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Move Over San Andreas, There is an Ominous New Fault in Town Geoff Manugh, Wired, April 18, 2019 https://www.wired.com/story/walker-lane-move-over-san-andreas-fault/ Additional reading: Faulds, J.E., Henry, C.D. and Hinz, N.H., 2005. Kinematics of the northern Walker Lane: An incipient transform fault along the Pacific–North American plate boundary. Geology, 33(6), pp.505-508. PDF file - http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/Staff/henry/FauldsEtNWLGeology2005.pdf Other Publications - http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/Staff/Faulds.html Faulds, J.E., Henry, C.D., Spencer, J.E. and Titley, S.R., 2008. Tectonic influences on the spatial and temporal evolution of the Walker Lane: An incipient transform fault along the evolving Pacific–North American plate boundary. Ores and orogenesis: Circum-Pacific tectonics, geologic evolution, and ore deposits: Arizona Geological Society Digest, 22, pp.437-470. PDF file - http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/Staff/Faulds/33_AGS22_Faulds_and_Henry_(Walker_Lane)_final.pdf Other Publications - http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/Staff/Faulds.html Yours, Paul H.

Does anyone know of any rock shops in the Las Vegas area that would have fossils for sale? More of the Ma and Pa roadside stands rather than the commercial shops , real fossils still covered in dirt.

Hello all, I just started collecting and would like some help. I bought this at a local store here in town and after doing some research I am now worried if this is the real deal. I have tried to find information to see if I can figure it out myself but after hours of looking I can not come to a clear determination.I would like your guidance on my new found journey into fossils. Thank you.

Hello, can you please identify what type of fossil wood or bog perhaps? found near Lyon County. The last picture shows the size of specimens dry. Thank you. Paleozoic Coniferous swampland Nevada

Thank you!

Hello, friends! Not too much to go on, so I'm not expecting a definite id, really, but if anyone does have any guesses, I'd be really grateful. I received this as part of a gift and it was simply labelled "Trilobite - Nevada". The only other information the sender could tell me was that it had been found by someone else in "a canyon", not much help. I can tell you that the trilobite is 3 cm long (what's left of it) and is preserved in a soft, very thinly layered pale grey shale. It's probably going to be Lower to Middle Cambrian, maybe an olenellid? Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you! Cheers, Adam @piranha

New member here. I've been hunting the dirt roads of rural Florida since elementary school and I went to my first Central Florida fossil fair when I was around 6 years old. My lifelong interest in nature and biology led me to pursue a marine science degree and I'm currently teaching science in Florida's *fabulous* public education system. I still hunt dirt roads every chance I get and I head out to the Peace River when I can. I've also explored a few sites in Nevada when visiting family on holiday. I joined the forum because I'd like to get out and go hunting more regularly. I still consider myself an amateur but I hope to pursue paleontology in grad school and would like to eventually work my way into the museum outreach education field. Thanks for adding me!

Kornei, K. (2018), Tiny algae may have prompted a mass extinction, Eos, 99, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EO102539. Published on 11 July 2018. https://eos.org/articles/tiny-algae-may-have-prompted-a-mass-extinction https://eos.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/eos0918.pdf?x69145 https://eos.org/current-issues The paper is; Shen, J., Pearson, A., Henkes, G.A., Zhang, Y.G., Chen, K., Li, D., Wankel, S.D., Finney, S.C. and Shen, Y., 2018. Improved efficiency of the biological pump as a trigger for the Late Ordovician glaciation. Nature Geoscience, 11(7), p.510. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0141-5 Yours, Paul H.

I have been here at the forums for quite sometime now ( I think since I found my first fossils on a trip to Missouri close to 20 years ago?!) Work and life has been very busy and had prevented me from anything more than online hunting, you tube video's, and the lack of actual sites close to where I currently live. (Currently I live above the San Joaquin Valley, in a small mountain community named North Fork. I have had wonderful years here hunting arrow heads and various rocks and minerals, Have found many crystals at the old gold mine sites which are numerous over in Mariposa county next to me, and have had a great time up here! However, I took a trip to Missouri many moons ago to help a family member relocate out here to Nevada, which is when the unexpected happened. When we went to rent the moving truck to begin loading, my mom went inside to handle the rental, and as per my "norm" I took off walking across an open fields with, eyes to the ground,, towards the back of the lot and behind the row of trucks parked ready for rent, towards the railroad tracks. I was finding different minerals and such and then by chance I kicked over a plain down rudy clay looking rock, when I noticed it had a pattern to it. I looked closer and it was a plant fossil ! I was ecstatic, and thrilled does not even begin to cover it. I found several more all of different varieties when I began to notice what the 'commonalities' were with the ones I was finding. From that point on I was hooked! I made several trips back there just for the rock hunting and had found many wonderful 'treasures' which I cherished. I then began to explore more of Missouri to see what else there was to find in this state, and lets put it this way, the first thing on my bucket list is to return to Missouri!!! It got even better, after having my eyes opened so to speak as when we left there we headed to a ranch to spend the night that was owned by family back there. They have an 80 acre ranch. When we got there and I stepped out of the truck, I looked down and could NOT believe my eyes. There were fossils just laying around and exposed all up and down the dirt road which lead from the highway and into the 80 acres. I hunted for the rest of that evening and found more treasures. I have never forgotten that trip, and like I said I plan on gong back there one day before I die, and attempt to find more of those little treasures which made so darned happy so many years ago....and the family back there still owns the ranch too! I have since retired due to disability (heart) and find I have more time available than money naturally, so I am here to begin exploring what is available or close by where I live now, and also any near Fernley NV.. where I spend several months at at time there helping my Mom. I have small amounts of silver in quartz rock, (no gold yet though) many heads, awesome crystals, but my real desire is to find more fossils! So if anyone has any information or recommendations for me I would love to know about them! I am aware of the fossils found down in the Valley at the old landfill dump site in Madera, (wooly mammoth bones, sabre tooth tiger etc.) and I have heard of a dry creek bed somewhere down around the town of Dos Palos and of course Shark Hill and the Ernst Quarries and Ant Hill which is now closed. However its a vast area there, with miles and miles of open high desert area, which leads me to hope that those are not the ONLY areas where one can hunt for sharks teeth and other sea life fossils. Here's to hope! and forgive my long winded introduction but I am happy to be here once again and I'm looking forward to getting to know other members here. Thank you! Debra

I found this lovely piece near Las Vegas, Nevada. I’m no expert, but I’m thinking this is petrified wood. Looking for a more trustworthy opinion than my own. Thoughts?

I have a few trilobites from Nevada that are bugging me (pun intended). I just know that I have seen these before, but I can't remember or find what species they are. The first looks like some kind of Agnostid with spines off the pygidium. The second maybe a molted cephalon? Any idea of the species would be great!

Hi all, can anyone tell if this is a dolphin tooth, and what species it is? It's a gift from @JBMugu It comes from Sharktooth Hill of Bakerfield, California. Round Mountain Silt Member of the Temblor Formation. It measures 1.7 inches long. Could it be Kentriodon?

Newbie here. I found these two fossils in my backyard in Pahrump, Nevada. One appears to be a crinoid, but I don't know what the other one is. Is it even a fossil? This is the high desert area 65 miles west of Las Vegas. Can anyone help me please?

I found these near the Valley of Fire in Nevada. From what I've researched, the area used to be underwater from 500 million years ago to 250 million years ago. I presume these are ichnofossils of a burrow made by some animal (brachiopod)? The first photo is a burrow in situ. The second photo shows all three burrows. What do you guys think these are? - Seann

Looks like students of UNLV found bones of dinosaur which are now being studied by the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. The bones appear to be that of a hadrosaur and if named would be a first for Nevada News report attached and check out video in that report http://news3lv.com/news/local/new-dinosaur-species-discovered-in-valley-of-fire

Rare collection of fossils found in Southern Nevada will soon be on display, News3LV http://news3lv.com/news/local/rare-collection-of-fossils-found-in-southern-nevada-will-soon-be-on-display http://news3lv.com/news/local/gallery/rare-collection-of-fossils-found-in-southern-nevada-will-soon-be-on-display Yours, Paul H.

I’m wondering if anyone has experience preping stickleback fishes from a dolomite matrix. Obviously it is extremely soft and the preservation is decent but can literally be rubbed away with a breath. Will PVA stabilize dolomite or will it just melt at the introduction of any liquid? A friend gave me a piece to check out and I’d like to stabilize it. Any help appreciated. I can add pics tomorrow if needed. thanks Jeff

Wendel, J. (2017), Hunting rare fossils of the Ediacaran, Eos, 98, https://doi.org/10.1029/2017EO086601. Published on 13 November 2017. https://eos.org/features/hunting-rare-fossils-of-the-ediacaran https://eos.org/current-issues “The search for fossil imprints and casts of squishy organisms takes time, perseverance, and sometimes a sprinkle of luck.” Smith, E.F., Nelson, L.L., Tweedt, S.M., Zeng, H. and Workman, J.B., 2017, July. A cosmopolitan late Ediacaran biotic assemblage: new fossils from Nevada and Namibia support a global biostratigraphic link. In Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Vol. 284, No. 1858, p. 20170934). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318379716_A_cosmopolitan_late_Ediacaran_biotic_assemblage_new_fossils_from_Nevada_and_Namibia_support_a_global_biostratigraphic_link https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emily_Smith52 http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1858/20170934 A related paper is: E.F. Smith L.L. Nelson M.A. Strange A.E. Eyster S.M. Rowland D.P. Schrag F.A. Macdonald, 2016, The end of the Ediacaran: Two new exceptionally preserved body fossil assemblages from Mount Dunfee, Nevada, USA Geology 44 (11):911-914. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1130/G38157.1 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53cedb86e4b0710434ee1ff4/t/57fee4eef5e231fadeb000ee/1476322543557/Smith_2016_Geology_Dunfee.pdf https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geology/article/44/11/911/195087/the-end-of-the-ediacaran-two-new-exceptionally Yours, Paul H.

The apparent demise of the best California, Utah and Nevada area paleontology website is premature. Inyo.coffeecup.com (created by a former TFF member) is up and running. Check out his great write ups with pictures about trips to many sites many now under protection by state and Federal governments. http://inyo.coffeecup.com/site/cf/carfieldtrip.html#fossilspages Download his fieldtrip guide: http://inyo.coffeecup.com/site/fieldtripbook.pdf Here are two of my favorites sites: Red Rock Canyon State Park in the California Mohave desert http://inyo.coffeecup.com/site/redrock/redrockfossils.html and see the magnificent silicified insects from the Miocene lake deposits near Barstow, CA http://inyo.coffeecup.com/site/barstowfossils/barstowfossils.html Thanks to TFF member @John for alerting us that his wonderful website was down. In a related matter, I would hate to see Inyo.coffeecup.com dissapear if the creator is incapacitated or runs out of money to support the site. Besides The Internet Archive AKA The Wayback Machine, I wonder if any institutions would be willing to archive a version for posterity. Books are archived in libraries; where should websites be saved? I wonder if The Fossil Forum would be willing to archeive copies of significant paleontology websites. Have we made plans to carry on and archive The Fossil Forum in case disaster strikes? Maybe geology libraries and paleontology departments at colleges/universities should store and archeive quality paleontological websites. Sometimes quality websites such as Mindat.org (minerals and occasion fossils) find institutions to preserve and support their continued operations. Mindat has Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Has The Fossil Forum ever considered forming a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization to support our activities or finding an institution to partner with? As an added bonus donations to TFF would be tax deductable. Cheers, John

Here's an image I received the other day from a paleo-enthusiast acquaintance who with impressive regularity continues to pull interesting material for study out of his numerous digs in Nevada. Thought I might "get a kick out of it." I certainly did. The specimens come from the Lower Cambrian Harkless Formation of Nevada. Largest is about a quarter inch long (a little over 6mm). The back-story here is that they were rather confidently identified in the field as Salterella--an extinct member of the phylum Agmata, a phylum erected in 1977 by the late paleontologist Ellis L. Yochelson. They are of unestablished zoological affinity, which is to say that Agmatans cannot be definitely categorized with any modern organismal analog. What's especially fascinating about Salterella and its Agamatan Early Cambrian "cousin" Volborthella (which occurs in geologically older Early Cambrian strata, below Salterella's stratigraphic range) is that the Agmatan animal agglutinated minute mineral grains, incorporating them into its growing shell--that is to say, the actual soft-bodied creature who constructed the shells made a "conscious" decision about which specific minerals in its environment were best suited to include in its expanding shell-home. Back at home, though, identification dubiety set it. Now, he's not so certain. Thinks they could well be assigned to the extraordinarily rare Early Cambrian genus Lidaconus--which is not an Agmatan, apparently, though it bears a striking external superficial resemblance to Salterella--originally described from a couple of Nevada localities situated not too far from where these curious specimens were recovered. By the way--Just in case one speculates whether such specimens referred to Salterella, Volborthella, or Lidaconus could possibly be sclerites--in other words, the conical curiosities do not represent products of individual animals, but rather they're the dissociated components of a larger creature (fragmented "spikes" of some kind of "armored worm," for example)--that idea has already been proposed in the scientitic literature; and it's already been falsified, completely discredited. So, Salterella--or Lidaconus? Some uncertainly now exists, admittedly. Both Salterella and Lidaconus occur within the Bonnia–Olenellus trilobite Zone, in the upper part of the Harkless Formation. Lidaconus is slightly younger, stratigraphically speaking. The paleo-acquaintance also mentioned that he'd probably have to resort to cross-sectioning a few of the specimens; Salterella and Lidaconus can be distinguished on the basis of distinctive internal morphological differences. We'll see what transpires.

Hi all, I received this 2cm trilobite as a gift from a friend, who claims its from the Grass Valley, Lander County, Nevada. After a bit of reading, I'm fairly confident this means Nevada Limestone Formation. I can however only find references to Phacops, Proetus, Dalmanites and Phillipsia from this Formation..is this a Proetus sp? Help appreciated Marc

Yup. You read it correctly: Forbes article HERE. It was a monster, too. Enjoy.