersey Cretaceous. When I first found it, I thought it was a sponge. Now I am kind of confused about it. It has a lot of “buds” on it that are embedded on a bony(??) “base” that has striations (might be hard to see this in pictures). I am really hoping that it is a fish mouth plate. Another thing is that there appear to be more small “buds” emerging from the bony(??) “base.” I appreciate any input! Let me know if better pics are needed, I’ll try to make them sharper. @non-remanié @Al Dente @MarcoSr @siteseer @Trevor @frankh8147 @Carl

A new fossil hunt on the French coast this weekend. The winter storms from the past week battered the coastline and this resulted of course in a few really nice finds. This time we weren’t prospecting alone, but two friends who recently started to collect fossils tagged along . The Saturday morning we prospected the late Jurassic beaches, we started with a slow start, but we finally did find 3 really nice echinoids, and a big ( heavy ) ammonite. At noon we went to the 2nd spot with late cretaceous chalk ( Cenomanian), here the storms really did their work, the recent scree piles were completely washed out and loos fossiliferous boulders were scattered all around. I did found some quite nice ammonites ( Acanthoceras rhotomagense and Cunningtoniceras inerme ), but Natalie hit the jackpot with 2 terrific finds. First up she found a huge and complete nautilus ( Cymatoceras elegans ) only slightly weathered on the side from peeking out of the boulder. A little bit further she found a big turillites ( Hypoturillites tuberculatus) from 25cm, the best part was that it came out in one piece, those heteromorphs usually break in fragments if you try to remove them. On Saturday we went to some Kimmeridgian exposures, but the storm on that day made it really difficult to search and we had to go back to the car’s after a couple of hours due to the terrible weather. But we did find quite a few Aspidoceras sp. ammonites. the saturday morning: saturday afternoon: The stunning Cymatoceras the turillites: The haul from this weekend:

I was wondering that the madagascan jurassic clams and cretaceous cockscomb oysters from my collection did not have a comprehensive label,I wanted to ask you what they were.. Here are a few photos online: https://www.google.com/search?q=madagascar+fossil+clam&sxsrf=ACYBGNSyt5RjY1qraJUr3kcrF1FSPuVtBg:1581930994833&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=q1GrCKB9r4EOpM%3A%2CRVLU8rvAwW_qDM%2C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kRLA3HGjyWBFynUylzJaveHH4B7QA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwish4aYoNjnAhXIUN4KHZ2nCtkQ9QEwAHoECAoQHg#imgrc=oy8HBIbkpemGJM

Fossilized insect from 100 million years ago is oldest record of primitive bee with pollen, Oregon State University, February 12, 2020 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200212164643.htm Fossilized insect from 100 million years ago is oldest record of primitive bee with pollen, Oregon State University https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/fossilized-insect-100-million-years-ago-oldest-record-primitive-bee-pollen The paper is: Poinar Jr, G., 2020. Discoscapidae fam. nov. (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), a new family of stem lineage bees with associated beetle triungulins in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Palaeodiversity, 12(1), pp.1-9. https://bioone.org/journals/Palaeodiversity/volume-12/issue-1/pale.v13.a1/Discoscapidae-fam-nov-Hymenoptera--Apoidea-a-new-family-of/10.18476/pale.v13.a1.full At related open access paper is: Genise, J.F., Bellosi, E.S., Sarzetti, L.C., Krause, J.M., Dinghi, P.A., Sánchez, M.V., Umazano, A.M., Puerta, P., Cantil, L.F. and Jicha, B.R., 2020. 100 Ma sweat bee nests: Early and rapid co-diversification of crown bees and flowering plants. PloS one, 15(1), p.e0227789. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0227789 Yours, Paul H.

Hello everyone, Yesterday my girlfriend & I went fossil hunting for birthday. This was the first fossil hunt the two of us did on our self, our previous hunts were all excursions with the Belgian Association for Paleontology. We visited two locations, but locations are part of the Formation of Gulpen, around 68 million years old, dating back to the Maastrichtian (these outcrops are part of the Maastrichtian type location where the first mayor Mosasaurus discovery was done). The first location we visited was a limestone outcrop next to the Albert Channel here in Belgium, only a 20 minute drive away. I discovered this outcrop while looking out the window whenever I drive to Maastricht and yesterday we decided to check it out. It is quite a little outcrop, no more than 70 meters wide, but one of the few places left where you can hunt in Limburg. We hunted here for around one and a half hour and we only searched the fallen and loose bits of limestone that were the results of erosion. We didn't want to start hacking in the rock. We mainly found ancient sea shells of different species and some bryozoa's in this location. And a some pieces of wall where teeming with urchin fragments, but we didn't find any intact one near the surface. But since the urchin graveyard was deeply enbedded in the rock and we didn't want to hack in it, we left it as it was The second location we visited was the "Grote Bos" in Beutenaken in The Netherlands. Here there are holloways in the forest that expose some limestone outcrops. This spot is known for it's belemnite which can be found on the forest paths, because the soft limestone gets eroded but hard belemnites remain, making them very easy to find. We found around 25 belemnites during our 1 hour hunt there as well as a shell imprint and a mystery fossil. Like the previous location, the patch of limestone where these belemnite can be found is also only around 70 meter long, but luckily very rich.

Does anyone know the best sites for finding fossils in Israel? I am spending the summer there and want to make the most of the geology. I know there are cretaceous formations somewhere but I am not sure where specifically.

Can someone tell me if this is some sort of trace fossil? I find them often in the clay in a creek bed that contains fossils of the upper Cretaceous period. Thank you!

Greetings!!! I'm planning a trip to New Mexico this summer. I would welcome any information besides the basic tourist stuff. I'll be in the northern Farmington area for a week. Can't wait!!! Thanks in advance for any insight. Bruce (WATERLINE)

Almost 2 weeks ago I went with a small group from the rockhound club up to the Vancouver Island Paleontology Museum and the Courtenay & District Museum to see their fossils. Weather was too crummy to do an actual collecting field trip at any place! I guess it's OK to post pics here. I won't post anybody's face. The lighting and some of the display cases themselves presented problems for photography at both places, besides which it was kind of a whirlwind tour, so these shots are the best I could do. I'd say the poor lighting was the worst thing about both places, but we're dealing with small museums with small budgets here, so I figure that can be excused. First, Graham Beard gave us an informative tour of the VIPS in Qualicum Beach. It is a one-room fossil display, aimed primarily at educating the public, and Graham's tour was likewise, which suited us fine as most of the rockhounds know next to nothing about fossils. I think we all got more out of it than we would have if we'd been left to view it all on our own. He not only explained what was interesting about many of the pieces but also recounted the stories around how some of them were collected or acquired. He started at the 'types of preservation' showcase, which featured a piece from the Appian Way site up toward Campbell River which contains Eocene plants. It had been sliced and peeled to reveal fine cross-section detail of the plants. Several new species have been described from here. If you look closely at the slab leaning at an angle on the stand you can see a sheet partly peeled off: Heteromorphic ammonites from Hornby Island and V.I.: The big dark one in front, I have a piece of the same taxon from Mt Tzuhalem. Mine is missing the crook part but looks identical to the straight part. I thought it was from my mountain until Graham told me it was from up along the Inland Island Hwy near Courtenay. (Nothing to collect there now, as that was when the hwy was being built or widened). It didn't have a label and Graham couldn't remember so I'm still not sure what it's called!

Hello everybody! After a week of snow, saw sun for three days and decided its a good idea to visit a honey spot. Sadly, the sun was deceiving, the snow has not yet melted. Actually it was about 20-50cm. This location is very special to me because: i) Its 30mins from home, which means I can visit again and again. ii) According to the scientific researches I managed to gather, it has an extreme variety of fossils and exposed outcrops, dating from the WHOLE Mesozoic era. iii) Furthermore, all researches state that it bears excellently preserved fossils of ammonites, belemnites and brachipods. Of the last two, I do not have even purchased samples. PBDB has nothing published for this place. There are places around with some information and findings but it is not the perfect places. I managed to put together 5 different researches so I have narrowed down my possible locations. The last one, which actually gave away the location with coordinates is here: With a first glance I do not see much exposed outcrops, but the existance of a creek is a good sign to have caused erosion. Click here for the location through google earth. My other lead comes again from the same professor. The previous research was isotopic while this one studies only the distribution of ammonites and bivalves during the Toarcian in that specific section. Through this map, I conclude that following the small river you should see Aalenian to Callovian, on the small hill NNW of the river is the upper part of the Jurassic and the beginning of Cretaceous. East and following the course of that small river, you may be able to see exposures of Triassic. Last picture shows what I have put together and my possible places I will visit. I) The sections marked with yellow next to the main road cutting represent this description: It is an exposure of the Ozirovo Formation which is composed mainly of Fe-ooidal limestones and rare ferruginized marls, having a total thickness of 3.25 m. I will not check those places as I would prefer to avoid curious eyes and questions like what are you doing here. II) Marker with coordinates after Dr. Metodiev and his isotopic research on belemnites. On google Earth doesnt look promising, hope I am proven wrong. III) With light blue I depict the area which seems most interesting to me. IV) Orange triangle is possible location for Triassic exposure. V) Purple is the road I followed today. Line with car and dots on foot. I spotted some rocks, definately CaCO3. No sign of fossils. Almost everything was covered with snow. I will visit it again next week, weather permitting. Meanwhile, I would like to hear your comments concerning the locations I mark. What other spot looks good to check? Do I miss something? Findings, pictures and the rest will continue on the same topic of course. Thank you everyone for reading until here, sorry for the long post! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources: GEOLOGICA BALCANICA, 36. 3—4, Sofia, Decemb. 2007, p. 91—96. Documentation and correlation of transgressive-regressive cycles from three Lower-Middle Jurassic successions of the Western Balkan Mts, Bulgaria Elena Koleva-Rekalova, Lubomir Metodiev, Daria Ivanova Geological Institute, Sofia Biostratigrapy of the Toarcian in the section at the village of Beledie Han (Western Balkan Mts), Bulgaria L. Metodiev, D. Ivanova, E. Koleva-Rekalova Trans-border (south-eastern Serbia/south-western Bulgaria) correlations of the Jurassic sediments: the Getic and Supra-Getic units PLATON TCHOUMATCHENCO , DRAGOMAN RABRENOVIC , VLADAN RADULOVIC , NENAD MALESHEVIC & BARBARA RADULOVIC Geological Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Stable isotope records (d18O and d13C) of Lower-Middle Jurassic belemnites from the Western Balkan mountains (Bulgaria): Palaeoenvironmental application Lubomir Metodiev *, Elena Koleva-Rekalova

My first post of a few fossils from my collection. This is a fish, found in a quarry in Swanage, Dorset, England, where the Intermarine Beds of the Purbeck Group of limestones are exposed, in order to extract building stones. These "Middle Purbeck Beds" are actually the Stair Hole Member of the Durlston Formation of the Purbeck Group, being deposited at Mediterranean latitudes in a vast system of brackish to freshwater lagoons and lakes. The shallow water limestone beds sometimes have dinosaur footprints on their upper surfaces. The photos show the two fish found (after prepping) which have been recently re-named Callipurbeckia (formerly Lepidotes) minor. The larger of the two is 27cm in length.

I ventured a bit into older territory and found a bone unfamiliar to me. Hopefully someone recognizes this. This was in a creek with rocks from a shallow marine/near shore environment. Thanks. Eagle Ford or Woodbine Formation North Central TX 90-95 mya

Out of over 17,000 teeth pulled out of ant hills in north central New Mexico, I came up with this one isolated tooth. There are a scattering of other hybodontids in the fauna, but this is the only one of this kind. I originally thought this was Polyacrodus parvidens, but upon getting into the literature I have discovered that this species has a high central cusp and the ornamentation isn't as strong as that on this tooth. So now I am leaning to P. cf. brevicostatus, and if this is the case, would be one of the first examples from this state. Any ideas from all of the distinguished people on the Forum?

I found this piece of rock with strange shape in the rock quarry nearby Interstate 35 between Temple and Waco, Texas. I did't see much other fossils other than this piece. Wonder what this is? Formation is on Austin Chalk.