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What sort of fossil are you seeing, @heath-carroll?

They are inside the limestone mostly corals and plant life and a lot of ray parts

I found a couple of crinoid. But mostly trying to figure out the creature/ray. I started cleaning the skeletons but I don’t want it to fall apart it’s very delicate it has the cartilage hip bones and the support for the fin. It’s very cool so as soon as it’s identified I will decide how to move forward. I only retrieved the medium and small ones the big one I’m not sure how to get without it falling apart. Itl looks like it is about 2 1/2 ft. Wide they have front teeth like rays do. I posted a literature I found about people finding these weird dragons in eastern Iowa it seems to be a extinct ray like thing??????

I figure if it’s been there for several million years a couple more days won’t hurt it.

Hi, @heath-carroll I will be very surprised if you are finding cartilage in these rocks. Why don’t you try to take some of the rocks to a local museum or geology department where someone can look at them in person?

They have the fin cartilage plates for sure. I have them sumewhat washed off. These are clean I won’t have to pick at thes or acid lol.

Google search Iowa’s 3 headed dragon. It will take you to Iowa geological society. Pretty interesting stuff

I tried searching that phrase and nothing came up regarding the geological society. The issue is that cartilage does not really preserve in the rock record – except in very rare circumstances. It’s not hard like bone and the chemicals and pressures through time break it down.