Identifying fossils

[benkendrick]

I thought I saw somewhere that there was a way you could put specimens of extinct species on here and where you found their remains.
Am I crazy or is that a thing?
Just found what I think is a half decent lepidodendron fossil yesterday and thought I’d upload it haha. Not likely most of the community will be familiar with carboniferous fossils, but all data is good data, amirite?

[ash2016]

There’s this project, which accepts fossil observations (but still make sure you mark them as casual).

But myFossil is a citizen science website devoted entirely to just fossil obsevations, and it does seem like it could use a lot more users.

[benkendrick]

Thanks! I’ll send them to that group

[cmstinson]

MyFossil might not be viable any longer. I tried to sign up and received an error message. When I tried to email for help I got an automated email response stating “After 6 wonderful years, the initial grant for the FOSSIL Project has concluded. While the project website, mobile app, and eMuseum will continue, other aspects of the project will no longer be staffed. Accordingly, this email will not be checked as frequently, and you may experience a delay in response. For questions about fossil identification or the practice of paleontology, we encourage you to ask our community at www.myfossil.org.” To post in the forum to ask for help you have to be a member – you can’t sign up to be a member – so there you go…

[benkendrick]

awwww. that’s a little disappointing.

[tiwane]

@benkendrick

Not likely most of the community will be familiar with carboniferous fossils, but all data is good data, amirite?

Fossils are pretty sweet, but they’re not really what iNaturalist is designed for - iNat’s focus is on extant life and its goal is to help people engage with nature and generate data on extant organisms. It’s fine to upload some fossils to iNat, but please vote “no” for “Recent Evidence of Organism” in the Data Quality Assessment of the observation.

[mmmiller]

There are a few subreddits dedicated to identifying things.
https://www.reddit.com/r/fossilid/
is for fossils.

There is also one for bird (and they have some regulars that are great at not only identifying birds - even from poor photos - but telling what to look for to identify birds. I’ve learned a lot from them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/fossilid/

There’s also one for minerals.
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisrock/

and bugs, etc. (All insects, spiders, crustaceans, etc. welcome)
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbug/

[ash2016]

I also remember a feature on the Fossil Forum that allows you to create a gallery on your profile of pictures of the fossils you’ve found. That might be your best bet unless a new citizen science project comes around.

[cmstinson]

I reported earlier

MyFossil might not be viable any longer. I tried to sign up and received an error message.

but earlier today got two emails from people associated with that project, and happily, the problem I was having was resolved and I was able to sign up for an account. So… some good news for those looking for a citizen science fossil project. Check it out at [https://www.myfossil.org/]

[cmstinson]

Just another update, since I had earlier mentioned that MyFossil might not be working. I’ve set up an account and posted fossil images and had help with identifications, so it’s definitely viable, contrary (happily) to what I said earlier.