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Showing results for tags 'wisconsin'.
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Anyone familiar with this rock. Long story short have river rock around my house and found these. Going to guess that they get these rocks from the Mississippi somewhere but I live where a once shallow sea was. More of them will be posted as well. And will have the same story but be different fossils. Any guesses on this particular specimen it is about 1 and 1/4 in long and the whole thing is about 1 and 1/2 in long. The bigger part of the shell is more faded so it might not look like the whole shell is 1 and 1/4 in long but it is.
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Total newbie of rock hounding and definitely know nil about fossils....but this is ligter than rocks I find. And remind me of foot....found wisconsin !(middle) .no idea the size I dot have measuring tool. ³ 20240720_015931.mp4
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How old? What is it? Please.
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I was at Doctor’s Park beach in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin today. It is a known Silurian reef outcrop and I found much of the usual plus this weird piece of coral. I have never seen coral like this at this beach and I’ve been going here periodically for months. I attached a side, top, and bottom photo. I wanted to wait until I finished my trip to show my entire haul, but I am really curious about this thing. I almost mistook it for a nut that fell into the lake, but it’s definitely rock.
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Hello! I’ve been doing some fossil and rock hunting on a Lake Michigan beach in Wisconsin, and I was just wondering if this could be a crinoid fossil? There’s chain coral in the rock on both sides. I tried sanding a little around what I think is the crinoid, but I didn’t uncover anything else. Thank you for any help!
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I just came back from Wisconsin for a school-related activity. I like to visit Doctors Park, Fox Point whenever I have some free time while I’m in the area and the beach was very productive this week. It is a known Silurian outcrop. Mostly tabulate corals, chain corals, and brachiopods(?) plus some weird ones I’m still trying to figure out. This week was the first time I found what looked to like full bivalve or brachiopod shells, not just imprints. The local museum guides say you can find both in this area, but I’m not experienced enough to tell the difference. But, they are pretty cute. The first is a near-complete one I found. There next two are different angles of half-shells. The last is a coral that does not resemble the usual chain, tabulate, or rugose corals I’ve found before. If anyone can help this noob out, I’d appreciate. Overall, I’d highly recommend this spot for beginners. The only downside is that a ton of dead fish wash up here periodically and the smell and the flies can become unbearable. But, that also means less people and more fossils ripe for the picking.
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Help with Milwaukee Area Silurian Finds: Bivalves or Brachiopod? Plus Some Oddballs
suburbanamateur posted a topic in Fossil ID
I posted some of these regarding my recent visits to Doctors Park in Fox Point, Milwaukee County WI. It is a known Silurian outcrop and the local websites say both brachiopods and bivalves can be found there. Well, I found some full half-shells for the first time instead of mere impressions. They look a lot like modern bivalves, but I’m still iffy on the differences between brachiopods and bivalves. I attached some examples plus a coral that looks different from the usual chain, tabulate, and rugose corals I typically find there. The final is a strange impression I’ve never seen before. If anyone is willing to help this noob, I’d greatly appreciate it. Recommendations for Wisconsin fossil ID guides would also be appreciated so that I do not have to keep coming here whenever I find something new.
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Fossil/Mineral Hunting in the Illinois & Wisconsin Border
CaroleAnn posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone had some good places to find minerals or fossils around the Illinois-Wisconsin border. -
Hello, it’s been a while. I finally found some things that look half-decent at several Milwaukee County, WI beaches where there are supposed to Silurian reef fossils. Can someone help this amateur out? I included side and back pictures of some of them if there is anything visible from those angles that can help with ID. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
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Cylindrical, silicified fossil - Possibly Ramose form Stromatoporiod
midimatt posted a topic in Fossil ID
I found this rock/fossil while walking along the shoreline of Lake Michigan in Southeastern Wisconsin, USA. I have never found anything quite like it previously. It has the appearance of a sliced swiss cake roll - concentric rings on each end and having a solid skin. My initial thoughts were some type of horn coral (though only the main shape is similar) or possibly a chert/chalcedony nodule that had both ends break off. Other suggestions (which are probably more likely) are Stromatolite or Stromatoporoid, but I'm not seeing any similar photos in my online searches. Someone in my Facebook group suggested that it is a ramose form Stromatoporoid. Side A: Side B: Edge/Skin:
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My brother found this cool rock in his farm field in Cadott, WI (about 2 hours east of Minneapolis, MN.) He didn’t weigh it but said it’s heavy as you would expect. I touched it and it’s rough so maybe it originally broke off something? It didn’t feel like sandstone. It’s about 2.5 feet long and 8 inches wide. Thanks!
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This is both sides of rock found in southeast WI on Lake Michigan. I thought maybe a fossil.
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Hello! I found this tiny fossil in the Chippewa River in Wisconsin. I was agate hunting and I picked up this rock because it shares the characteristics of an agate. When I flipped it over I was surprised by the tiniest little fossil! I am hoping to get some help with identification. The actual fossil is about as big of a pencil eraser.
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Hi everyone! I visited an exposure of the Milwaukee formation within Milwaukee city, Wisconsin this weekend. Found lots of brachiopods, corals and bryozoans, and brought some rocks home. Then today I decided to smack some of them with a hammer - and this trilobite pygidium emerged out of nowhere. I don’t know a lot about inverts - can anyone help with the ID please, if it’s identifiable at all? I’m pretty sure it is from the Lindwurm member of the Milwaukee formation (Givetian - Middle Devonian). Thanks!
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Hi, I am a graduate student from Chicagoland looking to get into fossil hunting. I recently started school in Wisconsin and I am hoping that I can make some good finds in this state. I have tried fossil hunting in the Mazon Creek area of Illinois, but I only ever found a single horse tail fossil and a hermit's shanty over there. Overall, the area is a pain to search unless you have a boat to access the islands in the lakes and I am hoping I will have better luck in Wisconsin while I am here.
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A nice Dictyonema flabelliforme dendroid graptolite from Oslo Fields in Norway. It's Tremadoc, Lower Ordovician in age and is thus maybe around 480 mya. Another angle :
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This ia an object I found on a gravel path on the southern shore of Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisc. I always thought it was a fossilized shark tooth, but after finding this discussion, I'm not as convinced as I once was. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.
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I went to the beach in Doctors Park in Fox Point, WI over the weekend to hopefully find some Silurian reef fossils. Most of the stuff I saw were poor-quality brachiopod fossils, but I these look kind of interesting. I think the first one might be some kind of a coral, but it does not match any coral fossil descriptions I found on online guides for the area. Yet, it looks more organic the usual porous rocks I on the beaches. I don’t know what it make of the smaller one: it seems to have more of a pattern than the typical rocks I find that look like a bunch of clams fell into a concrete mixer. But, again, it does not match anything else in the local guides. Also, if anyone knows, what kind of rocks typically bear fossils in this area and how to you go about opening them? I’ve only ever used the freeze and thaw method for concretions I found on Mazon Creek, IL, but the stones I find here are completely different.
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Hello, I've stumbled onto this site while doing research on doing scientific illustrations of green River fish. I've prepared many specimens over the years, but now want to do accurate illustrations of these fish. The research involves gathering as many fossil images as possible, and then finding living relatives and using them as references. Very time consuming, but for accuracy, one cannot find enough references.
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Hello nice to meet u
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I was at Atwater Beach at Shorewood, WI for a couple of hours today because a cursory online search showed that it’s a place where people have supposedly found Silurian Reef fossils. I did not find anything of note except this rock that looks like a bunch of clams fell on wet concrete. I’m only second-guessing myself because the beach is littered with tiny mussel shells, as well, and I know it would not that that long under the right conditions for bivalve shells and sediment to become squished together into one mass. I have found some rocks that definitely looked like that. But, this one is much heavier and I only see what looks like indentations, not the shells themselves. Not to mention, the patterns on the ridges do not look like those of the native mussel shells that litter the beach. The second picture is the back of the thing.
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I found this heavy triangular piece of what appears to be a bryozoa colony ,but at different angles and lighting I find it to show several other possibilities. This was retrieved from a receding river bed amongst many more corals and lingulla plates I also gathered. If anyone has an input or correction to my guess ,I greatly appreciate it.
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Hello! We found this in a river bed in south Central Wisconsin. What do you think it might be? Some of us think it is a mushroom and something maybe a seashell. Thank you!
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In my Secret Santa gift last Christmas from @connorp I received (among other nice items) a very nice little hash plate from the Mifflin Member of the Platteville Formation (U/M Ordovician, Blackriverian, ~453 MY) from SW Wisconsin. The picture below is the plate as it was received and in my 12/20/22 post about getting it I said: “A great hash plate. I already see two or maybe three different trilobite types with a couple of them tantalizingly partially buried and an interesting gastropod that I am not familiar with. I think a little prep work will make this even more spectacular. As an added plus, it represents my first fossils from the state of Wisconsin.” I finally got around to doing the prep I talked about and spent a little time exposing some of the more prominent fossils and giving it a gentle going over with air abrasion to bring out some of the features. I think it looks even better than it already did and I was even more impressed with the wide variety of fossils on the small section of rock. Below is the cleaned up plate: Here is a collage of the plate just turned at different angles to the sunlight in case it helps to bring out any features: There are hundreds of fossil fragments on this one small piece of rock, but I want to highlight the top couple dozen specimens. With the help of some TFF members via previous posts and replies in a couple of ID threads I put out (thanks @Tidgy's Dad, @connorp, @piranha, @minnbuckeye and others), I have identified several trilobites, brachiopods, gastropods, ostracods, bryozoans, and a crinoid and want to show you this wonderful diversity in such a small space. If anyone sees changes to my ID's please feel free to chime in. Some will be very specific ID's and some will be a bit more general. The picture below is the key to where each of the numbered specimens is on the slab (see number in upper left of each specific picture). We will start with the trilobites. Although each is only a partial, there is enough present to get a pretty specific ID on most of them. All are new genera or species in my collection. Here are the brachiopods: Here are a couple of specimens of a really neat gastropod which was new to me. So often it seems Paleozoic gastropods are just internal molds or rather plain forms, but this first one is very nice. Here are a few bryozoans and one very small horn coral. There were several of these small corals, I'm not really sure of the ID, I didn't research them much yet. Just a couple of small crinoid columnals were found. And last but not least are the ostracods. I am used to small ostracods (which some of these are) but there is also this one form that is huge (by ostracod standards) coming in at about a centimeter long. At first I thought they were brachiopod fragments until I looked at them closer. These things are the size of a kidney bean! Note the scale difference between the Eoleperditia and all the others. Most of my ID's are questionable as I was using a reference that is for the immediately overlying Decorah Formation until I can find a listing for the Mifflin Member. OK that is everything for now. I hope you have enjoyed the wonderful diversity of this small slice in time. With a little more investigation, I may yet tease out a few more specimens worthy of an ID. Thanks for looking. Mike
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Please help identify. I have been trying to find any information on this fossil I found while digging here. its been a long search. I have been told a few thing but have been told here is the place to get things identified. I have only cleaned a few sections because Im afraid of breaking it. it is semi fragile and other sections are very hard.
