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I've been freeze/thawing my pit 2 nods from my last trip to Mazon Creek and I've found some pretty cool stuff so far, but im wondering about these two. These are the positive impressions of two split nods. Both share a semi circular base, which leads me to believe they could be poorly preserved horseshoe crabs. I haven't found one yet, so i have nothing in-hand to compare them to. These are pretty small, and are cell phone shots, so don't hurt yourself straining your eyes too bad. Any help is appreciated! Mystery #1 Mystery #2 ...........or they could be poorly preserved trigonocarpus sp. Honestly i have no clue.....

I and other members will be heading to Fossil Rock campground to hunt pit 2 on Sunday October 19th 2014. Hopefully the weather will corporate and we can get our buckets filled! Come and join us. It doesn't matter if you've never done it before, i will be happy to teach you what to look for and how to be successful in your 300mya scavenger hunt. We will meet at the Shell gas station in Coal City @ 8-8:30am. It's just west of rt.55 on 113. Hopefully this link will help http://goo.gl/maps/z6m7q Supplies you need and may want. -shovel, pickaxe, rockhammer (basically a good and sturdy digging device). We will be digging through hard shale. -a pair of gloves to keep from collecting blisters -a pair of extra clothes and boots/shoes definitely helps on the ride home. -a bucket, backpack, rock bag (anything that will handle about 5lbs-50lbs worth of rocks) -water is a must, water, water, water -snacks and food is up to you -hiking boots, old pair of shoes, etc. They will get dirty. -i would say bug spray, but being so late in the year hopefully they won't be too crazy. -also it's $5 a person to dig at the campground. This pit is great for very well preserved plants, wood, insects and horseshoe crabs. I have found some awesomely preserved stuff there. These are some of the hardest nodules you will collect anywhere in the Mazon Creek area, and sometimes they take over 30+ freeze/thaw cycles to pop. As i stated above, we WILL be digging, so eat your Wheaties. You can hike around and try and surface collect, but since the spoil piles aren't that tall it may be a waste of time. Here's a live weather link to check the weather for that day. http://m.accuweather.com/en/us/coal-city-il/60416/weather-forecast/332818 Hope to see you there!

Found this beautiful specimin in the cessnock area I'm thinking horseshoe crab

Hi all, I recently found this upper carb Belinurus from the uk which looks like it has preservation of the legs. It is crushed flat and split from the underside, has anyone got any other specimens for comparison? Regards Neil.

I was at my usual site near Niagara Falls hunting eurypterids on Friday with two other collecting friends from the USA and although it was not a great day for eurypterids, the day turned out pretty good. As far as eurypterids go all I found was the following specimen but it has excelent paddle preservation that is folded over the body like an egyptian mummy. The coxa from the underside are also folded over and visible which is very unusual for a dorsally preserved specimen. What turned out to be the find of the day was that I found a horseshoe crab. As a pleasant surprise Peter from the forum( Pleecan) showed up just as I found this. Which was fortunate for me as after he ate his lunch he got out his rock and cut both of these out for me. I also have the counterpart to the crab but have not got a picture of it at this point, it is still in the trunk of my car. This is an order of magnitude rarer than the eurypterids at this site. I am aware of about 50 eurypterids collected this year that were over 80% complete. I am only aware of this and one other horseshoe crab being found this year. The following pictures were taken in situ by a well known and respected collector at this site Sam and are quite hard to see. (Perhaps Peter will do some magic and post an enhanced version.) I was actually quite surprised to have noticed it. It was about 1 foot from the partial eurypterid that is shown above. It was on the same bedding plane as the eurypterid about 1 foot to the southwest. . This was found in the Williamsville A formation of the Bertie waterlime. So the age is Upper Silurian At about 35 millimeters in length I am told that it is very large for this location where they are more normally 10 to 15 millimeters in size. My assumption at this point is that it is a Pseudoniscus clarkie Technically it is probably not correct to call it a horseshoue crab. Any other thoughts...... I have also heard of these called bunaia woodwardi but some believe these to be the same species. They are listed as separate in my book Fossil Ecosystems of North America.

Stunning Discovery: World’s Longest Fossilized ‘Death Track’, Sci-News, August 30, 212 http://www.sci-news....ticle00554.html http://www.sci-news.com/images/2012/08/trackway_hi_res.jpg http://www.sci-news....image_554_2.jpg Fossil records 'crab' death march by Nick Crumpton, BBC News, September 7, 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-19514333 the paper is: Lomax, D. R., and C. A. Racay, 2012, A Long Mortichnial Trackway of Mesolimulus walchi from the Upper Jurassic Solnhofen Lithographic Limestone near Wintershof, German. Ichnos: An International Journal for Plant and Animal Traces. vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 175-183. http://www.tandfonli...940.2012.702704 Related articles; Schmid, D. U., R. R. Leinfelder, and G. Schweigert, 2005, Stratigraphy and Palaeoenvironments of the Upper Jurassic of Southern Germany. Zitteliana. Series B, Reihe B26, pp. 31-56. http://epub.ub.uni-m...2005_b26_03.pdf Koch, R., and C. Weiss, 2005, Field Trip A: Basin- Platform Transition in Upper Jurassic Lithographic Limestones and Dolomites of the Northern Franconian Alb (Germany). Zitteliana. Series B, Reihe B26, pp. 57-70. http://epub.ub.uni-m...2005_b26_04.pdf Roper, M., 2005, Field Trip B: East Bavarian Plattenkalk – Different Types of Upper Kimmeridgian to Lower Tithonian Plattenkalk Deposits and Facies. Zitteliana. Series B, Reihe B26, pp. 57-70. http://epub.ub.uni-m...2005_b26_05.pdf Roper, M., 2005, Field Trip C: Lithographic Limestones and Plattenkalk Deposits of the Solnhofen and Mörnsheim Formations near Eichstätt and Solnhofen. Zitteliana. Series B, Reihe B26, pp. 71-86. http://epub.ub.uni-m...2005_b26_06.pdf Yours, Paul H.