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Hello partners. I have received several Chinese trilobites, but these two the seller has not been able to identify. I have not found information about them, and I bring them here in case someone can recognize them. The first is from the lower cambric. It comes from the qiongzhusi formation. Kunming (Yunnan). China. with 6 millimeters long THE SECOND IS FROM THE ORDOVICIOUS. SHIHTIAN FORMATION. BAOSHAN. (YUNNAN). CHINA. WITH 1 CENTIMETER LONG. ps: the photos are screenshots of the purchase, my photos do not get better.

This is(or are) awesome gigantic Cambropallas from Jbel Wawrmast Formation, Morocco. The largest trilobite measures 6.5 inches long. The smaller one may measure 4 inches if complete. I know that there are a lot of fakes and heavily restored specimens for this type of giant trilobite. I can say this is absolutely real, cause I was not able to find any evidence of restoration or carving, and there are a lot of incomplete trilobite pieces in the matrix. These are quite heavy and large pieces, so none of my stands can support these. I should get a pair of new stands to display them.. Spines are preserved really well. Comparison with Phacops.sp . The Phacops looks like a baby.

I’m wondering if anyone has collected at the Spence Gulch site outside Liberty, Idaho, in the last year or so and would be kind enough to give me a status report. I have a chance to go before long, but random internet opinion seems pretty evenly divided between “great place, lots of fossils” and “bad quality rock, lots of work for little reward.” I’d be grateful for any help/info. Wendell

Fish aren’t the only things I can prep (although recent posts may appear that way). I just wrapped up these trilobites for a fellow TFF member. All in, they took 5.5 hours. The larger one required significant consolidation as it was horribly cracked.

I had the opportunity to collect in the Red Mountain Formation recently, and considering the seeming lack of accessible sites in the area (RIP Tibb's Bridge) I thought it'd be good to show some of my finds here and say there is some stuff out there. At first I thought the site was in the Mississippian Lavender or Floyd Shales, which was my initial reason for venturing out to it as I didn't have the opportunity to collect in marine Mississippian units closer to home. I can say now with almost 100% certainty it's actually within the Red Mountain Formation, an early Silurian unit that is also a prominent ridge former in northwestern Georgia. This is based on the trilobites I found. I am more familiar with the Rose Hill Formation of central Appalachia, which bears some similarities with the Red Mountain. Not only do the two begin with "R" (and consist of two words XD), but more importantly both represent roughly similar stratigraphic sections and depositional environments. This was something I instantly noticed at this site, as some of the fossils, their mode of preservation, and the rock lithology is strikingly similar to the Rose Hill further north. Both the Red Mountain and the Rose Hill consist primarily of clastic units, particularly iron-rich sandstones and silty-shales. They are both dominated by shelly invertebrate fauna, and contain many of the same genera. There are some differences, however, namely that the Rose Hill contains a much more diverse fauna, is more abundantly fossiliferous, has many ostracodes and some tentaculitids (which the Red Mountain lacked), and contains more limestone and calcareous layers, whereas the Red Mountain appears to be mostly coarser-grained clastics. Likewise the Red Mountain Formation has more abundant crinoid remains, is a ridge-forming unit, and does not appear to have a Rochester Shale equivalent, at least from what I've seen, which is interesting. Of course these are just some quick observations I noted from a couple of outcrops, so take all of that with a heavy grain of salt. I know the Red Mountain does contain limestone and calcareous shale layers in more complete sections at Birmingham, and the exposure I went to was obviously not complete. Elsewhere the Red Mountain has produced a more varied and abundant fauna, and conversely the Rose Hill is largely devoid of fossils in many sections. Anyways, here's what everyone's been waiting for: Calymene sp. (?) I've seen a couple of threads about the Red Mountain Formation in Georgia, but none mentioned trilobites from it. According to the Georgia Department of Mines, Mining, and Geology, the Red Mountain has a a few species of trilobites. This is a plate containing a pygidium and part of the lower thorax of an individual, and a possible fragmentary glabella/cephalon. These are likely molt fragments. This was also my very first find of the day, so a great way to start it off XD. There are probably more specimens at the site, as the exposure was actually fairly large (for what I've seen in this state) and exposed a decent section of the interbedded shales and siltstones, but it was very overgrown and I couldn't reach it. This was laying on the soil. I'm going to go on a limb and say Anoplotheca hemispherica ? A plate with a couple of brachiopod shells on it. The Red Mountain's shale layers are said to be more fossiliferous than the sandstones, which is what I found to be the case at this site. Even then fossils weren't that common in even the most fossiliferous layers. A well worn plate containing abundant crinoid columnals and brachiopod fragments. I'm going to go out on a limb again and say the larger shell fragment is a Dalmanella (?) sp. , but that is a guess. A plate with a Dalmanella (??) sp. and crinoid fragments. The report I'm basing this off of is old, so a lot of these names probably no longer apply. Lots of crinoid pieces in this rock. All in all fairly successful. Any day you find a trilobite (even fragmentary) is a good day in my opinion XD For those of you interested, the site is near Summerville, near an evidently popular swimming location. The fossils actually came from several different "exposures", albeit all within close proximity to one another. If you want to visit I would highly recommend going in winter, when the plants will all be dead and the snakes/spiders down to a minimum. Thankfully I didn't come across any snakes, but I did find an alarmingly large piece of shed skin.

This all started over a year ago. I was selected as Member of the Month and a couple of TFF members from Texas invited me down to the big state to collect. I primarily collect in my home region, the northeast, but I've taken fossil forays to New Mexico, Kentucky, and Germany and was willing to consider a trip to Texas and the opportunity to visit some classic fossil sites and collect fossils that are outside my usual focus. I began planning this about ten months ago, contacted potential fossil collecting partners and did my own research on fossil sites, geology, and the types of fossils I would likely encounter. I had never been to Texas let alone fossil collected there. From the Forum I knew there was a lot of great hunting. Then there was all of the logistics, what to stay, what to bring. Since I wanted to bring back a lot driving appeared to be my best option, but I hadn't driven that far solo in over thirty years. Timing of my trip; mid-late September, came right after my daughter went away to college and I was in the middle of moving to a new place. So things couldn't have been more hectic. Finally, early in the morning on September 8th I set out. Things went okay until I was in Kentucky. Just as it was turning nightfall, torrential rain hit, traffic was stopped on the interstate for two and a half hours, and the last two hours of the trip I struggled with wet conditions and poor visibility. I finally arrived at my parents' house just after one in the morning. The next day on my way over to my sister's I took a small detour and stopped at an outcrop I was well familiar with in Leitchfield, the Upper Mississippian Glen Dean Formation.

May be a bit of an odd question, but I was wondering what horizons or layers are the most fossiliferous in the Conasauga Formation. I've heard about the Tibbs Bridge site (RIP), but that site exposed a calcareous, light-colored shale from the upper part of the Conasauga. From what I read online it seems that most of the trilobite beds are located in the upper shale layers of the formation, but I was wondering if anyone else knew if the other parts of the formation had anything?

Hi everyone, I have some trilobites I need help with identification on. I acquired these several years ago, so I am not entirely sure where these trilobites were found and can only suspect. The first is a trilobite that I believe is from Morocco. It is around 6 cm in length and 3 cm in width. The other two are Agnostid trilobites that I believe are from Utah. I was wondering if it was possible to limit each down to a genus. The darker one is 6 mm in length with a thorax around 3 mm wide. The lighter one is 7 mm in length with a thorax around 3.5 mm wide. Any help is appreciated. Thanks! IMG_5098.HEIC IMG_5100.HEIC IMG_5102.HEIC IMG_5104.HEIC IMG_5108.HEIC IMG_5109 2.HEIC IMG_5111.HEIC Whoops! I just realized I attached the first trilobite's images as files instead. I'll try to upload them as images instead in a reply.

Some new finds from an exploratory trip to Southern Illinois and Missouri. Originally I was focusing on Silurian rocks, but wasn't having much luck. Mississippian fossils Kaskia chesterensis Richmondian stage fossils Missouri Conulariid impression. Very beautiful magnified. Haven't had much time yet to look up names. Not sure what this species is. Very small, just a few mm. Thanks for looking!

Hello, I had some time to look at a few more of the rocks from my collection trip into Wisconsin Platteville Grant County 1,2,3 First is a flat creek rock I gave a scrub and I think it has a trilobite cephalon. 4,5,Is a rock that appears to have a trilobites or it coiled be a broken bivalve? It's in a flakey rock so I haven't picked at it much. I included a side picture of the sediments. 6,7 I am pretty sure these are Chondrites? Or something similar? There are also some other bits in it 8 is a bit of hash plate but it has what I assume must be pyrite bits that are a bit flashy golden - hard to see in the pic but there ar little bit popping out and reflective - I figured I before I show my daughter I figured I should confirm they are pyrite or something similar - and not what she will immediately think it is! Thanks and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll keep sorting and seeing what I got and maybe walk a creek or two for fun

Both my brother and I celebrated graduations this year - my brother graduated from college and I graduated from law school. In celebration of our graduations, we decided to take a 13-day road trip to see some of the United States after I had taken the bar exam but before I began work. Our journey ultimately took us through Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Dayton and Pittsburgh, before returning home. Our days were jam-packed, with us often not arriving at a hotel until 9/10pm, but along the way we did find some time to make a few quick stops to collect some fossils in Georgia and Texas. My brother is not a collector, but I was really excited to try to find some examples of the infamous Georgia trilobites, Texas echinoids and Texas ammonites. I want to thank @BobWill, @smt126, @facehugger, and @JamieLynn for answering my innumerable questions about Texas fossils. We ultimately did not have enough time to check out all of the places you suggested, but I will certainly store the knowledge for my next trip - hopefully in cooler weather. Our first stop was at Tibbs Bridge in Chatsworth, GA. Having heard the rumors about the potential illegality of the site I was a little worried when we arrived. We could not initially find parking and when we pulled off, we picked the wrong spot. The homeowner we parked near came out yelling at us about collecting beneath the bridge and threatening to call the police. Having driven all the way from New Jersey I was not yet ready to give up on the trip. We decided to pick another spot to park and given that my brother doesn't collect, he waited in the car in case something happened. We could not stay at the site for longer than 90 minutes, so I tried to find as much as I could. As a funny aside, I was soon joined by another group of collectors from Georgia, one of whom had recently spent time in my hometown in New Jersey. Small world! I was hoping to find some better preserved trilobites, but I had to ultimately settle with some nice impressions and a couple of smaller fragments of exoskeleton. I did find one large trilobite that still had all of its exoskeleton, but it was fractured and I could not put it back together even at home. I was able to keep the impression of the trilobite though. All of what I found were Aphelaspis brachyphasis. And the large trilobite whose exoskeleton was simply too damaged to repair

Hey all, I bought this trilobite from a seller today and was wondering if anyone could help me ID it. I'm pretty sure its from Utah, and I think it's an Elrathia, but I just want to get some other thoughts or opinions. In the bottom left there seems to be part of an agnostid, but I could be wrong. The seller said that they didn't know where it came from unfortunately.

When I got home from work today one of my neighbors called and asked me to come over to his house, when I arrived I saw that he had 3 large containers of fossils, rocks, etc. He reminded me that several years ago I gave 2 of his kids some fossils and that they recently went through them and kept what they wanted and asked me if I wanted the others back, of course I said yes. I cannot tell you what they kept, but I think there were a couple Oreodont upper skulls and probably a couple other cool pieces. Here is the stuff I brought back home. Most of the trilobites I believe are from Utah. I know the first large one is from Morocco and another is from Canada. If you know of any of the ID’s and you want to mention it, please feel free to do it. There were a lot of Mazon Creek fossils and a couple unopened concretions. Here are other pieces of Mazon Creek fossils. Here is a large Jurassic ripple mark plate from outside of Sundance, Wyoming. Here is a not very good example of Knightia fish from Wyoming. Mosasaur vertebrae- Dinosaur Bone- Belemites- Continued on next post.

Hello everyone, thanks for letting me join the site! I'm an amateur fossil hunter from Toronto who has made a few expeditions in the past months. I've found a few fossils of interest that I'd like some help identifying. Below are links to photos of the fossils in question on my iNaturalist page, along with some additional details. Thanks all in advance! The following were all found along the Don River in Toronto. 1. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68570190 2. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68573964 3. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68570193 4. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68300323 5. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68573819 This was also found in Toronto, in a clean fill pile. A nice assortment of small invertebrates here. 6. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19866874 This one is a real mystery. Also from Toronto, among clean fill. A bone fragment? A piece of vegetation? Coral? 7. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68299911 These three were found today in Prince Edward County... 8. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/69519088 9. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/69532565 10. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/69519075#activity_identification_0484c99a-6655-4e0f-8a1c-2ab2cd4c0fea And finally, this Trilobite fragment was found in the vicinity of Arkona. 11. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68299694

Hey guys， I‘ve dug out some ’fossils‘ that I can't say for sure on a hill of Hubei Province,China. According to the local geological document,there’re exposed strata of middle Devonian and lower Permian around this area. There are some rocks with special patterns on it, which looks like trilobite and shellfish. On another rock, I can see a patch of dots, just like a tentacle of starfish. On this hillside, I also found some strange rocks in the shape of ’flat cylinder‘, with irregular patterns on them. I think it may be the remains of some kind of ancient creature. But I have absolutely no idea about what are them. I'm new in the field of fossil. And his is the first time I sign up The Fossil Forum, so I believe everyone here could teach me a lot. Thank you so much！

They Put the Bite in Trilobite By Cara Giaimo, New York times, Jan. 30, 2021 Do Trilobites Bite? By Allison Kubo Hutchison , Buzz Blog, Friday, February 12, 2021 Ancient marvels: the first shell-crushing predators ground up their prey between their legs By Katrina Kenny. The Coversation, January 26, 2021 the paper is: Bicknell, R.D., Holmes, J.D., Edgecombe, G.D., Losso, S.R., Ortega-Hernández, J., Wroe, S. and Paterson, J.R., 2021. Biomechanical analyses of Cambrian euarthropod limbs reveal their effectiveness in mastication and durophagy. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 288(1943), p.20202075. PDF of above paper from Researchgate An older, unrelated article about trilobites Why did trilobites go extinct? By Donavyn Coffey, Live Science, November 15, 2020 Yours, Paul H.

Du, K.S., Ortega-Hernández, J., Yang, J., Yang, X.Y., Guo, Q.H., He, J.F., Li, K.R., Du, J.L., Hou, J.B., Zhang, X.G. 2020. A New Early Cambrian Konservat-Lagerstätte Expands the Occurrence of Burgess Shale-Type Deposits on the Yangtze Platform. Earth-Science Reviews, 211(103409):1-13 PDF LINK

Hey everyone, I just got a small lot of trilobites in the mail and I’m not really sure what I’m dealing with. It wasn’t very pricey for these 5 bugs plus a low grade Moroccan trilo that I know the ID of. So I figure I’ll buy now ask later lol. these 2 seem to be the same trilobite I’m just totally unsure from where. I’m guessing China maybe? pretty sure this is the well known Pseudogygities from Canada...or maybe it’s a similar genus? these almost look like cousins to Olenellus with the body plan. Seems like a Cambrian bug but i don’t really know for sure. Maybe another Chinese trilobite? apologies for lack of scale bar....not sure where my ruler went so I had to settle for a not so great pen for scale Thanks!! Hopefully someone knows for sure! Al

Hi All, I have recently started my fossil collection, I am still figuring out what I really enjoy and what fits in my budget, but atleast trilobites really got my interest. I have some experience in collecting in general and I decided to buy nice specimens, especially for the common trilobites, rather than starting off with less preserved ones and having to upgrade them in the future. I want to share my first two trilobites: If anyone has any opinions and information about them, please do not hesitate to do so! My knowledge is still small in the fossil world. This one was sold as a Morocops Granulops (Devonian), excavated in Jbel Zguilma Marocco. The second one is a Asaphus lepidurus (Middle Ordovician), excavated in the Putilovo quarry Russia.

With 2020 over with its now a good time to look back at the year. It was a decent year for fossils. I explored many new spots and was able to meet many new people, 6 feet apart of course. With the diagnosis of tendinitis i was not able to dig much this year but i was able to make the most of it. The first thing found since my last post was this epic bryozoan colony. It came out of the very top of the Wanakah shale and weighs almost 8 pounds. Im unsure of species but I think its pretty cool

This trilobite was found in Lincoln county, Nevada and I am having trouble identifying the species, any ideas? Its about an inch wide at the cephalon

Taking advantage of my time spent home, I finally got a couple of glass display cases to showcase fossil specimens from my collection. Finding ones that were affordable and blended with the style of our home, was challenge, and I took my time choosing. Despite a bit of criticism I receive from some of my fossil collecting friends, I am a generalist collector who doesn't specialize in anything. Having said that, my collection does feature some rare faunas; Devonian and Cretaceous bivalves, Lower and Middle Devonian brachiopods and gastropods, Cretaceous vertebrates, etc. The focus is largely on fossils of the Northeast (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, and Eastern Canada), but a number of trips to the Ohio Valley, Texas, out west, and Germany have expanded my collection which is about 90% self collected with remaining fossils primarily gifts from generous friends. There is only one purchased fossil in the display and one I traded for. I ended up with twelves shelves- ten devoted to animal life (seven of those are invertebrates), and two for plants. I was seeking to emulate the old style of specimen display that one might encounter in a 19th century museum, when displaying specimens was the priority. I didn't and couldn't display my entire collection which is too large, so I picked representative specimens to tell the story of the vast variety of prehistoric life on earth. Some of my best specimens didn't make it into the display. These are the cases which are situated in our finished basement:

I received some Waldron Shale trilos for prep today. As always I made a brief examination of the matrix in search of any other fossils. I came across these, that I think may be cross sections of bugs? I should clarify that I have 0 experience with such cross sections. If they were, I'd assume the smaller one is the standard C. breviceps but the larger is curious. It's about 1.75 in/4.5 cm across and appears to have tubercles. What do you guys think, am I way off base or have I found something interesting?

Why did trilobites go extinct? By Donavyn Coffey, Live Science, November 2020 https://www.livescience.com/why-trilobites-went-extinct.html The open access paper is: Jonathan L. Payne, Alexandra V. Turchyn, Adina Paytan, Donald J. DePaolo, Daniel J. Lehrmann, Meiyi Yu, and Wei, Calcium isotope constraints on the end-Permian mass extinction. PNAS May 11, 2010 107 (19) 8543-8548 https://www.pnas.org/content/107/19/8543 A totally unrelated article is: The role of cat eye narrowing in cat-human communication by Ellie Bennett, Snippet Science, November 2020 https://www.snippetscience.com/the-role-of-cat-eye-narrowing-in-cat-human-communication The open access paper is: Humphrey T, Proops L, Forman J, Spooner R and McComb K. The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat-human communication. Sci Rep. 2020 Oct. 10, 16503 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73426-0 Yours, Paul H.