Fish?

[Michelle Sawicki Library]

Any chance this could be a fish?

[Kane]

I'm thinking not.  I'm seeing no bones, scales, or plate morphology in this piece.

[Michelle Sawicki Library]

Well bummer! I thought maybe I had finally found a fish!

[Kane]

Well, keep trying.  

 

I do think getting a better understanding of the geology of where you are finding things will be very helpful in determining what you can hope to find. If the local geology shows that the rocks are before the rise of fish, you'll know it won't be likely to find a fossil fish!

[Michelle Sawicki Library]

Looks like ordovician? It is Jefferson County.

[Kane]

Now we're cooking with gas! If the rocks are indeed Ordovician, we can rule out fish as they only really started coming into focus by the Devonian. You can expect to find a lot of other very interesting marine fossils like nautiloids, trilobites, corals, crinoids, graptolites, brachiopods and the like. 

[Michelle Sawicki Library]

Have found about a million crinoids, including this one today.

[izak_]

If its Ordovician then it is highly unlikely to be a fish.

 

[Kane]

7 minutes ago, Foozil said:

If there are crinoids, then generally there wont be fish. There can be, but if its ordovician...

Well, not necessarily  

There are plenty of crinoids in the Devonian, for example. I've found fish plates in the same layers as crinoids.. But, yeah, Ordovician fish is highly unlikely!  

[izak_]

32 minutes ago, Kane said:

Well, not necessarily  

There are plenty of crinoids in the Devonian, for example. I've found fish plates in the same layers as crinoids.. But, yeah, Ordovician fish is highly unlikely!  

Forgot about them! Thanks for the correction

[doushantuo]

for the sake of rigour and completeness

location,location

[fossilized6s]

Attempt to find rocky outcroppings and road cuts near you. There are trilobites found near your area..