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Is this a chain coral between the sutures of the ammonite Metoicoceras? About 4mm long (photo taken thru microscope). From the Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Tropic Shale in Utah.

I recently went hunting for my first time in the Turonian Arcadia Park Formation, an Eagle Ford group shale formation in North Texas. I found some great fossils, but many of them are fragile. I found a Worthoceras sp. specimen in matrix that seems to be on the verge of falling apart, and a very small Metoicoceras sp. specimen in a similar situation. They both have the nacreous shell preserved. Many of the other ammonites that I found tend to flake bits of the white shell while I am handling them. What can I use to consolidate the specimens so that they don’t fall apart and so that the shell doesn’t flake off? Will the consolidants dampen the beautiful iridescence of the shells? Here the two most fragile specimens, the Worthoceras sp. and the small Metoicoceras sp.: FIG 1: Worthoceras sp. FIG 2: Metoicoceras sp.

My father passed away a few years ago, and I got the vast majority of his fossil collection. My mom kept a few bits of broken ammonite to use as yard decorations. One was a living chamber from a large Metoicoceras with shell preserved. This came from the upper Britton Formation (Sciponoceras gracile zone), Eagle Ford Group, Late Cenomanian of Carrollton, TX. He had collected this piece in the late 80's-early 90's and it bounced around in a box moving several times across the country before it came back to Texas to sit for nearly a decade without being looked at. One side of the living chamber is crushed in, so my mom set it in the garden "good" side up. Fast forward about a year. The Texas sun and weather had done it's worst on the shell. I glanced at the fossil and saw something weird shining through. So, I rescued it from the garden and cleaned off all the powdery shell material. Ten minutes with the ARO, and voila... I give you the fish within an ammonite. The question is... Did the fish swim into the shell after the ammonite died, or are we looking at preserved stomach contents?

I found this near my home in the Texas Hill Country. The area is within the Balcones Escarpment. Oddly enough, it was just laying on top of the ground. All I had to do was pick it up. I need to get a Texas Fossil Handbook, but all I have at the moment is the National Audubon Society: Field Guide to Fossils. I found two fossil times that may be a match, though they are not exactly the same--Metoicoceras and Texanite. I believe my fossil is an interior mold, but I'm not sure. Thanks for helping me identify it.