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I found this shell along with several others on some property we just purchased in central, east Louisiana. I also discovered a large porous white rock with large marks in it that seem to be coral maybe? I'm completely new to this and I honestly have no idea what I have, but I think its beautiful! Any ideas as to would it could possibly be are greatly appreciated

Well I decided to stop again at the Garage Sale at an ESCONI members house. It had been a rainy night and before it opened at 10 am I along with another gentleman helped the owners daughter remove tarps that were covered with a lot of water. After that, I and a number of others began to look around for new items that had been placed outside since last week. I found a couple things that caught my eye, I don’t know if the prices are good for a couple things that I purchased , but it was to help the owner and I was willing to pay the price that I did. These trilobites appear to be from the Ordovician of New York, but I would not be surprised if they came from Canada, maybe @Kane can confirm. For these pieces I paid $130.00 I believe that they are Ceraurus and Isotelus. I got 3 Ceraurus- And then these Isotelus. I also got this box of Agatized Coral from Florida for $50, I have never owned a piece of this. To be continued-

Today I stopped at a garage sale at an ESCONI members house, this is the same location of an earlier garage sale that I posted about a couple months ago. @stats Rich was there and he spotted this Eurypterid first and let me but it. I don’t know what I will do with it and I am not sure if $100 was a good deal, but I was happy with it. I believe this piece cane from Rochester, New York. If anyone has any info on it please let me know. I am really thinking about cutting it down to a smaller size and see if there is anything else in the excess matrix. i also picked up some miscellaneous flats of different prices. There were some larger pieces that were identified at coming from Saint Marie’s Cement Company, Bowmanville (Ontario, Canada) - Ordovician. I do not know if this is the correct ID, but here are some pics of some of the stuff after I split them. I got 4 large plates for $5.00. I got a flat of fossils that was identified as coming from the James Dick Cement Company (Brechin, Ontario, Canada). This flat contained various brachiopods, gastropods, etc., I paid $20.00 for the flat and separated out what I wanted and put them into a Plano tackle box. More in next post.

Emerging cooperation between the richest collectors and academics. Oh, and drool worthy fossils too. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/09/dinosaur-fossils-collector-feature/

Been working on a guy for over a year to get some white river material. He came right through Helena on his way to another fossil local in Canada. You cant see anything in this photo but some rather large jackets. Got a very nice disarticulated oreodont skull and a very nice rhino skull with other bones too. I also got a smaller jacket and now cant even remember what it is? This getting forgetful is a pain in the rear but at least I wasn't cooking? Ha! The oreodont is probably going to Australia and havent decided yet what to do with the other two projects? Ive really gotten/aquired/bought/traded for a heck of alot of fossil projects this year!!! To say the least!!! Im also just about broke! Still haven't finished my other White River projects from last year and I will also be getting a truckload of Fox Hills material in just over a week! Life is good. Or im a horder? RB

After probably the best summer I’ve had in terms of fossil collecting here’s just a small portion of what I have to show for it

Hi! My kids found a few fossils and we have no idea what they are! Could anyone help? they were found on st simons island Georgia in an oyster bed.

A couple of spiny looking fossils in hard rock in Carlyon bay, Cornwall, near St. Austell. I know nothing about fossils so any input appreciated :-)

Good morning, everyone, My name is Ismael Invernizzi and i live in Switzerland. I am an environmental science student, wildlife/nature photographer and a neophyte of the world of fossils!

Hi there, I inherited a few specimens from my late grandfather and unfortunately did not know of the collections existence until after he had passed and as a result do not know any of history or where they were found/purchased. I would be very grateful for any information anyone could provide on any of the potential fossils. Thanks! Apologies for any issues in uploading as it's my first post. I also weighed the specimens if that's of any help: #1 (178grams), #2 tooth (2grams) #3 (116grams) #4 spherical specimen (224grams) #5 (89grams)

I had my first taste of the Carboniferous period. I made the trip to Centralia PA for a look at the fossils there. I went to coal deposit up the road from the cemetery on 2nd street ( pic below ). Centralia was not a "ghost town" not when I was there. There was a lot of people around. Many looked like they where their for the Graffiti Highway and other for some kind of four wheel event across the street from the spot I was at. The Shale was very soft and I had a hard time picking up anything bigger than 2 inches. I pulled away 3 layer but still had the same problem. I don't know if it would be them same if a kept going. Over all the sit was easy to find, and had a good view. With many fossil to pick from.

Just got back from a trip to England - still fighting the jet lag a bit! 7 hours time difference makes for interesting sleep patterns! Thought y'all might want to see what I all I found in Great Britain! Of course, we started in London, doing all the London things, including the Natural History Museum! Got to see Mary Annings plesioarus and mosasaurs. And the archeoptyrix! And the dino room!! And much much much more.....whew. Left London to visit friends in Bury St. Edmund, near Cambridge. We went to see the Sutton Hoo burial near Ramsholt in Suffolk which I had heard of a fossil hunting spot there- didn't really get to look much because there was a boat burning at the docks.....so fire trucks and smoke and commotion. I found out later that the main hunting area was a 45 minute hike from the waterfront, so I kind of missed out. Wasn't really prepared to hike that far, with friends who aren't really into fossil hunting, so I contented myself with poking along the water front and found a couple of little things.... (not the shell, I found that embedded in the dirt at Framlingham Castle, not sure if it is a fossil or just a shell). I'm not really sure what any of them are, the bullet shape I was assuming was a cephalopod, but it might be a phragmocone and I really don't know what the little round one is, perhaps a vertebra? I didn't have a coin for scale, but the little round is 3/4 inch. Next on the fossil tour was Yaxley Hampton Vale lake near Petersborough. I had heard it was a good spot, if somewhat picked over, but I found it to be quite good! I didn't find any ammonites (which I was hoping for) or crinoids (although my friend who was driving found a HUGE crinoid stem - beginners luck, the rat). But found a nice sized belemnite, plus these those neat little white spicule things. I saw them ID'd somewhere a while back (sponges, I think) , but now I can't seem to find what they are called, so if you know, please let me know! A Swan at Yaxley: But the highlight of the trip was a guided tour around Weymouth, with the interesting and outspoken Adrian Davies! He picked us up and toured us all around Portland Island and Weymouth with info on the history of the town plus stops for fossil hunting! First stop was to a cobble beach with "roach stones"...what we in Texas call Rattlesnake Rock. My husband found a dolphin spine washed up (I really wanted to take some of the vertebra, but decided they might not let me back in the US)! You can see all the cobbles around the dolphin. My "roachstones" The view from Portland looking back toward Weymouth: And the best for last - my finds of ammonites (16 of which are pyrite!) , crinoids, belemnites, a phragmocone, a sponge and a bit of bone plus some other stuff: A few more pics of my finds: Me with my nose to the ground- it was a bit chilly and windy...and then I came home to the Texas heat.. And then a day later, I went to the Quarry at Midlothian on a 100 degree day. But that's another story.....

Hey everyone, Today I worked on applying vinac to plant fossils and messed up on one fossil and I was wondering if there was anyway to remove vinac from a fossil? Could acetone work? Any suggestions are wanted! Thanks!

I made my first trip out to DSR today and, with some helpful tips from some kind people on the forum, I was able to find the site and know what to look for. Its a nice little spot. Near the road, easy to get to, and quiet. I didn't find anything exceptional, but I thought I would post pics of my favorites for anyone looking up the spot. Thank you to the owners of the site for let everyone come and enjoy it.

Holly smoke! now I know why I should have listened to my teachers when I was in school. I am so far over my head in this fossil and rock thing that my eyes hurt thinking about it. I do mostly river hunting here in VA. and until I came across this site my life was normal, now I'm not sure about anything. It seems now I have more questions than answers. Walking the banks of the James river looking for arrowheads I always seem to come home with more different looking rocks than I do arrowheads. Picking up rocks that look like they may be arrowheads but are not got me to wondering. One question is, is there a fossil hunting for dummies thingy anywhere? One of my sons likes to look for shark teeth and I go with him some times to walk the river banks. One of my questions is, do all real shark teeth look like the pretty little black and grey colored things he always brings back or could a tooth be completely turned to stone like river rock you see along the bank of a stream. Also is it possible to find a tooth in a sediment layer, like so called mud rock that is shaped exactly like those pretty ones that everybody else finds but is just a blob of the same material that its encased in? I was digging a couple buckets of of that sediment layer to use for planting material when I noticed something strange looking in the soil. It was getting dark and we had to leave to get back. A day or two later when I dumped out one of the buckets I noticed bone fragments and what looked to be parts of some kind of vertebrae. Out of the three buckets I collected there was over a bucket full of these bone like pieces and a lot of pieces that had the shape of teeth but were just a mass of the grey sediment looking material. Hopefully I will get to go back to the site later to find out what I have destroyed and to see what else may be there.......but more carefully this time I promise. I'm going to try and get some pics of some of the things but my camera battery is dead and I have to get a new one. When I do post pictures it will be in the fossil ID page.

The fossil/rock club that I belong to was asked to be part of a craft show in Morrison, Iowa this past weekend. The president asked for assistance months ago. I did not volunteer initially because it was a 2.5 hour drive for me. But as of Thursday, help was still needed. What I didn't realize was that in addition to my physical attendance, I was to put together a project for children!!! Now this is Thursday evening and I needed to be in Iowa Saturday. The president informed me that last year 200 youngsters went through their set up. So here is my project and results: I decided to make 200 rocks full of fossils for the kids to open. Having never done this before and only 24 hours to prepare, I was a bit nervous. The following recipe was found on TFF. @caldigger made the suggestion of using dry wall powder instead of plaster of paris. I used both. Plaster of paris dried faster and was a harder finished product. Dry wall powder, on the other hand, being markedly cheaper, $9 for a bag that made me grunt carrying it to the car, and the ease of breaking open for the children, I would recommend it over plaster of paris. As for sand and the drywall powder, different proportions were tried but I felt a 1 part sand to 2 parts drywall powder worked the best. Bright and early Friday morning I collected enough loose fossils to embed in the plaster. This was my work site. Notice the bottle of cinnamon, a suggestion for coloring the fossils in the article. Save the cinnamon for what it was intended for, human consumption. I will speak on coloring the "rocks" later: And the work begins. First blobs of plaster were laid out. DO NOT PLACE ON NEWSPAPER!!!! Use wax paper. The children were quick to point out that there was lettering on their "rocks". The dye of the newspaper bled through onto the plaster. Next, liberally wet your hands with Pam cooking oil then grab a handful of fossils. Roll them around in your hands for awhile until coated lightly with the oil. Push each into the plaster. This did wonders at keeping plaster residue off of the fossils. At this point, I tried many ways to cover the fossils up. My best and quickest results came by letting the bottom plaster firm just a bit and then pouring a thinner layer of plaster over the top. Now to speak on coloring the "rocks". I tried cinnamon, I tried painting. Neither technique thrilled me. And to paint 200, not going to happen. So I was thinking of what to do when I looked down at the "filthy"bowl of water that I would rinse my brush out in. Why not dip a nice white rock into it and see what happened. It worked GREAT at instilling a fairly natural color to the stark white and one can color 200 items in about 5 minutes. I experimented with different colors in the water. The examples in the back of the picture below came out the best. I did find that to create a little 2 tone look, lightly brush the colored rock with a different color while it is still wet from it's bath and it added to it's look tremendously. Here is my first 100. And yes there are a few pink ones. I always wanted my daughter to be a "tom boy", but she grew up a "girly girl". She is now grown and on her own and we recently took her bed out of her bedroom. I found about 20 small "diamonds" in the carpet where the bed used to rest. Why not add these to some pink plaster (along with some fossils). They went like hotcakes and brought smiles when opened. And in all honesty, the children chose the pink and white samples over the browns. So in the future, maybe I would not try and mimic rock. And make orange, green, red, pink, blue, and yellow ones.

Spamer, E. E., 2019. Bibliography of Paleontology of the Grand Canyon Region and in the Continuity of Grand Canyon Formations. Ravem Perch Media. https://ravensperch.org/bibliography-of-paleontology-of-the-grand-canyon-region/ https://www.academia.edu/39128385/Bibliography_of_Paleontology_of_the_Grand_Canyon_Region_and_in_the_Continuity_of_Grand_Canyon_Formations https://amphilsoc.academia.edu/EarleSpamer Spamer, E.E., 1984, Paleontology in the Grand Canyon of Arizona: 125 years of lessons and enigmas from the late Precambrian to the present: Mosasaur (Journal of the Delaware Valley Paleontological Society), v. 2, p. 45-128. https://sites.google.com/site/dvpspaleo/home/the-mosasaur/Mosasaur-Vol2-1984-Spammer-GrandCanyon-45-128.pdf https://sites.google.com/site/dvpspaleo/home/the-mosasaur/ https://www.academia.edu/36824895/Paleontology_in_the_Grand_Canyon_of_Arizona_125_Years_of_Lessons_and_Enigmas_from_the_Precambrian_to_the_Present On a lighter note: Spamer, E.E., 1955. The Okamura Fossil Laboratory. The Annals of Improbable Research. v. 1, no. 4, pp. 4-9. https://www.academia.edu/36778876/The_Okamura_Fossil_Laboratory_and_Was_Darwin_nearly_right Yous, Paul H.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a little advice on how to ship heavy fossils internationally (from the USA to the UK). I thought the forum might be a good place to ask, as quite a few of you may have done this in the past. I have the opportunity to purchase around 500kg (around 1000 pounds) of small fossils from someone in the US. I'm sure I've read members discuss sending fossils back from Tuscon in the past using shipping containers and guess this would probably be the best way to go. Any advice on how this works would be greatly appreciated.

Moved to Arizona from Chicago after I retired. Bought some land that I hoped would have some interesting finds. I’ve been obsessed with fossils and archeology since I was a kid, so I am living my dream here. Hard to believe that when the fossils I am finding were formed the world was Pangea! Really happy to find this forum so I can share my finds and get information.

Hi guys I’m doing a bit of an overhaul on my collection and I have found some unidentified things I would appreciate anyone’s help in identifying them thanks in advance, will ps the boxes are 7x12cm 1.bartonian amber from Gdańsk (Baltic) 2.stuff from pen Dixie 3.. 4.. 5Melongena Corona? Bradenton Road Dig Florida 6. Silurian from wrens nest england

I found these rocks between Ashland, Wisconsin and Little Girls Point in Michigan. There was so much rock hunting that day, I lost track of exactly where! Picture 2 (the tan colored) that's posted in the comments, is a coral fossil on the back. Shown is the front, I've never seen something like that before. Please share your knowledge, it's greatly appreciated!

Hello! I recently purchased an online lot from an estate sale and got near 100 pieces of collected material. I got some nice pieces, although nothing is in great quality but im hoping I have some rare tooth or something. While I already sorted the hoard, 50% was unidentifiable so I just took the interesting looking ones that I knew nothing about. Any help is appreciated! If anyone would like to know the dimensions, I will be more then happy to do so. Weird piece, the bottom solid bit feels almost like plastic. I also have some peices with some mineral residue on it. I am unsure where this all came from but it seemed like a very interested place to collect. These were labeled as whale inner ear bones, however, they do not look like the stuff I see on google. Some sort of tooth Could be a small horse tooth? This was just labeled porpoise tooth. The first side looks like a belemnite phragmacone but the other side reminds me of a hadrosaur? Super long root with a tooth attached. It is not very good quality, but I can at least make out that it is definitely a separate piece at the tip This was labeled as mastodon cusp A weird button lookin thang. THANKS FOR ANY HELP

I can find photos that look like the ones in the last 3 photos but can't seen to find much info on them, are all of these the same species? I can't find anything that looks like the one in the first 3 photos so I'm not sure what to make of it. Based on the photos I've compared some of these to, I believe that some may have gone extinct during the Pliocene.

Hello, my name is Keith. My parents have both passed and we have a bunch of fossils that we are trying to identify. I would truly appreciate any help that this forum can provide. Thanks in advance, Keith

I like to say that I am a fossil educator before I am fossil collector. Under normal circumstances, that is how I view myself. Fossils on Wheels is all about education but I am just like everybody else here. A normal person who has to come to really love fossils. Before I am an educator or collector, I am a son, a brother, and most importantly a father. My family suffered a significant loss recently. We lost my father to CHF last Friday rather unexpectedly. He had been in failing health but everyone expected him to at least get out of the hospital. TFF and the fossil world has been a great diversion for me over the past week. I have been stopping by everyday to just read posts or look at collections. Normally my time here is educational but this is different. It is a much needed distraction from dealing with death. The irony of that statement is not lost on me at all lol Death is part of life and nothing illustrates that better than fossils though it may seem odd to deal with grief by spending time with dead things but it is therapeutic for me. I am busy with work and my kids but there are dead spots in the day and that is when I come here to get my mind off my dads passing. I have been trying to read as much as I can about Mesozoic shark teeth and dinosaurs and all of things we will be educating kids about this school year but I also find myself just sort of admiring various collections and the general knowledge shared here. It may not seem like a big deal but it really is. It has been very helpful and calming. We have already experienced the amazing generosity of the people here and it is really comforting to just be a part of this place. Distractions are a good thing when dealing with loss and this is way healthier than sitting at a bar or just wallowing in sadness. It is a positive place where people actually help one another and that is a beautiful thing. The administrators and creators of the site as well as all of the members work to create a really amazing place for fossil nuts to come together. I am really quite thankful to be part of TFF and I know the value of it extends beyond the fossils. So thank you to all who work hard to make this place what it is and thank you for providing a wonderful distraction.