Lot's of brachiopods in this 470 million years piece of limestone from Catoosa, County, Georgia. It represents ancient sea life that was thriving during the Ordovician period.

Welcome back to #FossilFriday!

Here is a Petoskey Stone which is Michigan's state stone. It is a colonial rugose coral known as Hexagonaria percarinata. This comes from the Middle Devonian (Givitian) Gravel Point Formation (Traverse Group). Each corallite that you see would have housed a polyp.

This is a rare crinoid from the Devonian Silica Shale of Sylvania, Ohio. Gennaeocrinus chilmanae is named after Ruth Chilman, who was one of the founding members of the Friends of the UMMP. She was also co-author of the FUMMP Silica book.

I wish I had met her.

#FossilFriday

Brachiopods may look like clams, but have a different axis of symmetry and very different internal structures called lophophores. There are still brachiopods alive today, but they are rare.

This Paraspirifer bownockeri is from the Devonian Silica Shale of Sylvania, Ohio.

#FossilFriday

Excited to find my first eurypterid (that I can talk about) for #FossilFriday. Silurian, can’t pin down the formation, but supposed to be Hughmilleria sp. Head on the left, tail on the right but there’s a blob of stuff in the bottom left/center I can’t make out. Any #eurypterid folks know?

A view of the headshield of Megalograptus, preserved as reddish-brown cuticle on a pale grey rock. The headshield is generally equilateral in shape, with a rounded front bearing small spiny projections. A pair of round eyes are also located at the front of the head. The surface of the headshield is curved in dense, pustule-like scales.

A fossil of the second appendage of Megalograptus, preserved as dark cuticle on a light grey rock. The appendage is short with robust spines coming off of it.

A view of the body segments of Megalograptus, preserved as dark cuticle on pale grey rock. Four body segments are present, again preserving small, pustule-like scales.

One of the earliest large predatory eurypterids, Megalograptus, for #FossilFriday. Megalograptus is known from abundant - and very unusual - material from the Ordovician of #Ohio, affording an important insight into the morphology of this rather bizarre species. ⚒️🧪

Iron staining on Ordovician bryozoan hash, next to a shell, really bad at deciphering brachiopod vs bivalve so we’ll leave it at shell…#FossilFriday

Moody Ordovician brachs for this most holy of #FossilFriday

Look at how big that Devonian bivalve is! Extra #FossilFriday, this one was found outside Wardensville wv by Max

Hey it’s #FossilFriday so how’s about this little Devonian gastropod you absolute sea snail?

Late #FossilFriday came across the last pics I got to take of the holotype of Needmorella simoni before sending it off forever. It’s now more traveled than I am as it’s been to Australia and back to the US where it’s now chilling in the Smithsonian, something I wish I could say for myself

Happy #TrilobiteTuesday from the mid Devonian of WV you filthy animals

Late #FossilFriday from the early/mid Devonian, Kettneraspis head next to a goniatite.

#FossilFriday‼️ 😲 Remarkably large (~20" or 50 cm) ammonite from an Alabama creek exposing Upper Cretaceous sediments. The specimen is still underwater in this photo (see tadpoles 🐸). Specimen @almnh.bsky.social. Discovered by George Martin. #paleontology #fossil #Alabama

A surface with multiple curving to straight raised ridges on a surface; ridges have grooves in their middles and finely defined chevrons. This surface is an epoxy-resin replica of a sedimentary rock surface from the Early Ordovician (~480 mya) of Portugal, and the ridges were natural casts of trilobite burrows. Replica was part of a "Fossil Art" display put together by ichnologist Dolf Seilacher.

For #FossilFriday, a dramatically lit replica (epoxy-resin cast) of an Early Ordovician (~480 mya) sedimentary-rock surface from Portugal with abundant trilobite burrows. Replica was part of a traveling display put together by ichnologist Dolf Seliacher that he titled "Fossil Art." 🧪🪨⚒️

Macro Devonian crinoids for this #FossilFriday from Maryland but don’t hold that against them

It’s late for a #FossilFriday and it’s been a while for me on here but I found this Devonian crinoid in a quarry with fossil friend Max the other week and was feeling pretty happy with it. When I spotted it only what you see to the right of the vertical crack was showing, very mud covered.

Thats’s 10,000 for me by myself. For that you get the tail, the tail….the whole damned tail

At the end of the day, are we all not pigs-in-a-blanket in a slowly warming oven of our own making? A delicious fate

LITHOSTROTIONELLA!!!!! State gem of my home, West Virginia. This is the piece that first got me into fossils as a kid when I found it in the Greenbrier river. #FossilFriday

Textures for #FossilFriday

Missed the last #FossilFriday and #TrilobiteTuesday of the year but I’m using the first day of the new year to wish cast. Found this butt a couple years ago now in a place I always dig. It’s an undescribed odontopleurid. I’ve never found another piece. I WILL find more this year.

Fossilized sea scorpions of Eurypterus on original rock or matrix showing one complete specimen along with other fragmentary individuals.

A sea scorpion fossils of Eurypterus tetragonophthalmus from Volyn-Podillya, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine. These Silurian aged eurypterids are synonymous with the species Baltoeurypterus tetragonophthalmus. #FossilFriday

#eurypterid #fossil #paleontology #eurypterus #baltoeurypterus

Happy trilobite Tuesday

Alright one of these four partial mid Devonian trilobite thoraxes is not a Viaphacops. It’s a Needmorella simoni and if you’re a real fossil sicko like myself you’ll be able to spot it. Take a guess, sicko. Happy fossil Friday

Small stone, possibly shaped or knapped, showing tiny spirals with dark hatch marks. The spirals are single-celled animal shells.

A chert shard, showing perfect cross-sections of forams. Tiny spirals, nature's hidden order.

A possible abortive point, maybe kept for its beauty?
#FossilFriday 🧪⚒️🦕

Hah! Ripple rock bonanza! Newly placed pavers in shepherdstown, I’m telling you that place is lousy with them. Usually used in walls or old buildings, the others I’ve seen before in town have been local Cambrian lime. How many can you count?

Yeah maybe he’s like a glass half full trilobite