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I found a fossil thought maybe a kind of crinoid and see if any know if it was, as well as what kind? It's from Penn Dixie in NY. Was trying to clean areas of it but wasn't sure if parts where messing as it started to get deeper in areas or just needed keep going. Thought if could find out what was may help knowing what would look like whole. #1 (the bottom thicker thing i don't think is part of the other but took bigger photo in case) (measure)

June 8-10 I finally got to check a box off of my fossil hunting wishlist by participating in Penn Dixie's Dig with the Experts (DWTE) yearly event. As a first-time visitor to Penn Dixie, I was unsure what to expect so I wanted to dedicate a post to my experience and hopefully help inform anyone else on the fence for future trips. DWTE Event Background: Penn Dixie located just outside of Buffalo, New York is a former cement quarry turned fossil park and nature preserve. Once a year the park brings in heavy machinery and excavates some of the more productive rock layers and allows the rock to weather for a few months before the event. From what was told the rock comes from the Windom Shale and primarily they are exposing the Smoke Creek Trilobite Bed. The park brings in a team of experts, who are there to assist in answering questions, helping to identify fossils, and providing some tips and tricks. Additionally, Penn Dixie staff are on sight to also aid in helping participants. Another helpful add-on to the event was there were people with rock saws that anyone could bring a fossil-bearing rock to and get trimmed down to a more manageable size. I am unsure if the park ever allows the general public to bring in power tools but at least for the DWTE event, we were told to only use hand tools. The park does offer rental equipment if need be - though I strongly suggest bringing your own tools. Lodging: For lodging I stayed in a private room Airbnb in the Abbot McKinley Area (North of Lackawanna), the location was perfect just 15 minutes from Penn Dixie. There are some hotels/motels that are closer, but really anything in that general area should be perfect for a stay... traffic was super minimal. In that general area there are a handful of restaurants and a few parks. I enjoyed walking around Buffalo Harbor State Park (free to enter). Tickets: Penn Dixie is a pay-to-enter fossil park. The DWTE event has special tickets that are higher than the normal cost to enter. They allowed single-day tickets or a weekend pass for a bit of a discount compared to buying both single days. The website recommends prepurchasing well in advance as they expect to sell out (I purchased a few months in advance) Tools: I packed two wrecking bars (~30 inches, and ~50 inches), a sledgehammer, a four-pound hand sledgehammer, and two chisels (a standard 1-inch blade chisel and a 4-inch blade chisel) Despite what I packed, the only tools I used were the 30-inch wrecking bar, the hand sledgehammer, and the smaller chisel. It would have been nice to have a shovel of some sort to help clear off some of the overburden from the piles of rock, though I was able to make do with what I had. Other Necessities: Aside from the obvious sunscreen, water, snacks, etc. Some other necessities include: Tinfoil for wrapping fossils (helps to keep fossils padded in transport as well as keep fragile pieces all contained together for gluing later.) Cart/Wagon - I brought a large plastic storage container and did see others with cardboard flats, though the majority of people (experts included) brought a wagon which makes transporting tools and fossils much easier. Saturday, June 8 (9:00 AM - 4:30 PM) Saturday was the busiest day, it began with checking in starting around 9:00 AM, a quick safety briefing around 9:15 AM, and then being released to the piles to begin hunting. There were three groups of piles all supposedly containing the same quality of rock. The rock piles were roughly 10 feet in diameter and a couple of feet high. At least on the pile I was at the larger blocks of rock to split all had fossils visible on the outside. Being a first-time Penn Dixie visitor I was excited at the sight of any fossil with a preserved shell compared to my normal molds from my home state of Pennsylvania. I quickly made friends with the couple hunting beside me and found plenty of trilobite fragments, horn corals, and brachiopods. The first few hours of the day were mostly spent splitting blocks and having success with some splits exposing enrolled trilobites. As the day progressed the larger easier-to-split rocks dwindled down and I began doing a combination of surface collecting and splitting. My highlight find was a prone Eldredgeops and his counterpart just by moving around some rock with my hands. I did overhear some people mentioning how this year's rock was a bit more difficult to split as compared to the previous years, though being a first-timer I had no point of reference. Saturday's official dig ended at 4:00 though participants could stay in the park until 4:30 - though we had to leave the DWTE piles. I decided to stay and while it was fun to peek around a bit, it became evident that unless you plan to dig out massive chunks of rock yourself, the only real collecting you could do would be to walk along the small creek and look along the banks, or surface collect from previous years DWTE piles. 30 minutes goes by quickly especially when carrying around a ton of finds from the day in a large container. Example of a complete/ near complete Eldredgeops roller visible weathering out of the rock. Sunday, June 9 (9:00 AM - 4:00 PM) Sunday still had a large number of people, though there definitely was a smaller crowd. In addition, there seemed to be some people who came that had not been there on Saturday. Again the day started with a check-in and safety briefing. There was some concern about weather so the safety briefing brought that up. The park similar to how pools work will close for a period of time if lightning strikes within 10 miles. Thankfully we were able to make it the whole day without that occurring. Example pile from Sunday. The majority of the bigger blocks by Saturday afternoon were all split down to about the size shown in photo. I decided to choose a different pile group to change things up from what I had done on Saturday. I had some initial luck in the first hour with surface collecting (I was able to find a few enrolled trilobites) When I began splitting rock I did find another prone Eldredgeop with three rollers on the same rock that will need to be prepped out. Another highlight find was what I suspect to be a Bellacartwrightia. Unfortunately, that find was a surface find and so I was unable to find the counterpart which would have had some of the genial spine. Hopefully, it will prep out nicely. I also found a gastropod which I am excited about. Someone found what they believe to be a carpoid (supposedly the 7th? Carpoid of Penn Dixie to date) Suspected Bellacartwrightia I found while surface collecting Prone Eldredgeops. I ended the day moving to the last of the pile groups and while I did not find much there I did make a new friend who is also located in Pennsylvania - we exchanged contact information and shared some info on sites nearby to us. Monday, June 10 (9:00 AM - 12:30 PM) Monday was technically not a DWTE day, though it was open to anyone who is a member of Penn Dixie or participated in the DWTE event. While Saturday and Sunday probably had 150-200 people, on Monday I counted around 20-25. I spent the day in a mixture of the first and second pile groups from my Saturday/Sunday exploring and was able to find a few more enrolled trilobites. I just stuck around for the morning as it seemed the finds were becoming less and less frequent and I still had a long drive ahead. On Monday, the park took down the ropes designating the DWTE piles, and the majority of people there were still picking through them, though there was a small group trying their luck digging out a bench in the area by the creek. I met another hunter who was from Canada and was giving me advice on getting a prep lab setup someday. He also mentioned what I had overheard from others' conversations that this year was not nearly as productive as previous years. Takeaways/ Closing Thoughts I am extremely glad I was able to make the trip out and was grateful to have spent the full weekend plus part of Monday. The event is well worth the time and money in my opinion for both newtimer fossil hunters as well as experienced collectors. While it is a bit of a gamble in terms of what rock the park decides to dig up to expose, fossils are literally everywhere. If you go home empty handed it is on you. My takeaway haul is a copy paper box full of complete trilobites wrapped in tinfoil waiting for prep someday. I was also able to grab a box worth of partially complete trilobites, brachiopods, and horn corals to practice prepping on in the future. Trilobites that may be complete but require prep to determine like the one shown above were a common find. From what I experienced: If you can only make it for one day Saturday is by far the best day to go as you will have access to the fresh rock ready to be split. Sunday was a fraction as productive as Saturday and Monday was a fraction as productive as Sunday.

Are any of you all planning to go to DWTE? (Dig With The Experts) I'll be there both days, and as always, I would love to put faces to screen names. Last year was a blast, I'm sure this year will be as well!

I have another very small fossil from the Moscow Group at the Penn Dixie Park in Erie County New York. I believe this is the long-spined ostracod Aechmina, but I am open to other suggestions (trilobite piece, brachiopod spine, etc???). This is very small as you can see in the measurements below (less than 1 mm) and is in the matrix, I have scraped away as much matrix as I dare at the moment and to me the lower edge in the pictures looks like it is a natural (unbroken) edge and is the end of the fossil. I would like to expose a bit more at the top, where the hinge line should be if it is an ostracod, but have not dared to do that yet due to small size and potential fragility. @Acryzona has shown a specimen of this genus from the Devonian at Paulding (https://www.thefossilforum.com/gallery/image/57600-aechminajpg/) and Hall in a very old publication reported the genus from the Devonian of New York (the old drawing did not look much like this specimen), but I have not found any specific mention of it from Penn Dixie. Any Penn Dixie or ostracod experts, or anyone else care to voice an opinion? I appreciate all suggestions.

Here is a quick and (hopefully) easy question for all you Penn Dixie (New York, Erie County) or bivalve experts out there. In going through some of the material I collected last summer, I came across this very nice, but small (1.1 X 1.0 CM) bivalve. It looks most like Lunulicardium eriensis figured on page 160/161 of Wilsons Field Guide to the Fossil of New York. But the book lists it as from the Upper Devonian Canadaway Group and I can't seem to find any reference to it (after a quick search) from the Middle Devonian Moscow Group present at Penn Dixie. My question is: is my ID incorrect or did I just not dig deep enough to find reference to it from Penn Dixie or the Middle Devonian? Thanks for any help. @Fossildude19 @Kane, @Jeffrey P and any others.

Super folks and fossils! I had a decent trip to Penn Dixie with the experts recently and thought I would share a few finds. The first is the lower third of a crinoid calyx. I measures 4 cm and has an intact stem attachment segment. Aside from stems, its the first decent crinoid part I have found since 2015. I am fascinated by the geometry of the echinoderm organization- 6 around the stem, them 12 around the next whirl, makes we wish I had the entire calyx.

I’ll show my collection here. 1. Agnostida This is my only example from this order. Itagnostus interstrictus Wheeler Shale U-dig Quarry, Delta, Millard County, Utah Middle Cambrian Purchased Scale bar is 1 cm.

Hi everyone, I'm a little bored up here in NH and decided to drive down to Hamburg NY to collect at Penn Dixie, I haven't been there in quite a while and since I unfortunately couldn't make it to DWTE earlier this year I thought now might be a good time to go. I'm hoping to start driving in the afternoon Monday after I'm finished with work, and depending on how it goes getting there late that night or early next morning, collecting there that day on Tuesday and potentially going to some other spots on 18m creek or a bit south of the area, And finally driving back Wednesday. I wanted to post on here to see if anyone else is in the area, I have met up with a few members of TFF and it has been fantastic, I've really enjoyed it and would love to meet more. Let me know, I'll post what I find on that trip here once I get back.

At the “Dig with the Experts” earlier this month at Penn Dixie, I found this interesting surface fossil on a block that the on location experts seemed to agree was a placoderm fossil. Approximately 5 inches (12.5cm), it is thin, pigmented and has intermittent perforations or pustules. In an adjacent pile, another more extensive and remarkable set of fossil strips like this presumptive placoderm were found by another rock buster. Anecdotally, it was remarked by staff that these two putative placoderm blocks were excavated from the “same region” of the pit as the apparent Dunkleosteus jaw discovery. Perhaps just a coincidence, but nonetheless an interesting mystery.

Hello! I got back from some travels to Turkey (no fossil hunting there this time, I did however have some nice fossil gifts from the US I was bringing to my relatives seized by Turkish customs which was... fun) and immediately headed to Penn Dixie for the 2023 Dig with the Experts event, which was a huge success and had perfect weather for a very fun two days of collecting the NY Devonian. Found numerous nice prone trilobites, a good selection of the available brachiopods, and the absolute find of the weekend was a sizeable, possibly complete, head shield from a placoderm, which is a dream find for me as they're easily my favorite animals. It was beyond my skill to prep though so I will have to wait until next year to see it uncovered, which will be a great intro the event in 2024 . First, while I didn't do any collecting in Greece or Turkey, I couldn't help but find a few to take pictures of. The breakwater in Istanbul appears to be full of burrow fossils and one coiled cephalopod (maybe) that I'm unsure about the age on. Any ideas? It's likely rock either taken from the Bosporus or from nearby since the blocks are so huge. The next picture is from the walls surrounding the Parthenon in Athens, which I think I read is Cenozoic marine limestone. Next we have the pictures from Penn Dixie - the Placoderm (along with a nice bonus prone trilobite) is split in two and covered in glue so it looks pretty rough now, hopefully it emerges looking good on the other side of the prep process. Not having had enough, the following weekend we returned to NY to try out the famous Deep Spring Road locality which was amazing! My mollusk collection was greatly expanded and I came away with a small rolled Dipleura and the head of a Trimerus, along with a number of Geenops fragments and assorted other material. We also checked out the nearby Museum of the Earth in Ithaca which I highly recommend if you're ever in the area. Next is the Aurora Fossils Festival, which very much did not enjoy the same weather luck as Penn Dixie but was fun all the same. I came away with tons of teeth, my first semi-complete Meg, and two very nice sting ray spines. A nice quality cetacean vertebrae continues to elude me, but they're tough to find there anyway as everything gets so beat up it seems. I was excited to find a fair few complete mollusk shells as well of many different types. They're small but really pretty, they make a nice display! Lastly, a shoutout to the incredible mural at the Fossil Museum, another thing to definitely see if you're ever in the area.

While cleaning out some stuff, I found one of those toy cameras that click between slides. These things are only a few bucks for a twelve-pack, and I probably got it from someone’s birthday party when I was little. The magnifying lens works quite well for the price. Tested it on some crinoid bits with epibionts. Hederella filiformis on a crinoid bit. Ascodictyon sp. on a brachiopod fragment. Bryozoan encrustation on a crinoid stem fragment. Some more Hederella on a crinoid stem. Two views of a crinoid holdfast and bryozoan on a Aulocystis jacksoni. Some more Ascodictyon sp. A few more crinoid holdfasts on crinoid stems. A picture of the lens, and the crinoid bits with a nickel for scale. And lastly, my tiny enrolled meraspid Lonchodomas mcgeheei.

This brach is really odd. Possibly a very weathered (pre-burial) Parazyga hirsuta?

Hi all, my good friend @Nautiloidand I have been doing some collecting at a site in the Trenton Group recently and we have been finding what we believe to be Gravicalymene magnotuberculata. The matrix is soft and quite easy to prep, which was a nice surprise. This one was found by my father @Penguin Fiasco Here it was before preparation Bonus headless Triarthrus Beckie appears! All done, now time to clean off the abrasive powder! Here it is after preparation, I am pretty happy with the result. Please excuse the Dolomite on my fingers, I took the plate outside to photograph as soon as I finished prep. Closeup of the Triarthrus beckii body For my first time prepping this material I don’t think I did too bad! There are of course some spots that could use more preps but I really worry about going too far and accidentally burning the shell, so I figure I’ll quit while I’m ahead on this piece.

This is a few pictures of a trip to Penn Dixie, the finds of two days. This is a bit of a family tradition now, as we go to the site once a year. Now the finds. All the stuff I managed to get. A bit crushed and twisted, but still nice. Some partials. The one on the left is pretty nicely sized. Group shot of some decent rollers I found surface collecting. A big hunk of pyrite. This one really sparkles, though it’s a bit hard to photograph. I thought this Aulocystis looked pretty nice, so I kept it. A first for me, Palaeozygopleura. I think it’s P. delphicola. Some unidentified bivalves. Lyriopecten orbiculatus perhaps? An enrolled Greenops. The shell on pygidium is gone, sadly. The fruits of surface collecting the PD gully. Now for the trip-maker finds. What looks like a nice prone Eldredgeops, it seems only the first left pleura and a bit of shell on the glabella is missing. A really nice prone Bellacartwrightia. The right eye, a pygidial lappet, and a few pleurae are missing. A plate of Eldredgeops. I can count seven partially to fully complete specimens. And last, a piece of the Tichenor limestone with two Pseudodechenella cranidia. One has some shell missing. It seems the species is more prevalent in the limestone.