This is the “Fossil Friday” post #319. Expect this to be a regular feature of the website. We will post fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!

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Back in late March, I went fossil collecting with a couple Field Museum researchers, including Lazaro Viñola López (see “Ancient bees found nesting inside fossil bones in rare cave discovery” for some of his recent work), a postdoctoral researcher. This was his first trip to Pit 11. Bet you can guess where this is headed…

Lazaro found an interesting concretion that had that distinctive Tully look. It was broken, but what was there had the right thickness and the shape just looked right. Unfortunately, he looked all around the hill and couldn’t find the other pieces.

He started the freeze/that and it opened up a few weeks ago. It’s a nice partial Tullymonstrum gregarium with a beautiful eyebar and some muscle banding. Makes you think it’s looking at us across the millennia…

Congratulations, Lazaro! Let’s go bag another!