What types of fossils, have little public awareness?

[Rock Hound]

Dinosaur bones and teeth, shark teeth, and green river formation sedimentary fossils get most of the glory.  What are some of the other fossils that deserve more attention?

[DPS Ammonite]

Cystoids.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystoidea

 

And sponges of course.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/mrpletsch/2019/01/10/phylum-porifera/

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by DPS Ammonite

[JamieLynn]

I think it all depends on your area. Here in Texas, we are big into ammonites, echinoids, and other marine life because that's mostly what is found here. So yeah, those other things are nice, but the pleasure is in finding what's in your own backyard sometimes! 

[jpc]

Eocene mammals are the best.  And no one else wants to collect them.  Except one French guy here on the forum.

Crocodiles are cool, too.

[Misha]

I personally really love brachiopods and think they're incredibly overlooked. There's so much diversity, so many different shapes, so many different adaptations in this very ancient group of animals yet most of the time people just think of them as basic "shells" and nothing more.

Many other groups are overlooked too I would say especially in the Paleozoic, conodonts, fishes like agnathans or acanthodians, Holoceohalians, pretty much all echinoderms & cnidarians, bryozoa & hyoliths, polychaetes and other worms, and so so many others, it's quite a shame as many of them are some of the biggest contributers to how our world has changed and life on it evolved.

 

Although I think the most underappreciated fossils that there are, which many on here would probably agree with would be ichnofossils. Ichnofossils are so fascinating as they give us a much more dynamic understanding of these organisms and can sometimes tell us more than the body fossils of a given individual. They definitely deserve more recognition, attention and respect.

[FranzBernhard]

Rudists, of course, that bivalves that have run crazy, thinking they are corals ...

Franz Bernhard

[Tidgy's Dad]

Bryozoans are very much ignored. 

I get what @Mishasays about brachiopods and so on, but there are several brachiopod collectors active on the forum How many active members have bryozoans as their specialty or favourite fossils? I think some would get the difference between a fenestrid and "other' bryozoans, but who knows the difference between cyclostomes, cryptostomes and cystoporids? I recently found at least sixteen species in my small amount of Waldron Shale matrix and trying to locate information on them all on the internet is next to impossible. On the forum, only one or two of the fenestrids from this formation got a mention by species, and one of those was an old name, now out of date. 

Hurrah for the bryozoans! 

Parvohallopra ramosa from Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

   

What could be more beautiful? 

[FranzBernhard]

10 hours ago, Rock Hound said:

Dinosaur bones and teeth, shark teeth, and green river formation sedimentary fossils get most of the glory.

We may add trilobits and ammonites (and locally some big snails ).

 

In summary, these are all mobile fauna, all (??) of them are macrophages. Many of the other groups mentioned belong to the "Great Oceanic Stationary Filter System". Sitting around, sometimes building up impressive mounds, but essentially doing "nothing". Nothing? Without them, the oceans would turn into a stinky mess within a very short time!

 

Franz Bernhard

[MeargleSchmeargl]

I definitely agree with the brachiopod/bivalve sentiment. Some may see them as "just shells", but especially when you take into consideration where you'll often be finding them hundreds of miles inland they become irresistible to me.

[JBkansas]

Forminifera, giant single celled organisms that have complex intracellular shells. I didn't even know they existed until this forum.

Edited May 28, 2022 by JBkansas

[Kane]

No one yet has mentioned ostracods. I just did.  

Here are some giant ones (1+ cm) from Manitoulin Island, Ordovician. 

[Denis Arcand]

 

15 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Bryozoans are very much ignored. 

 

I totally agree with @Tidgy's Dad bryozoans are kind of the forgotten children of paleontology. I just want to add that they are awesome, they can be found in many shapes and colors. Ii might be that they are not popular because of their small size, they need to be seen very closely and magnification is needed to see small details, so they are not good candidates for display. in a living room or a museum.

 
Here are some of my favorites.

 

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by Denis Arcand

[Kane]

3 minutes ago, Denis Arcand said:

 

 

I totally agree with @Tidgy's Dad bryozoans are kind of the forgotten children of paleontology. I just want to add that they are awesome, they can be found in many shapes and colors. I believe the reason they are not popular is because of their small size, they need to be seen very closely and magnification is needed to see small details, so they are not good candidates for display. in a living room or a museum.

 

In my local Devonian, they can be quite large. 

[Denis Arcand]

20 minutes ago, Kane said:

In my local Devonian, they can be quite large. 

 

I don't know what the definition of quite large is, what's big for someone isn't necessarily big for someone else. Can you give some measurements as an example?

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, Denis Arcand said:

 

I don't know what the definition of quite large is, what's big for someone isn't necessarily big for someone else. Can you give some measurements as an example?

Individual zooids are pretty tiny, but colonies can reach a metre or more across. Remember that our bryozoan finds are usually small, smashed up pieces of  a much larger zooarium. 

Edited May 29, 2022 by Tidgy's Dad

[opalbug]

I like Teredo Wood

Shipworms, Bankia setacea

The Bi-Valves are Hungry

Alsea Formation

 

 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by opalbug

[FranzBernhard]

8 hours ago, MeargleSchmeargl said:

you'll often be finding them hundreds of miles inland they become irresistible to me.

And sometimes 10.000 and more feet above sea level ! 

Franz Bernhard

[FranzBernhard]

6 hours ago, Denis Arcand said:

so they are not good candidates for display. in a living room or a museum.

These can be spectacular display fossils:

A pocket of colonies = A Settlement of Bryozoa - Fossil Hunting Trips - The Fossil Forum

 

Good-sized Archimedes or fenestelid bryozoa are also very showy, already from a distance .

 

Compared to a big bone, for example, these specimens give at least a glimpse of the original shape of the organism during lifetime. You need much fantasy with bones (which I don´t have).

 

Franz Bernhard 

 

 

[siteseer]

On 5/27/2022 at 8:42 PM, jpc said:

Eocene mammals are the best.  And no one else wants to collect them.  Except one French guy here on the forum.

Crocodiles are cool, too.

 

Hey JP,

 

I like Eocene mammals too.  I need to get more of my stuff photographed.  Part of the problem with little public awareness is that the material is found only in certain areas (and often remote ones), and when you are in the right area, it's not common.  It doesn't help that most of the animals are unfamiliar - unfamiliar because they died out by the end of the Eocene or not much later and they have no modern relatives.  Who has a Phenacodus tooth?  I do.

 

Jess

[jpc]

2 minutes ago, siteseer said:

 

Hey JP,

 

I like Eocene mammals too.  I need to get more of my stuff photographed.  Part of the problem with little public awareness is that the material is found only in certain areas (and often remote ones), and when you are in the right area, it's not common.  It doesn't help that most of the animals are unfamiliar - unfamiliar because they died out by the end of the Eocene or not much later and they have no modern relatives.  Who has a Phenacodus tooth?  I do.

 

Jess

Hey Jess…

Additionally, they rarely are White River showy.  I don’t think i have a phenacodus tooth, but lots of Hyracotherium teeth.  Raising my glass of OJ to the Eocene furballs.

[siteseer]

11 minutes ago, jpc said:

Hey Jess…

Additionally, they rarely are White River showy.  I don’t think i have a phenacodus tooth, but lots of Hyracotherium teeth.  Raising my glass of OJ to the Eocene furballs.

 

Oh yeah, that too.  In the Early Eocene, as you know, even the titanotheres were the size of a dog.

 

People like Hyracotherium when you say the old name for it is Eohippus but the teeth don't look anything like miniature Equus teeth.

[Troodon]

I think the anything other than Trex for the general public

[Missourian]

Eurypterids.

 

They have potential 'star power', but get almost no attention.

 

The only publications I've found on Amazon are a couple old papers and an out-of-print 2010 book.

 

Edit: I'm referring to the attention of the general public. For collectors, they are high on the wish list.

[Wrangellian]

On 5/27/2022 at 11:45 PM, FranzBernhard said:

Rudists, of course, that bivalves that have run crazy, thinking they are corals ...

Franz Bernhard

You're building quite a nice reef there, Franz!

 

Any fossil that you can get a sense what it looked like is great in my book, otherwise I need someone to tell me what it was or what part of a critter it was before I can really appreciate it.

It has always seemed to me that vertebrates of all kinds (including Cenozoic mammals, and especially predators) have more star power than many of the invertebrate groups aside from ammonites and trilobites, and maybe crinoids.

[PRLE]

On 5/28/2022 at 7:53 PM, Denis Arcand said:

 

 

I totally agree with @Tidgy's Dad bryozoans are kind of the forgotten children of paleontology. I just want to add that they are awesome, they can be found in many shapes and colors. Ii might be that they are not popular because of their small size, they need to be seen very closely and magnification is needed to see small details, so they are not good candidates for display. in a living room or a museum.

 
Here are some of my favorites.

 

 

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