Antelope Road Brachiopod Fossils – April 2026
On a nice April day we drove out Antelope Road, east of St George, Utah, to look for marine fossils in the slope next to the road. We used this Wooster Geologists blog post as a guide.
According to that blog post, the fossils are primarily a type of brachiopod called rhynchonellids. They are crumbling out of the Virgin Limestone Member of the Moenkopi Formation. Once we found the correct area we were able to collect as many as we desired; they are incredibly abundant.
Most were loose, but some were still in the host rock. Some were solid, and some were slightly hollow inside with small quartz crystals, while others were solid quartz. See perky box photo below: the middle row left is a very tiny geode with quartz crystals, and the middle row right is solid quartz.
The largest fossils that we found were approximately 1/2 inch, but most were closer to 3/8 inch.
The road was good quality, any car could drive it.
We found the brachiopods at exactly this location: 37.04100, -113.27273
