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Happy Friday from Albuquerque, New Mexico! We have been hunting for fossils in the Sandia/Manzano mountains just east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our beautiful back yard. . . Pennsylvanian fossils can be found in the limestone that is exposed at the top of the Sandia Crest and east of the mountain. We mostly find brachiopods, crinoids and bryozoan. I found this on the hills of Cedro Peak, and it's not like anything we have found up there. Thought it might be a crinoid stem, but looks different. Any help identifying would be much appreciated.

Hello! My daughter found this in the "xeriscaped" front yard, and we were excited to have found a fossil It's just landscaping stone. The area we live in has a lot of basalt/lava and sand (Petroglyph National Monument). The other side of the city is against the Sandia Mountains, mostly granite, limestone, metamorphic rock. I suppose this could have been quarried from that area...I don't know. I'm thinking it may be coral? The image shows the largest occurrence, but there are a few other smaller versions of the same thing on the back of the rock. Thanks for any info you may have! -Brendan

Found this specimen at approximately 9,500 feet in elevation in the Albuquerque, NM area. I have taken photographs with measurements. Was found in loose to rocky soil on the surface. I did no digging to locate specimen but basically picked it up off the ground after noticing it sticking up. I have no knowledge of what it could be other than the fact that it looks like a tooth. Thanks in advance.

Over the span of June 14 to 18, I was invited to join my brother and four of his friends to their latest "summit" (i.e. get-together) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I guess they'd figured my hike-scouting capabilities, as well as a share of the expenses, would come in handy.... We ended up staying in a house near the Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club on the east side of the Sandia Mountains, which overlooks Albuquerque to the west. The Sandias are basically an uplifted fault block on the east side of the Rio Grande Rift. It is made up of granite with a thin veneer of sedimentary rocks at the top: (Image courtesy Wikipedia) I found a geologic map of the area to see if I'd have an opportunity to collect fossils. The site of our dwelling is marked with the 'X'. According to the map, I would be dealing with the Pennsylvanian Madera Group. After doing a little research, I found out that the Madera is made up of limestone, sandstone, and shale. Hmmm.... Sounds like my Pennsylvanian strata in KC. In this view (taken as we were returning home), you can see the general nature of the Pennsylvanian strata in the Manzano Mountains in the foreground. The Sandias are in the background. Visible is the gentle eastern slope that was our home for five days: The next step was to try to get some idea of the kinds of exposures I would encounter. With Google Maps, I could just make out some thin outcrops that stretched over the hills. I marked a few in red in this screen shot: Interestingly, in the image, the outcropping beds curve downhill in a gully. This indicates that the beds are dipping steeply to the southeast, i.e. one would be moving down-section while walking uphill. It also indicates that tracing the beds on foot would be a challenging undertaking in the hilly landscape. From the ground, it doesn't look like much: Because I would have to cross the fairway to reach the strata, I'd have to wait until I tagged along on the guys' 18-hole round. The next day, three guys teed off. We other three enjoyed the scenery, spotted balls down the fairway, and collected balls -- and other things -- in the rough. I found a few fossils that were worth taking back. There were a number of outcrops of sandstone and limestone along the way, but they were all barren. The fossils appeared in cobbles at various spots. I figure I was crossing unexposed strata that were expressed as rocky remnants in the overlying soil. A little later in the day, I walked to this road cut that I had seen when we first arrived: There is one bed that is very fossiliferous, but I had a hard time finding a collectible piece: