Search the Community

Hey guys, I found this a couple days ago from a Silurian marine locality (435 Ma) in Central Western NSW, Australia, that is rich in trilobite and graptolite remains. I don't know of any other fossil types coming from this site so the options for what this object could be from are somewhat limited to being trilobite in origin. To me it resembles some of the larval protaspid stage trilobites i have seen, but the thing that is tripping me up is the size. The object is 5mm across which would be huge for a trilobite protaspis would it not? The adult trilobites from the locality are not very big either, about 2cm at maximum (mostly Odontopleura markhami, which is estimated to comprise 99% of the trilobite fossils at this location). The only other thing i can think of is that it could be an isolated brood pouch but i don't really know enough about trilobites to say for sure. What do you guys think? The left side is the concave negative, and the right is the convex positive (a bit hard to tell from the photo). It literally just looks like a round domed circle in the rock. Thanks!

Hello forum! So about a week ago, a couple friends and I went out to the Mazonia-Braidwood Fish and Wildlife Area in Illinois to do some amateur fossil hunting (first time for all of us). I was so excited when, at our first site, I found a pair of trilobites on the same rock and a few feet away there was the top half of the rock with their impressions. First of all, I love trilobites. I'm currently reading the book by Richard Fortey, Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution, and I hope to be able to study them somewhere along in my educational career. So far, I've identified these little guys as Calymene celebra, but I'm not 100% sure on the species since this is my first time ever finding a fossil let alone having to identify it. But that's not my main focus as of right now. What I'm asking for is some tips on how to clean the rock containing the trilobites (it's really dark and still covered in some moss and lichen). I've rinsed it in warm water the night I brought it home, but that's all. I didn't want to risk doing any damage since it's my first fossil find and I'm overly attached already haha. I'm also wondering about preparing it: what tools would you use, etc. I've never done anything like this before so any and all advice will be greatly appreciated! Here are the photos so far! Cheers! --Jessica