I gathered these rocks from the roadside on a quiet country lane. It was at the site of a cutout about 10' deep.
The rocks are brown in color, and very porous. They get very soft when saturated in water.
First, the one that got away. I found an exquisitely detailed trilobite rear end that literally crumbled when I split the rock open. Sadly (and stupidly), I didn't photograph it on the spot. It crumbled into nothingness when I attempted to trim the rock down a bit.
Live and learn, as they say.
Here are some pics of some fossils that I did manage to successfully extract:
A small brachiopod, but exquisitely detailed. The soft rock preserves extremely fine details, as you will learn by continuing.
Closeup of the same brach, those little nubbins on its shell are perhaps 1/10 mm!
Bryozaon. The soft rock contains huge numbers of these critters
Another bryozoan
Closeup of bryozoan detail, with paper clip
Extreme closeup detail of bryozoan, each point is about 1/10 mm
Impressions left in very soft rock, practically mud!
Same sample, higher magnification
Stay tuned, I'll soon post some pics of creatures found in some very hard limestone that was nicely loaded with fossils.
For lots more fossil pics, check out What Is This Fossil?
