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Dear Fellow Forum Members, On this day, the 4th of October in the year 2020, @itsronni @Masp @Trevor and @Jeffrey P ventured to a frequented late cretaceous stream in New Jersey. I first met up with Jeff and did some sifting before later locating itsronni and Masp further downstream. Finds came somewhat slowly after we first stopped to sift but after some time we gradually found more fossils. We stayed in one area for the majority of the day up until Jeff had to leave. After some deliberation, the remaining members and I walked a quarter mile upstream and then left shortly afterwards. It was a nice day to meet fellow forum members and also a nice day to collect fossils. Here are my finds, the others will post theirs when they can:

Hello everyone! At this point, it's been a long time since I've found any of these so I wanted to show my collection of Wenonah slabs or 'plates'. These slabs were found in the same area over the course of a few years and is a collaboration of a lot of fun trips with friends. The majority of them were found by me and my brother, Shane @shajzer64 in 2016 but a few others have dug with me in this (mostly unproductive) location looking for and finding these - thank you to everyone involved! The slabs are all the same thickness and preservation; I was actually able to put a few together but as a whole, I think most were in the stream for too long to connect them. They are mostly shell and gastropod imprints but include ghost shrimp burrows, an Ischyrhiza rostral, shark teeth, an echinoid, an ammonite, a fish spine (we think), scaphopods, and more. I'm not positive the sponges are associated with this exact project but the preservation looks the same so I included them too (that could go for the ammonite too). If anyone is interested in seeing a particular slab, let me know and I'll get a picture. I'm pretty happy with my new display so I hope you enjoy it! -Frank @Carl @non-remanié @Darktooth@Jeffrey P@Trevor@The Jersey Devil

My friend from Texas was back up in April for nearly three weeks to photograph some of the Ammonites in the M.A.P.S. collection for a book he is working on and for the days he wasn't shooting invert's we went out collecting and scouting for potential future sites. We managed to find some nice fossils and some are a bet rare to find in nice or nearly complete state. Here are a few of the best ones I found. The first one is a Hoploparia Gabbi.... Its a Cretaceous Lobster from the Wenonah a late Campanian formation. What makes this a rather rare fossil from New Jersey is that you mostly find bits and pieces of them.. mostly claws and the carapace is rare in its self. My specimen was found encased in a siderite layer that also makes up the protocallianassa (Ghost Shrimp) burrows . My specimen is partially disarticulated at the abdomen somites/tail section but looks like it can be put back together but one side of this area was not preserved or has fallen off and its also missing the uropod / flipper. I am tempted to try to expose the perciopods the walking feet if there still there I don't know. I have been working on this lobster for the last two days and I'm not sure if it worth doing any more to it. All in all a nice example of a New Jersey Hoploparia Gabbi. I also posted a picture of the anatomy of a Lobster for comparison.

Cretaceous Scleractina or Stoney Corals Something a little different from the New Jersey Cretaceous. The first 3 pictures are from the Woodbury Formation, exquisite preservation in original material. Photos 4 – 6 are well-preserved sideritic steinkerns, with mineral filling the gaps between the septae. (pers. Obs., Earl Manning) from the Wenonah Formation. John Woodbury Formation (Upper Cretaceous, lower Campanian) Astrangia (Coenangia) cretacea Trochocyathus woolmani Micrabacia cribraria Wenonah Formation (Upper Cretaceous, upper Campanian) Trochocyathus woolmani Micrabacia cribraria Micrabacia hillgardia aka Micrabacia Americana

Here's some stuff I collected on 4 trips this summer to a site of mine in the late Campanian Wenonah formation of NJ. A few friends from the forum also were there for some of those digs. Perhaps they will share some of their finds as well.

Some finds from a few recent trips to a couple different spots.