What to do with a bag of fossil shards?

[SVG]

I found this bag of shattered fossils in my father's fossil collection. Where might this type of fossil material come from? Is this shale? It's almost chalky and very fragile. It seems to be have shattered in shipping. Is any of it worth saving? And if so, what to do?  

Thanks in advance!

 

[Ludwigia]

It looks like it might be Solnhofener Plattenkalk, shaley limestone from Solnhofen Germany, the place where the Archyopteryx was found. But don't get your hopes up. There are also a few sites in America with this type of stone containing trilobites. However, you can find this type of platey limestone all over the world, although they mostly don't contain fossils. Your best bet would be to inspect each piece closely to see if you can find any fossils on them. You can also split them with a pen knife to see if anything is inside. If you don't find anything, then you can just chuck the lot as far as I'm concerned, but if you do see something suspicous, then post photos here and we'll try to advise you on them.

[minnbuckeye]

@SVG, unfortunately, I can not see your pictures.

  

Mike

[Fossildude19]

Neither can I. 

Please load the photos directly to the Forum. 
Sharing from links usually doesn't work. 

[Ludwigia]

Strange! This has now happened twice in the OP's postings. First the photos are there and then they are gone.

[SVG]

Hi, Not sure why some folsk can see the images and others can't. I will try to attach in a different way.

[Fossildude19]

This looks like paper shale, maybe from somewhere like Florissant, Colorado. 

There may be fossils visible in the shards. Small fossils like plant leaves and insects. 

It would be worth your while to go through them, and examine them with a jeweler's Loupe. 

[Fossildude19]

33 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Strange! This has now happened twice in the OP's postings. First the photos are there and then they are gone.

This happens sometimes when people share from a Google drive incorrectly. 

[Rockwood]

They would be flattened, but otherwise look nearly like modern examples.

[Thomas.Dodson]

As others mentioned definitely go through them looking for things, preferably with magnification before you get rid of them. As Ludwigia mentioned this stuff is usually sparse in fossils but the stuff I have found in similar material is usually well preserved.

[Paleome]

If this is paper shale from the Florissant, there will be many fossils in it, but not usually visible to the naked eye.  I agree with Tim about using a jeweler's loupe, but that would be a very tedious process.  A digital microscope camera or stereoscope would do better.  

If from the Florissant, this would be valuable material and should not be tossed.

[jpc]

I don't think this is from florissant.  Can we see a few more photos of individual pieces?

[Rockwood]

1 hour ago, Paleome said:

If from the Florissant, this would be valuable material and should not be tossed.

On the other hand, it could be something that should have been tossed long ago. Because they don't all contain fossils.

[Randyw]

I have a bag that looks almost like that of shards I’ve removed from fish I’ve been prepping. I save it to go through later looking for bugs and stuff! I wonder if this is from something similar?

[Paleome]

I have Florissant material here, and very few pieces don't contain fossils.  The problem is, most are not visible to the naked eye, so need magnification to see.

[Rockwood]

5 hours ago, Paleome said:

I have Florissant material here, and very few pieces don't contain fossils.  The problem is, most are not visible to the naked eye, so need magnification to see.

It is likely why you have them there in the first place. A good eye for the right pick from the pile is a big advantage.