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I know fossils and shark teeth are abundant in the creeks of Summerville, SC. I also know you can find them on the beaches and sandbar islands around Charleston. But there are lots of creeks that run through West Ashley, James Island and areas of North Charleston that one could actually walk through. Some feed off the Stono River, Wappoo Creek and the Ashley River (closer to North Charleston). Does anyone know if the geology of the area would make those creeks active producers of fossils and sharks teeth? Or is this too far south from the conditions that are conducive to this? Thanks everyone!

Area with extensive sandstone, but no clear signs of fish, shells etc. Wondering if these examples of two different material formations may be of organic origin?

Last year, I discovered my very first Atco site in a small suburban creek on the quiet side of town. The place treated me well, and within the span of a handful of visits, I came away with a nice bounty of new shark species and some reptiles to boot. Upon posting a few trip reports to this forum, one thing that became quite clear was the confusing nature of the Kef/Kau boundary. Comparing my finds in the little creek with other, more famous Atco sites, revealed a large discrepancy in terms of fossils. Post Oak Creek, for example, boasts staggering quantities of rather large Cretodus sp., Scapanorhynchus sp., and Ptychodus whipplei. The same can be said for the Midlothian quarries (when granted access at particular stretches of time). This can hardly be said for my spot, where in these departments my many hours culminated in only a single Cretodus, tiny/sparse goblins, and some small and rather badly eroded P. whipplei. So what gives? I wondered if maybe the basal Atco was spotty in nature and had some regions that were simply more stingy than others. With big teeth in mind, I decided to search for some new Atco sites. My second locality of the mission was also reported about a year ago. It took me to a special sandstone layer located a ways down the stratigraphic column, multiple meters beneath the basal Atco. The most notable aspect of this layer was the beautifully preserved ripple marks as shown below: Ripple Marks Visualizing an ancient sea floor couldn't be any easier. Anyways, this site yielded some neat reddish teeth from a section adjacent to these ripples, but failed to deliver everything I had wanted in the fossil department (the basal Atco was obscured by manmade intervention). However, I am thankful for this particular layer because it introduced me to an extremely helpful article that has since been indispensable. "Mid-Turonian to Coniacian changes of sea level around Dallas, Texas" by Jake Hancock and Ireneusz Walaszczyk does a really great job of explaining the Eagle Ford - Atco geology of the local area in terms that are "somewhat easily" understandable to a novice like me. Their second figure was what initially caught my attention, as it reflected a little bit of the confusing things I had been observing firsthand. Namely, the above ripple-marked sandstone layer (yellow below) as well as its relation with the basal Atco conglomerate (blue below) of my original creek site. Blue = Basal Atco Conglomerate; Red = Speculative Megatooth Layer; Yellow = Sandstone Ripple Bed If you already read my caption to the stratigraphic column above, you may have noticed that the red layer is conspicuously labeled as "speculative megatooth layer". Well, let's go ahead and explain that. Fast forwarding to just a couple days ago, I decided to end my break from hunting the Atco. I had a juicy prospect circled on the map and took an early morning drive to check it out. Pretty quickly, it became apparent that this was exactly the site I was looking for. Only my second tooth of the day was a huge Ptychodus whipplei and one of the finest preserved I had so far seen in person. Ptychodus whipplei Crawling on all fours through freshly watered shales, I slid my way in a meandering zigzag, stumbling upon tooth after tooth. Unlike my original creek site where goblins were relatively small and not super abundant, this place seemed to be dominated by big Scapanorhynchus sp. fragments. More and more, things were beginning to look like POC and Midlothian. Scapanorhynchus sp. After much meticulous collecting of tiny teeth and bigger goblins, I nearly crawled right over the first major find of the day. Just peeking from a foxhole of muddy shale was the immaculate root of what I believe to be Cretodus sp (he's a little strange... *extremely* subtle lingual striation and odd root shape). Cretodus sp. and tiny P. whipplei in situ Cretodus Not too long after I came across one of the biggest (literally) heartbreakers I've ever found. What would have been a pristine condition Cretodus and by far the largest shark in my collection... Cretodus. Cusp nowhere to be found... Fortunately for me, redemption came not long after. While preparing to dig a little Squalicorax out of fast-flowing stream, I spotted just the faintest outline of a cusplet from the neighboring shale. I took an in situ photo so you guys can challenge yourselves with spotting it: Too hard? This should make it a little easier! With a little tapping of the hammer and chisel... Cretodus! Wrapping up with an even bigger P. whipplei, suffice it to say I was feeling pretty good on the drive home. 3 Cretodus sp. and 1 P. whipplei All of the large teeth I've shown came from a single distinct thin layer of phosphatic sandstone that roughly corresponds to the one I have circled red in the chart. There was an additional thin sandstone just above it that seemingly lacked the same levels phosphate which also tracks with what's seen in the chart. Both of these sandstones were located a short distance (1 meter?) beneath the basal Atco conglomerate which was shown at the same location and looked identical to the conglomerate of my original creek site. It seems this stratigraphic figure is extremely accurate at least for the sites I have visited! Now, what is the significance of relating these sandstones and conglomerates to the chart? Well, hopefully, they can tell us a thing or two about the ages of the fossils of course. This is important because the precise ages for fossils in and around the Kef/Kau boundary has been contentious and confusing with lots of contradicting information in circulation. Are they Turonian, Coniacian, or some sort of mixture? The megatooth layer (red circle) is located firmly within the zone of Prionocyclus macombi which is set around the Late Middle Turonian and Early Upper Turonian (boundary contentious per the aforementioned article). Commonly associated with P. macombi and quite prolific at this site (even condensed in distinct layers near to the thin sandstone) was the oyster Cameleolopha bellaplicata which has been mentioned by our own @ThePhysicist as being evidence for a Middle Turonian presence in the fossil record of POC. This is almost certainly the case, and it would appear that the presence of large P. whipplei, Scapanorhynchus, and Cretodus may be mostly thanks to these Middle/Upper Turonian sandstones as opposed to the actual basal Atco conglomerate. Before getting to the age of the basal Atco conglomerate (blue circle) itself, I would first like to have a gander at the hard Atco Formation chalks that overlie it. The article sets these chalks in the zone of Cremnoceramus deformis erectus which is a bivalve species that is easy to find at my original creek and this new megatooth location (after traveling further up the geological record). This belongs solidly to the Earliest Coniacian which is a noticeable temporal leap from the P. macombi zone. Within these C. deformis erectus chalks of the Atco, by far the most common shark tooth is none other than the famed Ptychodus mortoni (at least one form of this paleobucket, but that's another can of worms) as it makes its first appearance in the Texas record. I have been lucky enough to find them in the smooth Atco boulders a few times. Importantly, P. mortoni is not known from the Middle Turonian Kamp Ranch of Texas (Collignoniceras woollgari zone) and it would be strange to expect its immediate appearance in the nearby P. macombi zone as opposed to something slightly more basal in morphology. Ptychodus mortoni of the Earliest Coniacian Atco Formation So we have framed the basal Atco Conglomerate neatly between the P. macombi zone and C. deformis erectus zone (Middle/Upper Turonian + Earliest Coniacian). What should we expect to find? Well, let's first establish that the conglomerate is a lag deposit/condensed bed. This was a concept that confused me for a long time before it finally clicked, so I will try to explain in the terms that are easy to understand. There are many scenarios in which a paleoenvironment may favor erosion. This means, more sediment will be taken away from a location than deposited. Like a cheese grater, the passage of time will grind down the bedrock and steadily the layers of rock (and fossils) will be worn away. At some point, the rate of erosion is outpaced as the paleoenvironment transitions into one that might favor sedimentation/deposition instead. For a brief period of time, the erosion is unable to completely remove the bigger chunks of dugout bedrock (and fossils) and can only manage to do away with the finer fragments, so you end up with what could be thought of as a "bed of gravel". The gravel of course has the chance to freely roll around on the sea floor and get damaged (hence why teeth of lag deposits are often abraded). Then deposition takes over and the gravel bed is covered and protected with younger sediments and fossils. Sometimes it takes awhile for sedimentation to really get going which means there is more chances for burrowing creatures to mix around the young and old fossils. Slower sedimentation also creates condensed zones as more temporal space is compacted into a tighter volume of bedrock. In the end, the resulting condensed zone may yield remains from animals in the deepest layer touched by erosion in addition to animals from the time in which deposition resumed. In the case of the basal Atco conglomerate, we know that erosion reached all the way down to the P. macombi zone (I should note that this could vary in other parts of the state as different zonations would have been reached in different places, but I am sticking to P. macombi because of the presence of the specific phosphatic sandstones at my site), so we should expect many fossils of that age to be present in the lag. The other fraction of fossils ought to hail from the period in which sedimentation resumed. This is difficult to pinpoint in the literature precisely. The Jake Hancock and Ireneusz Walaszczyk article places this within the zone of Cremnoceramus waltersdorfensis waltersdorfensis which is Latest Turonian, but Shawn Hamm and David Cicimurri have stated the presence of the ammonites Peroniceras lepeei and Allocrioceras hazzardi as evidence of an Earliest Coniacian age. Either way, the temporal proximity of the resumed sedimentation to that of P. mortoni in the overlying Atco chalks would make it unsurprising to find P. mortoni present within the just slightly older basal conglomerate. In fact, this appears to be the case for the basal Atco conglomerate, as I have come across numerous fossils of older C. bellaplicata oysters in varying states of preservation in combination with younger species such as P. mortoni and Squalicorax hartwelli (a more derived member of the genus that does not occur in the Middle Turonian Kamp Ranch). To really test this model, I will need to sample more of the thin phosphatic sandstones of the P. macombi zone. The expectation is for younger species like P. mortoni and S. hartwelli to not be present. If things work out, this could be a useful method for determining the ages of certain teeth found in places like POC, if they are noted as being exclusive to the basal Atco conglomerate or found in both. C. bellaplicata and mosasaur from the basal Atco conglomerate I have a lot more to say, but it's getting really late! Hope you guys enjoy this dive into the Atco and if not, please at least enjoy the teeth Thanks for reading!

This was retrieved after it was observed protruding from the dirt sidewall along a small creek in Quinlan, Kaufman County, TX. It appears to be fully intact with all its layers although it is "flattened" in appearance. The detached pieces came off when removing it from the dirt. It's pulled apart easily when trying to wash away the mud exposing the center "section". It measures ~ 3.5" x 2" Anything of interest?

Hi everyone! It has been a long time since I have posted on this website, but I figured there might be some interest in the work of a professional micropaleontologist. To give you an idea of the work I do, below is a link to my most recent publication (I'm the lead author): https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/52/4/251/633456/A-late-refugium-for-Classopollis-in-the-Paleocene My main job is micropaleontological analysis of drill cuttings in the oil industry, I do research on the side. Ask me anything!

L.S., Wanted to raise some awareness on TFF because I expect many here will simply love this: A good friend of mine, Iris van Zelst (geophysicist at the German Aerospace Center in Berlin) has developed this really nice card game centred around the geological time scale: QUARTETnary The gameplay is based on the classic game Quartets (similar to Go Fish and Happy Families), where players try to collect as many sets of four cards as they can. In QUARTETnary, each of the sets represents four major events that took place during a specific geological time period. To win the game, you need to create the most complete timeline of Earth history, all the way from its formation 4.567 billion years ago to the appearance of us humans. The cards have been designed by Lucia Perez-Diaz (Earth scientist and freelance illustrator from the UK). The illustrations look amazing and I really like that they adhered to the official colour scheme of the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Iris sent me this nice set of cards for the Proterozoic: The game includes 15 sets of four cards in total (many featuring fossils): one each for the Hadean, Archean and Proterozoic eons, and one each for the 12 periods of the Phanerozoic. I expect QUARTETnary will become a really fun way to learn about and memorize the different geological units and major events in Earth history. Kind regards, Tim

I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Morocco last year in May and tour the wonderful geology of the country. This will be a very short recap of the experience because frankly there are just too many things to share. For starters, the culture is fantastic. Morocco consists primarily of the Berber people and they are some of the friendliest people I've encountered. Very welcoming and ready to share some tea with you. Tea is by far the most common thing you will drink in country. I'm quite certain there were days that I had tea at least 8 separate times, and the tea was fantastic. If you've never had Moroccan tea then you are missing out (the mint tea in particular is wonderful). The cuisine is beyond amazing, and there honestly wasn't anything in country that I didn't like. Trying to replicate some of the foods has been a challenge (my tagine is getting close), but I suppose that just means I'll need to return some day. The country is also very safe throughout. As a solo female traveler, I felt comfortable at all times and was not concerned. However you should know that few people speak English. The most common languages people know are Arabic, French, and Berber, so there was some language barrier but as with most things, it was doable. My arrival to Morocco began in Marrakech where I was met by my guide who drove me out of the city, through the Tizi n'Tichka mountain pass at 2200m in elevation. Eventually we made our way to Tamdahkte and I stayed at a wonderful riad that was (as I would come to find out) quite open air just as most riads and buildings are in Morocco. On the way we stopped at a salt mine and walked through.

Hello everyone! I'm in the Big River, San Bernardino county along the Colorado River area around the Whipple mountain range the pictures I will be sending is to get input from from you that know and to find out how far off I am on my thinking as to what they are! One thing for sure is there is alot of awesome stuff here! Thank you in advance!

Greetings from Washington state. I'm a new member to the Forum but have used information from here for identification in the past. Been doing rocks and fossils for 50+ years, but there are still more things to learn, and I am looking forward to exploring the Forum. Image is cells in petrified wood, magnified 30 times.

Hello, hope everyone is doing well here on the geology channel. Found these in the peace river in Florida, US. was hoping someone could shed some light on these two items. The numbers are from my trip journal entry so I apologize that they are randomly numbered here. Thanks Jp What type of rock is this? Basically these grab my eye as fossils or teeth and when wet they are even more deceiving. As you can see inside is pure and it’s encased in this darker shell. Any info would be appreciated. It’s actually pretty neat but I’d also like a name to call out before I cus at it and throw it back out next time. Im calling it “pound cake” geology for now. Beautiful Strange There are lots of these. Finally decided to bring one home and investigate. Couldn’t cut it with a masonry disc and grinder so I just popped it with a hammer. Any ideas? raw and polished out - last image shows the texture and finish of the stone after fracturing and without any polishing.

Won the bid on these books. Has anyone read, or own the same books? I didn't pay much for them, so no big loss if they aren't good. Just curious if anyone has read them and their thoughts.

I decided to start a thread on my collection of books, letters and associated paraphernalia from Victorian geologists and palaeontologists. To kick things off, here is a first edition of The Geology of the South East of England by Gideon Mantell. Published in 1833, it contains multiple plates along with a drawing of a fossil of hylaeosaurus; the third dinosaur ever to be named.

I've been thinking a lot about my future these days as an undergraduate. I'm an electrical engineering/music double major student at a school with no geology department or evolutionary biology-specific department. I used to want to become a paleontologist as a child. Unlike many people who went through the phase, I actually tried to do everything I could as a kid to lead me to a career in that field. My parents supported my endeavors too, they tried to enroll me in whatever they could that would get me closer to my goal as a paleontologist. At some point, I can't really place what, I changed. I don't know if it really was me who changed, or something else, but either way, I grew apart from my paleontological goals. I spent middle school and much of high school unsure of what to do, ultimately settling on STEM. I realized I liked engineering, and I loved music (something else I'd done since childhood), and I wanted to do something with the two. Fast-forward to college, and I'm successfully pursuing two specific degrees that combine my interests. However, I have rekindled my love for paleontology in the last few years. It's a love that's healing and growing fast by the day. And I find myself continuously contemplating what life would be like if I stuck with it. I occasionally zone out in my classes, absentmindedly reading articles on various topics in paleontology. Now, I made a promise to myself and my family (since understanding the fleeting characteristics of my interests) that I wouldn't jump around on a whim based on whatever interests me by the day. I am sticking with my current career plans because I legitimately love my choices and I see a good future for myself with it. But I cannot ignore my intense desire to pursue paleontology in some way. Many would say that I don't need to drop whatever I'm doing right now in order to fulfill that desire, and they would be right. But I'm rather impatient, and every day that I cannot get my hands on fossils or get in the field or get in a museum, I grow restless. I kind-of want to get another degree after college/grad school for engineering in geology/biology, money and time willing. Learning in a university-medium for things I'm interested in is really important to me. Is it possible to go back to grad school for another Master's degree for something totally unrelated to my other Bachelor's/Master's degree? Or would it be wiser to go through undergrad again for such a degree. I guess what I'm asking is for anyone on the forum actively working in the field of paleontology to offer me advice on how I can incorporate my interests in some scholarly way. Or, anyone in general who has dealt with difficulties of not being able to actively participate in this wonderful interest we all have and overcoming such a feeling as I have. Apologies if this is a shallow question that has been answered before, or even too deep of a question that is out-of-place on an internet forum, but I didn't know who to ask!

My name is Gregory, I live near the Black Sea. I am new to this stuff. I will pick your brains at first with fossil iD's, then I hope to contribute. I've been told you all are the best of the best. Hope you will have patience with me. Respectfully Gregory

Howdy Folks, I am back with a shiny new display name and have just returned from field school in the Turkana Basin of northern Kenya, a place known for its rich paleontological, paleoanthropological, archaeological, and geologic records. It is also a place with a unique environment, a desert with a massive alkaline lake surrounded by pastoralist peoples who are linguistically and culturally diverse. I haven’t posted for a while, so I thought why not leave a summary of what I’ve been doing! After a 14 hour plane ride from New York to Nairobi, we were able to stay in the city for two days to get used to the time difference and make any last minute purchases in a mall. We were able to visit the Kenyan National Museum, whose collection of casts really allowed me to find my inner primate.

Hi everyone! I'm Sami, I'm 23 and from MA (not a lot of fossils around here). I joined this forum because I'm very interested in learning about fossils and plan to make a trip down to Corys Lane in RI in the near future to see if I have any luck! I have found a few fossils randomly when I wasn't really looking and I hope to post them soon to see what everyone thinks. Anyways, I'm a bit of a talker haha very excited to meet you all and see what you find.

I found pumice in the Little Harpeth River in the Nashville Tn area. Does anyone know why it would be there? I can't find a history of volcanic activity in the area.

HI! My name is Tammy Perlmutter and I'm a Master Naturalist with the Forest Preserves of Cook County in Northeastern Illinois. One of our class manual chapters was on Illinois geologic formations. We took a field trip to Sagawau Canyon Nature Preserve and got to see Silurian fossils in dolomite that were uncovered when the area was a quarry. I fell in love with them and now I can't get enough! I'm passing by Mazon and/or Danville in a few weeks and was wondering if it was possible to get access to the Danville shale pit location? Or Mazon? Nice to meet you all! Tammy

Wondering if anyone knows of some good apps for paleontology and geology topics. They can be for reference, identification, whatever— anything other than dinosaur-themed kids’ games the App Store is most interested in showing me, haha. Preferably with some offline capabilities. I already downloaded Rockd and would really be enjoying the offline geological map feature if it wasn’t so glitchy in choosing to load properly or not, so if anyone’s gotten that to work more reliably, please share your secret. Thanks for the input!

Hello everyone this is my first post on the fossil forum.I’m 16 year old girl with autisum that loves fossils and I need help Identifying a fossil I got at a fossil/gemstone shop in South Dakota.I think it may be the rhino species Hyracodon.I also have a another fossil I got from the same place and I think it may be fossil horse or oredont tooth.So I would really appreciate it if someone can help me identify these.please and thank you.

On my way home from my parents in Goodhue county MN, I stopped at a roadcut. Bottom 20ft were a well sorted coarse sandstone (all grains were similar in size but large, and it was pretty soft). Above that was a very yellow sandstone (non-fossiliferous). Most things in this area are roughly Ordivician. Everything above went away with the glaciers. Anyways, washed down from the top, I found several white rocks that were reminiscent of cuttings of long bones. They were filled with some other mineral (kinda like marrow). I know they can't actually be fossils, since bones didn't even exist 450 million years ago. Just curious if anyone has an idea what sort of process might've made these? These were the only whitish rocks, and all of them were filled with the other mineral. Thanks

Hello everyone, im a French sedimentologist living in the Middle East and enjoying fossils since I was 7!!! looking forward to contributing to this forum!

I'm pretty sure these are quartz, but I'd like to know your opinion, thank you in advance