August 2016 Finds Of The Month

[JohnJ]

What an amazing contest last month! There were so many entries that I saw fossils in my sleep. (Thanks to 'ynot' and 'DPS Ammonite' for waking me up!)

I promise to stay awake for all your entries this month!

Remember...carefully read the rules below, make sure you include all the required information, and submit your fossil!

Please pay special attention to Rule #5: Before and After Preparation photos must be submitted for Prepped specimens not found during the Month of the Contest. In addition to keeping the contest fair, this new qualification will encourage better documentation of our spectacular past finds. Best of luck to all and good hunting!

Entries will be taken through August 31st. Please let us know if you have any questions, and thanks for sharing more of your fossils and research this month.

To view the Winning Fossils from past contests visit the Find Of The Month Winner's Gallery.
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Rules for The Fossil Forum's Vertebrate and Invertebrate/Plant Find of the Month Contests

1. You find a great Vertebrate Fossil or Invertebrate/Plant Fossil! Only fossils found by you.

2. Post your entry in the Find of the Month topic. Use a separate post for each entry. (Only two entries per contest category.)

3. Your Fossil must have been found during the Month of the Contest, or most of the significant Preparation of your Fossil must have been completed during the Month of the Contest.

4. You must include the Date of your Discovery (when found in the contest month); or the Date of Preparation Completion and Discovery date (if not found in the contest month).

5. Before and After Preparation photos must be submitted for prepped specimens not found during the Month of the Contest.

6. You must include the common or scientific name.

7. You must include the Geologic Age or Geologic Formation where the Fossil was found.

8. You must include the State, Province, or region where the Fossil was found.

9. Play fair and honest. No bought fossils. No false claims.

Shortly after the end of the Month, separate Polls will be created for the Vertebrate and Invertebrate/Plant Find of the Month.

In addition to the fun of a contest, we also want to learn more about the fossils. So, only entries posted with a CLEAR photo and that meet the other guidelines will be placed into the Poll.

Within a few days, we will know the two winning Finds of the Month! Now, go find your fossil, do your research, and make an entry!

[Herb]

Here is my entry for August. Found July 20th , prepped August 1 and 2. Found in Frankfort, Kentucky, USA. Clay's Ferry Formation, Upper Ordovician.

Isotelus gigas.

[Raggedy Man]

I can already see this is going to be a difficult month...

[bruce]

While prepping this Megokkos crab I saw that it was hosting a colony of tube worms (epibionts) Preparation slowed down to a millimeter at a time while I tried to uncover and trace their path. Preparation was completed August 7, and took a total of 24.8 hours. It is from Oregon and approximately 33-35.6 MYO (Late Eocene - Early Oligocene). When I found the concretion in July, I split it at home with a cold chisel, which made a clean break and was glued back together to begin prepping. You can see the break line through the middle of the big claws. The tips of the other claw broke off during prep, but I was able to re-attach them.

[JohnBrewer]

And it's only the 11th August...

[MeargleSchmeargl]

While prepping this Megokkos crab I saw that it was hosting a colony of tube worms (epibionts) Preparation slowed down to a millimeter at a time while I tried to uncover and trace their path. Preparation was completed August 7, and took a total of 24.8 hours. It is from Oregon and approximately 33-35.6 MYO (Late Eocene - Early Oligocene). When I found the concretion in July, I split it at home with a cold chisel, which made a clean break and was glued back together to begin prepping. You can see the break line through the middle of the big claws. The tips of the other claw broke off during prep, but I was able to re-attach them.

This has made the month much easier. IPFOTY?

[LordTrilobite]

That crab sure has a victory pose.

[crabfossilsteve]

Wow Bruce

First you don't find many Megokkos specimens with that many legs preserved and then to have those cool tube worms. Secondly, you do such an amazing job on the prep work in exposing the level of detail on the small claw. What is the size of the thing.

[sixgill pete]

While prepping this Megokkos crab I saw that it was hosting a colony of tube worms (epibionts) Preparation slowed down to a millimeter at a time while I tried to uncover and trace their path. Preparation was completed August 7, and took a total of 24.8 hours. It is from Oregon and approximately 33-35.6 MYO (Late Eocene - Early Oligocene). When I found the concretion in July, I split it at home with a cold chisel, which made a clean break and was glued back together to begin prepping. You can see the break line through the middle of the big claws. The tips of the other claw broke off during prep, but I was able to re-attach them.

Wow! Did I say Wow?

[TNGray]

Here's my latest! I was in Ohio for a family reunion and had a chance to hunt at the LaFarge Quarry dump site near Paulding. This one is my favorite.

Eldredgeops rana crassituberculata

Devonian Period, Silica Shale Formation

Found at the La Farge Quarry Dump Piles near Paulding, Ohio

Found on August 12, 2016 and prepped on August 17, 2016

Found on the surface of the dump pile, under a clump.

As Found condition.

30 mm from the cephalon to the bend in the thorax.

Final prepared specimen.

Edited August 18, 2016 by JohnJ
(contest photos uploaded to TFF)

[Ash]

August is a slow month so far, but fantastic finds

[digit]

I have a feeling there will be (as with most months) a flurry of submissions in the last few days of the month. I like the way this month is shaping up so far but I'm waiting for the vertebrate entries to start balancing things out. Congrats to the owners of the current enviable entries.

Cheers.

-Ken

[LSCHNELLE]

Such amazing invertebrate finds already this month. I don't know how people can prep. crabs and trilobites so beautifully! I think that I just don't have the patience.

Here is my entry for the month. Scouting Bear Creek in Travis County, Texas, USA on August 12, 2016 for a reported Eagle Ford outcrop, I had no luck on finding it. But, Buda limestone bluffs were abundant. Upon approaching the dry creek bottom (likely not dry any more after our flooding), I saw the oyster/beach shell basal Buda layer underlain by a few feet of blue-gray clay/marl - likely Del Rio Clay. The upper Kdr echinoid was obvious from 10 feet away (picture). It was a slightly crushed and deformed regular echinoid with algae growing on the creek-exposed adoral surface. After posting on the Fossil ID Forum, JohnJ suggested it could be a Pedinopsid - his diagnosis limited due to a pictures-only view.

The Buda LS and Del Rio Clay correspond to Main Street Limestone in North Texas where "Lance" posted a similar "partly fractured condition" find online 8/16/2008. See below pics from "Some Cretaceous Echinoids of America" (C. Wythe Cooke (1955) - Plate 19 (extractions) :

https://www.google.c...B8KYA3wnZV5NOsQ

The basic lower/upper echinoid plating and Cenomian Mainstreet Limestone origin (equal to Buda Limestone/Del Rio Clay) Age all seem to be a good match for it being Pedinopsis texanus (in my non-expert opinion). The partially squashed dimensions are 70mm x 60mm x 40mm. In the past, I just found fragmented plates of echinoids in the Del Rio Clay - so this was amazing! After prepping to remove some limestone matrix and the algae, I have posted one adoral surface post-prep view. Erose saw it at our PSA meeting and called it definitely one of the largest regular echinoids he had seen come out of the Texas Cretaceous. Lee Schnelle, P.G.

[bruce]

Thanks for your kind remarks. The carapace width of the crab is about 4 cm.

[pinetree]

Well here's my first find of the month entry, its a crinoid stem as identified by very helpful members of this forum. It was found in a river in Northumberland U.K. Found date was 19/08/16 cleaned and prepared also 19/08/16.

[Ash]

Beautiful!

[izak_]

Amazing finds so far!

[BobWill]

These are new for me so that makes them personally special. I found one last year that I could not identify and just saw the other one yesterday in a bag of sampled dirt from the same site. I had thought the first one was something broken until the new one showed the same "toothy" edge.

Thanks to TqB for the ID. They are echinoid teeth from Archeocidaris sp. probably A. brownwoodensis since those are common at the site which is the Lake Bridgeport spillway in Wise County Texas. Late Pennsylvanian, Missourian Series, Canyon Group, Chico Ridge/Jasper Creek Formation limestone.

convex surface concave surface

edge view flat end

pointed end close-up

[RJB]

Gunna be rather tuff to pick a winner this month! Wow!

RB

[MattFossil]

Here's my effort.

A large pyrite Eoderoceras Sp. from Charmouth. Found today 22nd August whilst walking back to my car rather dejected that I hadn't found anything! These are usually around 3-4cm and in various states of decay so this is a corker in this condition at almost 11cm.

Black ven Marls
Lower Jurassic, Sinemurian, 196.5 to 189.6 Ma
Charmouth, Dorset, UK

Cheers,

Matt

Edited August 22, 2016 by JohnJ
(contest photos uploaded to TFF)

[minnbuckeye]

I have never entered the fossil of the month contest yet but thought about it for August. And I have probably picked a difficult month to start. I need a question answered before posting. A block of sandstone had a layer of trilobite bits and pieces on top of it. What I discovered was multiple whole trilobites within the single rock. Do I post just one or a few of them, or all thirteen???

Edited August 22, 2016 by minnbuckeye

[caldigger]

Are they still part of the rock (on matrix) or did you separate them so you now have thirteen separate items?

[JohnJ]

I have never entered the fossil of the month contest yet but thought about it for August. And I have probably picked a difficult month to start. I need a question answered before posting. A block of sandstone had a layer of trilobite bits and pieces on top of it. What I discovered was multiple whole trilobites within the single rock. Do I post just one or a few of them, or all thirteen???

To submit a find with multiple specimens, you would need to have an image showing the identifiable fossils associated 'in situ'; or, images showing them in the same single block of matrix. Mike, please send me a PM if you need further clarification.

[minnbuckeye]

This is my first attempt at posting an entry for fossil of the month. My find began a month ago when a fellow Fossil Forum member asked for donated partial specimens of trilobites from the Cambrian period. I knew of a half a dozen places that I had not hunted in a few years ( due to the fragile nature of the fossils in a soft sandstone) that would fit his request. These sites are loaded with cephalons and pygidiums but never (I thought) whole trilobites. So the next time I went fishing on the Mississippi River, I quit early to take the time to slip into Wisconsin to collect for this individual. After about an hour of gathering, I had a 5 gallon pail full of sandstone and headed home to fillet the walleye and prep the fossils. The specimens (the trilobites, not the fish) were laid out, allowed to dry before a light coat of preservative was used to coat them to prevent them from crumbling into a pile of sand. Once preserved, I began to break away the better cephalons and pygidiums of the common Cedaria woosteri. To my amazement, when I started working one piece of sandstone that had a hash plate of trilobite parts on its surface, a trilobite that appeared to be complete was peaking out of the deeper matrix. To make a long story shorter, 13 complete to almost complete trilobites were extracted from a single block of sandstone! Thanks to the work of Piranah, My trilobites have been identified.

Edited August 24, 2016 by minnbuckeye

[minnbuckeye]

These Trempealeau County trilobites were found in the Eau Claire formation of the late Cambrian and as I mentioned , identified as Menomonia calymenoides by the now famous Piranha. The special feature of this species is the ENORMOUS number of thoracic segments it possesses.