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Kudos to the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff for having a photo database of fossils many of which are type specimens. I recognize some of the invertebrate fossils in the first 4 pages including those from the Kaibab, Redwall and Naco Formations. Color photos are a good compliment to those black and white and sometimes poorly reproduced photos in the type references. http://argus.musnaz.org/ArgusNET/Portal/Default.aspx?lang=en-US&p_AAEE=tab4&p_AAFV=Paleontology&d=d I wish more institutions would put their fossils, especially the type specimens, on the internet to use for free. See color pictures of Pennsylvanian Naco sponges from the Museum of Northern Arizona next to the black and white photos from the internet. Dilliard, Kelly & Rigby, J.K.. (2001). The new demosponges, Chaunactis olsoni and Haplistion nacoense, and associated sponges from the Pennsylvanian Naco Formation, Central Arizona. Brigham Young University Geology Studies. 46. 1-11. https://geology.byu.edu/0000017d-0fdd-d6bc-a9fd-fffdc35d0001/geo-stud-vol-46-dilliard-rigby-pdf Chaunactis olsoni: Haplistion nacoensis:

While searching for Information today, I came across these news flashes on the University of Florida Museum of Natural History website. I found this additional info related to the 2nd item, I am posting to give @digit an opportunity to comment on both... I had recently heard 2nd hand from a Sheriff deputy in Polk county that there is an effort to pass a similar ban on all Peace River feeder creeks in Polk county. I am sure it will be a contentious topic but easily passable since I think most people, not fossil hunters or land owners adjacent to creeks do not consider it a priority either way.

It's been a rainy week in Texas and today is no exception....so I am spending the day working on a new thing.....a collection database! @erose Erich gave a great presentation at the last Paleontological Society of Austin zoom meeting on Fossil Collecting - what to do with your collection once you've collected it! I bought the Trilobase software (a download) and am having a great time organizing and entering my collection. It's quite a process....I keep rearranging how I want things represented! I've decided to go with date collected. It's made me be a bit more thorough in my info too, looking up Order and Family to go with Genus and Species. It's also made me realize... I have a LOT of fossils....... So how do you organize/present your collection?

Without boring you with too much detail... I try to be thorough with cataloging my collection. I label each individual fossil, and record them in a database that contains all known information about that specimen. My question is... If I remove a fossil from my collection, how should I label it in my database? Should I leave it alone, mark it somehow as being given away/sold/traded/etc., delete the entry entirely? I realize this is probably more of a personal preference, but I'm curious as to what others do when removing a fossil from their collection records.

I want to start an actual computer database for my collection. I want to find a free downloadable database. Does anyone out there have any input? At work I use FileMaker Pro. I designed the database for our collections and it works well, but it costs 500 plus bucks (300 for academic use, which is what we paid). I do not want to pay that sort of money, or any if possible. I looked into Specify, but they seem to be only for actual museums and not for home collections, or so it seems on the download page. What, if anythng do you folks use?

New way to identify that coprolite as long as you can get some DNA out of it. Can tell difference between dog and human. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-feces-coproid-reliably-sources-ancient.html

Hey everyone, I am looking for any reccomended websites or databases that can help me identify several invertebrate specimens in my collection. Specimens range from ammonites, echinoderms, brachiopods, molluscs etc. I have locations where most were found or acquired, but I would like to get a species ID on them at least. Morphology tends to blur at times depending on the sample. Any references or ideas?

Hey guys! My latest project is finally at its first stage of deployment. As some of you may know, 2 years ago I released PaleoArchiver, a computer based program for cataloging, archiving, and documenting your fossil collections. Well, I found a lot of problems with it: #1 is that it was not mobile, I couldn't take a laptop out into the field, #2 is that it was based around one central flaw, and that is that you could not make custom tags/IDs for your specimens, they were autogenerated in numerically ascending order, and #3 is that the application had no way of organizing specimens by the site that they were found. As a result of these problems, I started working on a new version of PaleoArchiver, a mobile Android application, rebuilt completely from the ground up. It allows you to go out into the field and create new sites, add specimens to those sites, create field notes, etc. The best part is that everything you do is automatically geo-tagged. The GPS location, altitude, and GPS radial accuracy are all found using the phone's built-in GPS receiver. Further, rather than storing all of the data in a proprietary file format, all of the data is stored in a SQLite database. You can export or import databases as you wish, and use open-source, free computer applications to look at your database from your computer. This also allows you to share your database with friends and colleagues. Pictures for each specimen, site, and field note can either be uploaded from your gallery, or taken within the app. Also, there are fields for not only fossils, but minerals and arrowheads as well! A brief summary of the app's capabilities are as follows: Add new sites, specimens, and field notes quickly and easily Upload or capture photos of sites, specimens, and field notes Automatic site, specimen, and field notes geotagging Automatic storage of data in a SQLite database Export the database for safekeeping or sharing with friends and colleagues Import a database for easy transition when switching phones Search function for retrieving information about specific sites, specimens, or field notes Designed to be simple and easy to use both in and out of the field Edit and remove existing sites, specimens, and field notes And of course, I will continue to update the app. The feature that I plan on adding next is automatic specimen label generation, so that you can create and print labels for your display pieces. And like all new things, there may be some bugs/errors that I have not encountered. I have tested it on a Google Pixel, Nexus 5, and Samsung Galaxy S7 without any problems, but all devices are different. Google Play should tell you if your device will work or not, I don't think that any modern devices would fail (unless you have not updated your phone in the past 3 years!, which is a bad habit...). The app is not free, I spent a lot of time developing it in my own free time. There are no ads, and once you buy it, you never have to purchase it again and will have access to all of the updates. To purchase it, go to Google Play and search for PaleoArchiver, or click this link here. If you are unsatisfied with the app, please tell me what you dislike/have problems with and I will do my absolute best to fix it! For more information and some screenshots, also visit: my website

Hi everyone, Has anyone tried the new fossil app from NHM London yet. I'm going to give it a whirl this weekend. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/identify-nature/fossil-explorer-app.html