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I did this prep some years ago, about 10?, and it came out purty dang good. Video is 1 minute 51 seconds https://youtu.be/IkR2SccEdrQ

Last weekend I made a trip to New Mexico to hunt the Rio Puerco Valley with @PFOOLEY in search of Upper Cretaceous ammonites, mostly in the middle Turonian Carlile Shale. Mike is incredibly knowledgeable about the Upper Cretaceous of New Mexico and the stratigraphy of the area and I had a blast collecting alongside him. Before making my way to New Mexico I had told Mike that my goal was to find a Placenticeras. Placenticeras and Sphenodiscus are my two favorite Upper Cretaceous ammonite genera. Despite Mike's warning that the areas we would look had been consistently collected over the years, I was excited to explore a new area and collect some new fossils for my collection. Going into the trip, I had told myself that if anything I would get to spend a weekend collecting amongst a beautiful surrounding. I met Mike early on Saturday before we made our way to the Carlile Shale. After we exchanged some quick pleasantries, Mike gifted me an amazing Placenticeras pseudoplacenta embedded in a large concretion. At the very least, I was not going to leave New Mexico without my Placenticeras! Once we arrived at the site, Mike explained to me which horizons hold the best fossils and what color concretions I should be looking for. He also said that rattlesnakes can be found out here and that he hoped we would see one -- that made one of us. I am happy to report that we did not see one! With Mike's two dogs guiding the way, we found ourselves over the next several hours climbing up and down several slopes on the hunt. Given that we were in the Prionocyclus hyatti zone, Prionocyclus hyatti made up the majority of our finds, but to both of our surprise, we were still able to find quite a variety. I found a couple Placenticeras pseudoplacenta of my own as well as two "Franken-ite" ammonites that I wrapped and glued back at home, including an uncommon Romaniceras mexicanum. Mike found his first ever Scaphites carlilensis, which was cool to see. Prionocyclus hyatti Placenticeras pseudoplacenta Romaniceras mexicanum Indeterminate Collignoniceratid While the ammonites were the obvious draw to the site, I also enjoyed picking up a couple of the other invertebrates lying around the hills, including a double valve Inoceramus howelli. Cameleolopha bellaplicata Cyprimeria sp. Nuculana sp. Inoceramus howelli After walking the full stretch of the exposure, Mike said that he wanted to check out one more site, an exposure of the Santonian Satan Tongue, before heading home. Once again Mike gave his fair warning that he had only found a few fossils in the past from this formation but that he had always thought it worthwhile to check it out as a last stop before calling it a day. As we walked around I could see why he had given his warning. I could find nothing! Mike came up to me to ask how I was doing and when I said I was empty handed, he handed me to my surprise two Baculites codyensis and showed me an interesting oyster he had picked up. I have no idea how he could find these things! Baculites codyensis We walked around a little bit more, and just as Mike said "I hope this stop was not a waste of time," I spotted a Placenticeras syrtale peeking out of the ground. I quickly called Mike over, and as soon as I looked at the ground again, I saw another one less than half a foot away from the first. We spent a few more minutes searching this horizon and each collected a few more pieces. Placenticeras syrtale Shortly thereafter Mike left me to head home for dinner, but before he did, he pointed me in the direction of another area worth checking out. Mike must have the magic touch for ammonites, because after he left I did not find much else. Nonetheless I still managed to find another Prionocyclus hyatti and a couple other invertebrates. Prionocyclus hyatti Pecten sp. Cardium sp. Eoacteon sp. Before flying back home in the afternoon on Sunday I wanted to make one more effort at finding some ammonites. Returning to an area Mike and I had visited the day before I decided to go right while we had gone left. That decision turned out to be a poor one. I spent the next hour hiking with nothing to show for it except a few isolated broken Prionocyclus hyatti chunks that I left where I found them. Believing that I might not find anything for my day, I made my way back towards my starting point, and just as I arrived there, I spotted an interesting concretion on the ground. Crouching down to examine it, I decided to split it open. No luck. Just more tiny Prionocyclus hyatti fragments. But as I spun around from my seat I saw what looked like the shell of a decapod. Mike had joked with me the day before that he had found a crab in association with an ammonite several years ago and when he donated it the researchers had wanted to break off the ammonite to preserve the crab. He said that decapod material is rare, so I did not have much hope of finding one myself. The concretion had broken into four pieces so I made sure to collect everything and wrap them appropriately. Since returning home and consolidating the specimen, I have struggled to identify it. Yesterday I spoke with one academic who asked to see it in-person. I will report back once I have a definitive identification. Unidentified Decapod All in all, I had a great time in my short visit collecting from the Upper Cretaceous of New Mexico. I found some great fossils and multiple personal trip makers. I cannot thank Mike enough for his hospitality and generosity. I cannot wait to pay him back on a potential trip to the Upper Cretaceous of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. As a funny aside, I did not have enough space in my checked bag for all of my finds, so I had to store a couple of them in the two backpacks I carried onto the plane. TSA pulled one bag aside but not the other, and when the agent came to look at the bag closer, she asked me, "are these rocks?" My guess is that TSA agents see a lot of things come through security, but "rocks" was a first for her.

Hello all. After a long break, I would like to show some examples of the Sinemurian Jurassic from my collection. The Sinemurian Stage (Sinemur) is a stratigraphic subsection, the second from the bottom stage of the lower section of the Jurassic system of the Mesozoic era. Covers time from 199.3 ± 0.3 Ma to 190.8 ± 1.0 Ma. As far as I know, these fossils are not very widespread. Arietites (Coroniceras)?.. I am not sure about these ammonites

Anybody know what these are?

Warm day, not muddy now, the Clay was cracked into convenient units for searching. There usually are some pyratised Ammonites, but the preservation of these is beautiful and odd. It might be to do with the amount of rain we've had acting with pyrite - I don't know. I really like the colours and the attached white Serpula worm.

I’ll start off my collection with the most common ammonite you can find on the Yorkshire coastline in England. Dactylioceras Commune Lower Jurassic, Upper Lias. Roughly 180myo You can find these ammonites in abundance in Whitby. No exaggerations when I say iv seen thousands over the years. You can find them in plenty of other locations all over Europe, though they’re most known as the Whitby Dac. Now, while they maybe common, size comes into play with mine. You’re usual dac, will probably be between 2-3 inches. If you’re lucky, you can get a 4 inch one, though uncommon. map imagine my shock, when I found a monster with its keel poking out. It takes something special to get me excited about one these days, and this one did just that. After prep, I measure from mouth to keel, and it came in at 5inches to the dot. With the mouth hood preserved, and as good a middle as you’ll get, it’s safe to say you don’t get better. Iv asked around and have yet to see one bigger, though I can guarantee, I’d say this may be the largest Dactylioceras Commune to come from Whitby to date. I hope you enjoy my collection as I post them, as much as I do. Thanks for reading. Dan

Long time no see guys! Thought I’d come back with a bang. A few months back I headed out, just after recovering from covid, so of course, not back at 100%, but well enough to get some exercise. Of course, the first thing I stumble on, is a rather large nodule. Now, these nodules don’t normally contain anything, and are usually filled with a calcite core, but always fun to hit regardless. After one tap with the hammer, it revealed a cross section of a rather large ammonite known as Harpoceras (falciferum). Not a super rare Ammonite by any means, but definitely uncommon. I lost my head. The thing weighed A LOT. So it was bagged up, and on I had to walk for almost two miles. A rough walk back to say the least. Had to weigh the bag when I got home. The block alone weighed over 5 stone (33kgs). That excludes hammers and chisels etc, thanks @LiamL for carrying the rest of my fossils for me haha. Time to prep. There was a lot of matrix to remove, so some cuts were made with the angle grinder to shorten the time of prep down . Then pen down. Until I finally reveal the first large ammonite seems I knew where it was sat. After a few more angle grinder cuts to the other half of the nodule, I actually found a 2nd large Harpoceras. Missing it by about 2mm. VERY LUCKY. Also very happy of course. Though now prep time was increased more so, plus it was sat at the most awkward angle possible, but we persevere. Easily my most challenging prep to date. I have also been filming the prep, every last step of the way to document it. I took a few weeks off recently to concentrate on some customer prep, and to give my hands rest from the thing. So here’s where it sits currently. Both ammonites are fully exposed. The second needs the middle finishing, though saving the for last as it’s incredibly sticky and that awkward angle makes it all the more difficult. I’ll be sure to update in the comments once it’s finished. So yeah, hope you all enjoyed that long winded post. It’s certainly a labour of love, and I hope I don’t find another one again soon (liar). Dan

For whatever reason, I used to completely dismiss the Austin chalk as a formation of any interest. I viewed it almost through the same lens that I view the Edwards formation, as if it was some barren uninteresting hinderance that gets in the way of cooler formations. Accidentally finding a large Parapuzosia ammonite in it once changed that a bit, but for the most part I still ignored it... Turns out I was just looking in the wrong places, and had very little understanding of its members. @LSCHNELLE recently explained a lot of it better to me, and so equipped with new knowledge I decided to try and discover a member of the Austin Chalk I've been wondering about for a while now, which I always falsely assumed was its own formation. I found myself deep in a Travis county creek, following very specific instructions I had read on an old thesis from the 80's I found online. To avoid being too long winded - nothing stood out to me as different in the geology, so I think that the vertebrate rich member I was seeking still eludes me. Yet, I wouldn't say I was skunked, because I found some very interesting invertebrates that even a simpleton like myself can appreciate My first find had me cheering and jumping, partly because of how just picture perfect the insitu was, but mostly because it was just an aesthetic looking echinoid I haven't seen before. Here it sat below, as I originally saw it: Fortunately, what's left in the matrix I believe is still in great detail. It's just on a smaller-than-it-looks exposed portion where the wear took a toll, as you will see at the end when I show more photos. For another hour and half beyond this, I was just sloshing my way through the water, very slowly, admiring the highly fossiliferous limestone as I went. Usually when I scout a new spot, it ends up being more exploring than actual hunting, and yesterday was no different. Close to my turn around spot, I for whatever reason took strong notice of inconspicuous looking pebble lying loose on its own. Picking it upon a whim, I was surprised to see it was another echinoid of the same type I found earlier, albeit in worse condition. Pictures all at the end. Walking back was a serene vibe with few fossils - I was distracted by the new greenery that's been blooming lately. When I got back to where I found the first echinoid, I decided to poke around a bit more, and was surprised to find two ammonites - one large (Mortoniceras?) which I removed, and a much smaller ammonite as well. Results below! No vertebrates but these were well worth it! @JamieLynn put together a phenomenal guide of the inverts by formation that we can find in our central texas stratas, but I wasn't able to find these echinoids in it. I'm aware they need prep, but if you know what they are already please chip in! Results below: Echinoid #1: Echinoid #2 - While it's in worse shape than even the first, I think the substantial attached matrix has protected a lot of it. We'll find out when it preps! Larger ammonite I removed - glue will come to the rescue here. I'm rather sure that the inner coils are preserved under that! Smaller ammonite below: This was just one day sandwiched into what is so far a very busy weekend for me on the paleo front - lots of exploring, and also some good work brewing on two interesting, older vertebrate finds. I'll update this post when i eventually manage to get these echinoids cleaned - the hard limestone they're in will be tough for hand tools - perhaps this is my signal to finally buy a scribe

Recent finds from Texas! Ammonites from the Goodland limestone, petrified wood and ice age stuff bank gravel of the Brazos river, either Beaumont or Lissie formations, or from a terrace deposit. The rib is mammoth/mastodon, the vertebra and hoof core bison, the antler is likely whitetail deer, and the teeth are horse and bison, with the small one I think a 3-toed horse based on the images I looked up.

Hello all... I want to invite everyone here to the second in this year's Tate Museum Spring Lecture Series. Next Thursday, March 31, the Tate Geological Museum will be doing the second in the year's Spring Lecture series via Zoom. Dr. Josh Slattery, from the University of South Florida, will speak on ecology of Cretaceous ammonites found in our part of the country: "The Ecological Role of Ammonites in Late Cretaceous Seas of North America" The presentation starts at 7PM, Mountain Time. We will open the zoom at 6:30 for anyone who wants to socialize (or just say hello and then not socialize). : ) And... here is the link: https://caspercollege.zoom.us/j/83611694009 which is also on the museum's website and Facebook page. Hope to see a few of you there. Cheers, JPC

I got the chance to go to the Oxford Clay twice over the last few days. I'm always looking for echinoderms at this site, and I prefer this one in winter when the vegetation has died back and I can spot lots of small, delicate detail. These are some if my favourite finds from the last few days.

I'm trying to get to one Oxford Clay site pretty frequently, and it did not disappoint. I found my best gastropods from the site this weekend. I thought I had found two pieces of crinoid, but when I got home found it was four. More ammonite as well. Even better, I managed to not bring home any living creatures. Last time I had a caterpillar clinging to an ammonite.

While 2021 was an extremely difficult year with coivd and the loss of my mother we were able to make it out to Richmond in NW Queensland for 2 fossil digs. The conditions out here can very harsh 40c plus days so we did a bit of night time digging under lanterns to avoid the heat. The material here is marine cretaceous sediments from the Toolebuc formation. Our goals this year was to finally find a large ichthyosaur bone (I have found 2x isolated teeth in the past) and find a NW Queensland ammonite. Below are some of best finds from the two digs. While the ichthyosaur bone eluded us for another year while going through our material we brought home we found what has been ID as a Pterosaur digit bone which we were very excited about as these are rare in Australia as is by far my most exciting find to date the fossil is approx 8cm long. Another rare fossil from the site is Johnlongia shark tooth we have found average condition teeth in the past but this year we found a very well preserved one. While turtle fossils are very common on this site we did find our first almost complete one however it was very fragile so decided the best option was to leave it in the location we found it . (Sorry these pictures were taken at night so are not very good) Another very common fossil is fish remains however we found our best fish jaw to date this took quite a few hours to prep. Lastly I was determined to find at least one Ammonite these are not found in our usual site so after been given some guidance and contacting land owners we were given permission to hunt on a station which was well known for ammonites and it didn't disappoint we made some nice finds. The best part of the fossil hunting this year was spending quality time with my son who loves doing it too, thanks for reading my run down of this year collecting I hope everyone has a great 2022. Cheers

Happy Fossil Friday everyone! In today's video offering, I sneak across the border into Texas to hunt for those Texas-sized ammonites, and I met another YouTuber on the way.

I've been visiting this forum since a long time and never registered. I appreciate how valuable its content is. Marine fauna has always been of my interest. As a kid I used to gather books with mosasaurids and plesiosaurids. I collect Carcharocles megalodon teeth (without restorations) and many other fossils, including these to be found in Poland as well. Stay safe everyone in this difficult time.

During the Christmas holiday we had the opportunity to go on 2 field trips to the north of France. 1st one was just after Christmas when we visited the Turonian part of the cliffs. Here we found a couple of nice ammonites ( Mammites nodosoides and a realy nice Fagesia catinus ) and a big flint echinoid. (with @Natalie81 and @Euhoplites) The second trip was last weekend, but we had no luck with the weather this time and we had heavy rainfall for most of the day. Also lots of competition that day. Not a lot of fossils to be found that day: a small flint echinoid, a big Mariella sp. but not the best preservation and an Acanthoceras, but this one is still completely in the matrix, I don’t know how this one will turn out. pic's from the 1st day: The echinoids from the construction site: Fagesia catinus all cleaned up the 2nd field trip: a wel hidden Acanthoceras rhotomagense: Rain, rain, rain,.. I almost forgot, Best wishes for 2022 to all the forum members

Hey All During my prep of another ammonite I found these two small guys. Are they infant ammonites or gastropods? Planko

Fossil Friday once again! This is the last of the South Dakota exploration trip, hunting the Pierre shale for cephalopods and hopefully a mosasaur. Although the first half of the Pierre shale exploration went pretty slow, it wasnt without a few nice finds. The second part, we were extremely fortunate in that we got to meet Neal Larson and hear a short talk about the local Pierre shale formation, and then he took us out to his personal hunting site.

J find this ammonite in the oxfordien stage near from Buis les Baronnies in south east of France,2 pictures before and after;

Greetings to Fossil Forum folks. My name is David Nunnallee and I live in western Washington in the small city of Sammamish, east of Seattle. I have been collecting fossils for several decades, with my interests running mostly to ammonites. My past collecting has included Vancouver Island in British Columbia (now closed to us "foreigners"), also in the Tertiary of Washington. I have enjoyed collecting in the western interior for more than 50 years. Two years ago I donated my entire collection, some 7,000 fossils many of which were ammonites, to the Burke Museum on the Univ of Washington campus in Seattle. Now retired, I am still collecting but more casually these days, together with my wife, also of 50+ years. I hope to see some of you in the field this next season, Covid permitting. Dave Nunnallee

Hello! I’m back from a trip to Texas, and while there I did quite a lot of fossil hunting. I’m not going to be uploading everything here (because I found quite a bit and I feel a bit bad putting so many), but I figured I’d post the ones I’m most stumped on. I’d really appreciate any help. I’m on mobile, so I’m not sure if these will upload in order (they should, but if not I’ll fix it on PC soon). 1: Not sure what this is, but I really like how it’s intact on both sides. Found at Benbrook Lake, Fort Worth to the left of the marina. 2: My dad is mostly interested in this one. Maybe it’s just a rock, but I do think its formation and little cracks are interesting. Also from Benbrook. 3. Looks pretty cool (though I’m not confident in any guesses I could have). Benbrook Lake. 4. I actually got this one identified before at a museum, but I want to hear everyone’s thoughts without influence (because it ended up being pretty cool and I’d like to know for sure). Found in Paluxy by a river that another fossil hunter recommended. 5. This has a teeny little imprint, if you can see that. Maybe some little wormy thing? Not sure! Found in Benbrook. Again, I’d be so thankful for any help and I had lots of fun collecting everything. Will probably upload all the rest at some point.

Hello everyone. Proposing a trade of NSR miscellaneous stuff for trade for ammonites. I have mosy verts, gastropods, calcite covered gastropods, calcite covered clams, couplebfish verts, one more tylosaurus tooth, sharks teeth, etc.. Tell me what you want and I'll see if I have it.

Last Saturday, Natalie and I went for a trip to the chalk cliffs in Northern France. We got there early and we were surprised at the parking by a friend who happened to have the same idea as us . @Euhoplites So now we were 3 to hit the beach. We were quite lucky with the weather, at least dry, and not to cold for this time of the year. We did get a decent haul to, a few ammonites, a se urchin, a realy nice nautiloid. Natalie also found some pretty shark teeth. The best find for me that day was a rare and very well preserved ammonite Hyphoplites falcatus. Enjoy the pictures Some of the teeth found by Natalie The Cymatoceras sp. : And finaly the fossil that made my day : a rare Hyphoplites falcatus:

Hi everyone These two pieces were collected by my boyfriends father and his family about 60 years ago on the Jurassic coast of Charmouth/Lyme Regis. A little while ago he brought them out to show me and said I could keep the ones I liked. I chose these two, but not to keep. My idea was to prep them, reveal the fossils inside and give them to him at Christmas. I used a Dremel with specialised tips and a sewing needle in a pin vice under a microscope. Overall I'm quite happy with how they turned out, not perfect, but I can see my own improvement. The larger single ammonite (Promicroceras sp. I think) had significant pyrite rot on the matrix on the reverse side. I removed it with the Dremel and will coat the ammonite and the reverse side with Paraloid. As you can see, the matrix split beside the ammonite whilst I was Dremelling. It would be great to hear opinions on whether you think the piece looks better with the matrix glued back on, or left alone? I would love to hear any advice and critical feedback. Before: The reverse side After an hour or so on the Dremel: The reverse side, after removing the pyrite rot: All finished after a bit more Dremel work and about 2 hours with a needle (no Paraloid yet though): With the excess matrix: Without the excess matrix: The second piece, before: After an hour or two with a needle: After about 40 mins with the Dremel: All finished after a few more hours with a needle and some Paraloid to glue back the broken pieces and stabilise: