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Showing results for tags 'missouri'.
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Hardly anybody ever talks about the Cambrian fossils of the southern midcontinent (USA). They're super-underappreciated. Show us what you've got! Here's one to start us off: Thorax and pygidium of a trilobite, possibly Orygmaspis, typically referred to as "Orygmaspis cf. Orygmaspis llanoensis" but probably a different species altogether. Note the two pairs of macropleural spines marking the final thoracic segments. Davis Formation (late Cambrian: Furongian), south side of Highway 8, St. François County, Missouri.
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From the album: Chondrichthyan Teeth From The Pennsylvanian Period
One of my teeth that I really want to identify. It was mentioned it could be a broken or partial Petalodont crown minus the root. 13cm in size -
I found this on my property (in Missouri), in a hunk of clay about a week ago. I spent up until now searching the area for other pieces, however, alas... nothing. Any information you may have is appreciated. This last image (below), I enhanced a bit to bring out details. Thanks for looking!
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I found this while walking along the lake shore of Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri. I know next to nothing about fossils but was hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction.
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Found by blue river in Kansas City Missouri. I have no clue what I have found. I always find small brachiopods,horned coral or bivalves in this area. It was difficult to get a good photo. The whole rock itself is about 10 inches long Hope someone can tell me what it is. Thank you VID_20240301_092103~4.mp4 VID_20240229_234758.mp4 VID_20240301_092103~4.mp4
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I decided to take a trip out to the Mississippi River. With the weather warming in Missouri, the trees and plants are starting to grow and bloom once more. It is quite beautiful seeing some of the flowers and trees flourish, which I wish I had snapped some photos of. The downside to that, is some of my fossil hunting spots get quickly overgrown, or sometimes get submerged underwater. This trip was to check out an exposure of Silurian aged Bainbridge Formation rock. I had not been to this site before, so I was excited to get out and explore once more. After a nice walk to my destination, I found the exposed red rocks along the river I was looking for. Almost immediately, I found what I was searching for, trilobites! Calymenids are common in the right exposures of the Bainbridge Formation, but I didn't expect to see so many. 95% of the specimens found were weathered, damaged, and missing a lot of shell. Here's a few photos I took before I got overwhelmed by the sheer amount of trilobites exposed on the rock. See how many you can find in the first picture. You may need to enlarged the photo. I counted over 10. And the search was on! The goal was to find a nice, complete specimen or two to take home, clean, and then compare to other Calymenid trilobites I've found in different exposures of Bainbridge Formation rock. I spent the warm and windy afternoon hunched over, scouring over all the exposed bedrock. After hours and counting over 100 poorly preserved specimens, I finally found a nice looking one worth taking home. It had a little bit of weathering, but looked to be all there. Many of them were exposed in this sort of flexed position. A bit of noise, and I extracted the specimen. This is a nice one I'll hopefully get a professional to clean, so I carefully packed it up and continued my search. A nice cephalopod, and a few crinoid holdfasts were also exposed atop the bedrock. They were both pretty cool to see, especially that cephalopod fossil. Like trilobites, they aren't things I get to see everyday. I didn't find anymore good trilobites exposed and I didn't want to split rock, so I shifted to flipping over and looking through the river tumbled rocks for a while. The 9th rock I had fllipped over, looks to have a ventral trilobite on it. The luckiest, and cutest find was this little .3 inch Calymenid trilobite that was washed along the riverbank. I have no clue how it hadn't been destroyed from the river, but I was quite happy to find it. Note how it's exposed in the similar flexed orientation as the last one I found. One other interesting rock on the riverbank that probably has a complete specimen within was found. It had a few pleura segments and part of the pygidium exposed, but I forgot to photograph it. I'll upload a photo of it when I get home and unpack it if I don't forget. It was great to get back out to the Mississippi River. I always enjoy nature, solitude, and fossil hunting. I avoided ticks this trip, but not the mosquitos! A good afternoon spent, I decided to pack up my belongings and head back to St. Louis for the night.
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- bainbridge formation
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Here’s one for our resident ichnologists. This is far out of my league to id. Found in Branson MO, it’s limestone. Bunch of ripples where I found this. I don’t know Branson strat, so unfortunately that’s the most info I can give you. The trace in question is roughly 1 cm wide. Thanks in advance!
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From the album: Missouri Conulariids
Found this wonderful specimen on March 10th, 2024. After finding this specimen I decided to do some research on these jellyfish and found out that they can form calcium phosphate pearls oddly enough. As fate would have it the only specimen I own to have a visible pearl was my most recent find! If I had not read in a paper that these jellyfish can create pearls I would not have believed it, but as the saying goes seeing is believing! Size: Pearl: Paper which has the only other image I've seen of these pearls online:- 2 comments
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From the album: Missouri Conulariids
Another broken specimen weathered from the rock. I always find these jellyfish fascinating whenever they present themselves. -
From the album: Missouri Conulariids
A lot of my conulariid finds tend to be broken at or near the tip of the apex, even before the attachment which is typical of other conulariid specimens. I am not sure if it is a plane of weakness, a common feature when the animal dies, or simple predation, but when I collected this specimen from the Paola limestone the lower half was missing from the rest of the slab, despite being an almost clean fracture. -
From the album: Mississippian fossils
A nice calyx I'm working on cleaning up.-
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- burlington formation
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From the album: Mississippian fossils
A common calyx I recently cleaned.-
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Aglaocrinus crinoid? and tiny trilobite pygium
Bonehunter posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Hi all! Very excited to find this crinoid on the very edge of a cliff and cleaned it just a little to reveal this tiny 4mm wide trilobite pygium right next to it. Using Missourian's key, I think the crinoid is Aglaocrinus ? The trilobite doesn't look exactly like the pygidiums I have of Ameura so not sure on that one - thoughts? Am I close? Should I try to clean more of the crinoid? The piece is only another inch or two thick. Thanks for any help!! Bone
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From the album: Missouri Ammonoids, Nautiloids and Gastropods
Found this beautiful specimen the other day while searching in the rock pile attributed to the Iola Formation. More specifically, this one was most likely found in the Paola limestone member.- 3 comments
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- cephalopod
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I need Advice on Getting this Fin spine out of the rock
Samurai posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
I am not sure if this is the right place to post this on the forum, but I am going to be completely honest and admit that I need advice on trying to get this fossil out in one piece. I have a small portable rock saw which I have tried using to no avail. I have also tried chiseling around it but I am an amateur and have only used this rock saw on easier-to-get targets. I do not want to break this and glue it back together unless it is absolutely necessary. My original plan was to cut in a sort of # pattern and chisel the sides till I got deep enough to chisel out a rectangular slab but then got cold feet. This fin spine is lodged in a half-sunken 5 to 7-inch thick chunk of limestone that is too large to carry or move. I want to try and extract this fossil before the rock pile gets taken to the dump, or this fossil erodes completely into nothing. I know it's not in the best shape but it means a lot to me as it was my first "big find" when I started field collecting a few years ago and any advice is appreciated. I am not sure if I should just keep chiseling the sawed portions till it begins to break loose or what my next steps should be. It is also so close to being covered in sediment and so close to another chunk of limestone I am unable to fit the portable saw blade completely in place to saw more for the bottom portion, beyond where it is already cut. (it is at an incline and the rocks form a sort of V shape). Image taken before sawing began (I am leaning on the other rock): Where I am at: Edit: I think I need to keep chiseling it, but I wanted to consult the experts before I continue further. I think i may have panicked when I heard that the landowner may be calling waste management in a few months. Once again sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, and move this post if need be.
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- ctenacanthidae
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My folks have a nice lake behind their house. It is relaxing to spend a warm evening watching a heron spear fish or geese fight each other. Or watch silt slowly fill the lake bed. Across the street, a housing developer stripped off a bunch of soil down to the bedrock, but ran out of money before building on the land. This has resulted in some significant erosion and sedimentation in the lake, but this cloud does have a silver lining. I soon noticed a thick bed of shale exposed on the hill. So it was only a matter of time until I make the short trip to the top. The hill, with exposed shale, can be seen on the right. No, I did not hunt that day. A few weeks ago, I drove up there and poked around the Pennsylvanian strata. The Island Creek Shale is the first bed encountered: There are thin beds of calcareous sandstone within. Oh look, ripple marks: And trace fossils: I've found fusulinids and brachiopods where the shale thins several miles to the south.
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- kansas city
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Spring is finally coming around. Here in Missouri, we are getting a mix of nice weather, lots of rain, and even still some colder frosty days. I was off work yesterday, and the great weather had inspired me to go check out an Ordovician road cut I did some recon on last month. The roadcut isnt very large, but with the hard rain we had received this past week I figured it would be a good chance to rummage through the bedrock and scree pile. Within 5 minutes, I found my first find. It is likley an enrolled Eomonorachus intermedius trilobite. Unfortunately there was a crack running right through it. The trilobite was very small, measuring in at .25 inches. This is were things went wrong. I didn't bring any glue with me, and figured I would chance trying to extract it as-is, even with the crack running through it. Big mistake, as it can out in two pieces. This specimen was missing it's eyes and some shell, so I wasn't too distraught. About 10 minutes later, I found another enrolled specimen, this time with the tail exposed upright. It also measured in a .25 inches in length. It is likley also an Eomonorachus intermedius, but will need cleaned for a confident ID. After extraction, I walked to my car to put up my grinder and I couldn't believe what I saw just laying on the ground. Another trilobite! It is a miracle this bug was intact. I was amazed to turn the trilobite around and see some of its eye lenses looking back at me. It is a great day when you find a trilobite in Missouri with how rare they are, but to find three in one day is downright spectacular. This specimen isn't perfect either. It's compressed, missing it's genal spines, and also has it's tail tucked under the cephalon likley due to compression. Regardless, I am very happy with it. It should clean up well! I also snagged a nice little Isotelus hypostome. After that, I packed up and headed for home. I had a great time out, and will definitely have to check out this location again after time has passed, and some more weathering takes place. Thanks for reading!
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- decorah formation
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Found this while walking the dogs In Central Missouri USA . 3 cm long 2.5cm wide 2.5 cm tall limestone matrix. I thought it was a clam shell when I found it. The smoth rounded side was sticking out, but when I hit it with a hammer the Clow/Tooth shaped fossils was revealed. Let me know what you think Thanks
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Another piece I found in Lee Summit Missouri. I’m not really sure what to think of it other than it’s definitely something. It looks like a snail shell but has little crystals(calcite?) in it. Any information would be helpful
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From the album: Mississippian fossils
A nice little calyx I finished cleaning.-
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From the album: Mississippian fossils
Another large Eutrochocrinus calyx I cleaned.-
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It was difficult to get a good photo. I brushed this untill I could see more. Found by blue river Kansas city. Is it an AMMONITE? It's sort of shaped like one very worn one. Not sure any help would be appreciated. Thx
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From the album: Mississippian fossils
A large Uperocrinus pyriformis calyx I cleaned.-
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From the album: Mississippian fossils
A large Eutrochocrinus christyi calyx I cleaned.-
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