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Showing results for tags 'Illinois'.
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any possibility for IL fossil hunting in the winter? where?
rocks in my pockets posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
hey! brand new to the forum. tagged mazon creek because I think that's the most popular spot in IL but I'm aware it's not open to the public at the moment. does anyone know of spots that are open to the public in the winter? anywhere in IL? otherwise, any connections with landowners have access to fossil beds? nowhere with disputed ownership/right on the border between public and private, not looking to put myself and my friends in an unsafe situation especially during deer season. I would really appreciate some input! don't need anything special, just wanna go poking around in the dirt with my friends. :) -
This was found in the southern unit of the Mazonia Wildlife Management area in northern Illinois. Ma nature had already opened it, so it may be in kind of rough shape. Is there enough here to identify it ?
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Hello! I’m Ellen B and I’m currently living in far NE Illinois where there is plenty of glacial till and a brevity of outcrops. By day I do computer support now. But I have a MS in geology with a specialty in sedimentary rocks and paleontology. I also am a hobby baker hence my moniker.
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From the album: Mississippian fossils
A nice Pentremites blastoid from the Golconda Formation of IL.-
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Hello, Could I get an ID on this mazon creek unknown? It has pretty high relief and strong segmentation with makes me think arthropod like a millipede, but I don't see any legs so maybe it's an annelid worm or something.
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- francis creek shale
- illinois
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Where is the best place to look for fossils in Madison county Illinois? (Mainly Alton or Godfrey but anywhere near is fine)
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I found this walking in Vermilion County, Illinois a few years ago. This was in a corn field by my house. It appears to have been used for something and I thought it was unique so I took it home. I’ve been keeping it up by my house for a few years now and decided I’d like to try and identify it possibly. I’ve been looking online and to me it looks like an Native American flaked axe or possibly something else used by them. The indentations on it are very unique. Open to suggestions please. Thanks!
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I found this walking out by my house in Vermilion County, Illinois about 7-8 years ago. I collect rocks and other things I find interesting when I go out to hike. I’ve been keeping a pile of rocks like this one and I’d like to see if anyone can identify it? It is very heavy and the little ball like structure on the inside is very odd. I’ve tried doing research but can’t find anything. I have taken a guess that it might be a ball and socket joint to something? I’m open to suggestions? Thanks
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I'm looking for some help IDing this cephalopod fossil I collected from the Silurian (Racine Dolomite) of northern Illinois. The specimen is just a slice of the entire cephalopod unfortunately, so maybe it will be tough to ID. Any help either way is appreciated. @aek Come across anything like this before?
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Found in a creek in Alton by the Piasa Cave. Looks like the exoskeleton of some arthropod. Any idea on what it is exactly?
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A few days ago I took a trip to view some exposures of Ordovician aged rock along the Mississippi River. I had decided afterwards to take a little detour and stop by a fairly popular exposure of Mississippian aged Golconda Formation outside the town of Anna, Illinois. There is rock exposure along both sides of the road here. I was careful, and decided to park further down along a gravel road. A lot of material at this site is weathered out, and easily collectable. I flipped about every rock I saw as I walked up to the exposure, and the first rock I flipped had a nice blastoid on it that looks to clean up nice. I didn't use any tools here, everything collected was just picked up loose. I found a few more nice Pentremites blastoids. This next one is probably the largest Pentremites I've found in Illinois. It was huge! Here are the two compared next to each other. I believe they are both Pentremites pyriformis. I found a few nice crinoids as well. I almost couldn't believe what I saw when I spotted this first crinoid! A very small and dirty Phanocrinus crinoid. The next one I found was on a rock I flipped over, and better shows the bottom calyx plates. This one unfortunately wasn't complete, still not too shabby. There were alot of bryzoans and brachiopods weathered out. I did take a small handful of Archimedes spirals. Last find was a small block with a trilobite pygidium on it. This was a nice little stop. It was very easy to collect as well.
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Brachiopoda-Articulata Class: Rhynchonellata Order: Athyridida Family: Athyrididae Genus: Composita Portions of the pedicle valve were removed to expose the lovely crystals within.-
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This is the Mazon Monday post from the ESCONI website this morning. There were numerous Fossil Forum users.... @bigred97 @flipper559 @RMAA. I know there were others there. Please add yourselves. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Fall 2023 Braceville Field Trip is in the books... is is that on the web? It was a enjoyable, but somewhat wet, weekend. We had rain at the very end of the day on Saturday and most of Sunday. The mud was not too bad. The dry conditions this late summer probably left the shale in a state where it could soak up a good bit of the water. We had visitors from out of state both days. Alan Keith was very generous and passed out fossils from Texas and Oklahoma. The fossil dump was as good as ever. We had quite a few buckets on both days. Unfortunately, not as many people stuck around until 11:30 on Sunday, as we had a steady rain for most of the morning. Material was supplied by Ralph Jewell, @Nimravis Andrew Young, Rich Holm, Alan Keith, and others. Thank you for your contributions! Good morning! Here is a little introductory video on the walk in on Sunday morning. It rained quite a bit Saturday night, so the shale was sticky in places. Here is a Mazon Monday post about the history of the Braceville spoil pile. It was called worm hill by the old timers. Fossil Dump on Saturday Good luck horseshoe found by Chris Berg @bigred97. Huntin' for fossils! Smiles from the pile! Mud! Poison ivy! Steam from the hill when the sun came out on Sunday afternoon Open fossils found! Say goodbye to another successful field trip!
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Chordata Class: Chondrichthyes Order: Petalodontiformes Family: Petalodontidae Genus: Petalodus-
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Brachiopoda Class: Rhynchonellata Order: Spiriferida Family: Trigonotretidae Genus: Neospirifer A nice larger Neospirifer brachiopod with both valves.- 1 comment
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Hello! I had the privilege of joining ESCONI to Mazon’s Pit 4 yesterday and came across this concretion. There’s a very good chance it’s nothing, but I thought the 3D shape might be peculiar. The concretion is about 1.5 cm wide in total. Thank you for looking!
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Chordata Class: Chondrichthyes Order: Petalodontiformes Family: Pristodontidae Genus: Peripristis sp.- 1 comment
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Hello, I’ve recently been starting fossil hunting excursions at the last place I’d ever imagine — a parking lot. Put simply, there’s some piles of rocks near a big store around Champaign, IL, and in them I’ve found fossils. However, the rocks did not come from there, and because I’m anything but an expert geologist, I have no clue what rock I’m working with, what formation they came from, or in general what to expect. My guess is that it’s Silurian Dolomite but I’d appreciate some secondhand opinions, and nonetheless I’m still unsure of what particular formation the rocks belong to. Here are some of my finds: A bunch of brachiopods, and what looks like an external mold of a crinoid stem, I'm guessing. A few more brachiopods i’ve found as well. This is the usual stuff I find, just lots of brachiopods and (I think?) the occasional bivalve. Oh, there’s also this thing. I’m guessing some weird type of brachiopod but I’m not 100% confident, any IDs would be cool. Anywho, if y’all can figure out where these come from, is there anything else I can find in that formation/in these rocks? And if so, is there any sort of specific techniques/strategies i can use to know which rocks will bear fossils? Because some, like the first image, would be chock-full of them, but many would have only one fossil in them, and most wouldn’t have any at all. (Oh btw, I should note that these are pretty big rocks, like 6-10 cubic inches) Furthermore, are there any rarer fossils i could find (trilobites?? ;-;), and are there ways to find em as well, or is this just gonna be a matter of smashing open rocks till you’re lucky?? Oh, and lastly, whatever kind of rock I'm dealing with, it’s very hard. If I want to crack a rock open, I kinda just smash it with my sledgehammer; but I'm not really able to get precise cuts into the rocks with it, so I wonder if maybe there are times when I’ll crack open a rock, think there are no fossils in it, but in reality i just didn’t crack the right part of the rock open. Is there a way to know? Or a way to crack open the rocks more precisely? (I also have two pickaxes and some chisels, but the pickaxes are much worse at working with rocks, and honestly I’m too scared of breaking my hand with the chisel if i miss my hammer). Sorry if this is a lot, and kind of all over the place. I just have a lot of questions and a lot of inexperience. Thank you so much for any help!
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Help me name the outstanding fossil deposits of the midcontinent Devonian
pefty posted a topic in Questions & Answers
Crowdsourcing / help request! I'm putting together a review article for the fossil collector community on the Devonian rocks of the American midcontinent, which I've defined as the gray area on the map below plus southwest Ontario. I'm hoping to include a section in which I highlight the midcontinent fossils of greatest renown for each of a number of taxa (list below). (I purposely leave "renown" as a somewhat squishy quality open to multiple interpretations.) I would appreciate (1) your nominations of any midcontinent Devonian fossils of great renown that I have failed to capture in the list below and (2) your assistance in filling in the blanks marked with "????" Thank you! List is below. Microbes: ???? Marine algae: ???? Sponges: Formosa Reef Limestone, SW Ontario Rockport Quarry Limestone, NE Michigan ???? Corals: Widder Formation, SW Ontario Jeffersonville Limestone, S. Indiana Petoskey Limestone, NW lower Michigan Hyolithids: Arkona Formation, SW Ontario Tentaculitids: Arkona Formation, SW Ontario Conulariids: ???? Bryozoans: ???? Brachiopods: Silica Formation, NW Ohio ???? Pelecypods: Arkona Formation, SW Ontario ???? Gastropods: Rogers City Limestone, NE Michigan ???? Non-ammonoid cephalopods: ???? Ammonoid cephalopods: Arkona Formation, SW Ontario Pelecypods: Dundee Limestone, NW Ohio Arkona Formation, SW Ontario Rostroconchs: Dundee Limestone, NW Ohio Trilobites: Silica Formation, NW Ohio Arkona Formation and Widder Formation, SW Ontario Haragan and Bois d'Arc Formations, SE Oklahoma Non-ostracode crustaceans: Chagrin Shale, NE Ohio Arkona Formation and Widder Formation, SW Ontario Silica Formation, NW Ohio Echinoderms: Arkona Formation, SW Ontario Silica Formation, NW Ohio Thunder Bay Limestone, NE Michigan Graptolites: ???? Fish: Rockport Quarry Limestone, NE Michigan Columbus Limestone, central Ohio Cleveland Shale, NE Ohio Woody plants: Ohio Shale, Ohio Herbaceous plants: Grassy Creek Shale, E Missouri
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I'm so pumped to have found my first trilobite! I know it's one of the ones like calymene, but im unsure of the exact genera/species (Silurian dolomite, around Champaign IL). each of those 8x8 squares are 2.54 cm long and wide, if that helps also, kinda random but i was thinking about turning it into a necklace/pendant. What should I do if I wanna do that?
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Hey, short time reader, first time caller. Found this forum while looking up some fossil identifications. I grew up in Illinois, and have retired and now snowbird in Tucson Az. I've always been a passive rock collector, but since spending time on the trails in Az, I've rekindled my drive to find unique rocks and fossils. My childhood rock collection ended up being used in my parents garden. Having a new yard and style to landscape to with rocks has sent me off hunting for various colors and types. I've gone fossil hunting in Az (Winkelman), Colorado (Florissant Quarry) and Illinois (Mazonia) recently and hope to do more. I follow a fossil collector on Twitter. He recently did a week on Mazon fossils. I've lived an hour from there most of my life, but had no idea it existed. I've since been twice, once with my 10yo grandson, and once with my 5yo granddaughter who has already declared her intent to be a geologist. Since I've visited here several times looking for information it made sense to register
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Chordata Class: Chondrichthyes Order: Petalodontiformes Family: Pristodontidae Genus: Peripristis sp.-
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Trilobita Order: Proetida Family: Proetidae Genus: Ameura-
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Brachiopoda-Articulata Class: Rhynchonellata Order: Athyridida Family: Athyrididae Genus: Composita- 2 comments
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Chordata Class: Chondrichthyes Order: Petalodontiformes Family: Petalodontidae Genus: Petalodus-
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