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I am fortunate enough to have such a huge amount of Middle Devonian Givetian material that I thought it best to put the older Middle Devonian stage, the Eifelian, in its own thread. There are some spectacular fossils here as well though! I thought a good place to start would be in the Formosa Reef, which I believe is quite early Eifelian. This tabulate coral and stromatoporoid reef continues similar complexes found from the Middle Silurian, see my: https://www.thefossilforum.com/topic/84678-adams-silurian/page/3/ thread from page three onwards for details. All these Formosa Reef specimens come from a delightful gift from my good friend @Monica who is a tad busy with life at the moment but is fine and still thinking of the forum. This outcrop can be found on Route 12 near Formosa/Amherstburg, Bruce County, Ontario, Canada. This beautiful-looking specimen came to me with only a third of it revealed but I managed to get it this far after nine days of painful pin prepping. Monica found another one and posted it for ID here: https://www.thefossilforum.com/topic/105528-weird-circular-imprints-formosa-reef-lower-devonian/#comment-1172285 The specimen was identified by another Canny Canadian @Kane to be the little stromatoporoid sponge Syringostroma cylindricum. Hardly a reef-builder, but gorgeous nonetheless. It does have a little thickness to it, but not much. Beautiful! Pretty thin, actually. I love this Monica, thank you!

Hi all, Last weekend was an awesome trip back to a site we had not been to in over 10 years. This location offers three geologic formations from Devonian to Pennsylvanian. I put a write up together for all of you on what we found, and the sites, and finally the fossils after we plunged them into the acid bath to extract them! Thanks for looking! Devonian and Pennsylvanian Fossils in the Martin and Naco Limestones Coral Locality at Tonto Creek At the convergence of the Tonto and Horton creeks east of Payson, we find three primary formations, all with some type of fossils. The lowest in the stratagraphic column is the Devonian Martin formation, a pink hued platy limestone with trace fossils and a low diversity of silicified tabulate and rugose corals. Lying directly over is the gray and melted looking Redwall Limestone. Dominated by crinoidal material in the limestones, it contains beds of brown cherts with molds of a huge variety of invertebrates. Also localized beds of oolitic limestone found in the same area contain huge Straparollus gastropods. And finally, overlying the Redwall is the Pennsylvanian Naco formation. Again many crinoids in the limestones which are more angular and reddish stained. Beds of brown/red cherts can be either totally non fossiliferous or contain both molds and casts of corals, sponges and crinoids. This locality within a half mile area contains all three formations and is a great place to spend a few hours hiking in a stunning backdrop of pine trees and flowing rivers! The Martin Limestone Locality: Here I am seen at the Disphyllum coral locality in the pink platy limestones. Dawn finds hordes of Disphyllum tubes lying right on the ground here! Fossils from the Naco near the Power Line road: Here we walked along this road to find large amounts of red cherts, some highly fossiliferous. Up ahead is the Mogollon Rim, the south end of the Colorado Plateau. Bone fragment found in Naco. This type of fossil is very rare - Most of the time we find sharks teeth that are very tiny. But here, a big piece of what is most likely a fish bone in a huge boulder. (Yes, its still there). Now some of you may question how we know this is a bone and not just a piece of petrified wood or something. First, of all, this is a deep water marine environment, with a depth around 200 meters. Bone also does not have the exterior detail of wood. Finally, it easily passed the famous "Lick and stick" test. This is where you lick your finger, and touch the fossil. The porous nature of fossil bone causes your finger to stick like touching a piece of scotch tape, and the surrounding rock will just get wet and not stick. Sharks teeth from this formation do the same thing. Aulopora - such a beautiful coral, this is a colonial tabulate with no septa visible. Side view of Disphyllum colonial rugose shows the branching pipes from a common attachment base. Disphyllum - End view of calice interiors showing septa. Unknown and poorly preserved colonial rugose from the same area. Composita c.f. Composita Subtilita brachiopods in red cherts. These were found loose on the ground. Spirifer brachs too! Disphyllum on the left and Aulopora on the right. The Aulopora was very fragmented, and if we left the limestone in the acid too long, all we would get is a pile of pieces. So as in this specimen, we only dissolved the rocks about half way down to provide a stable base to hold the corals. Even so, you have to be pretty careful on handling them! Thanks for looking. Many more shots including close ups with the microscope can be found here on our web site: http://www.schursastrophotography.com/paleo/Disphyllum022218.html