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Showing results for tags 'Illinois'.
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I found these while splitting some black shale collected at a private club in Grundy County. The first 3 pics are of one specimen and the last 2 are of another specimen but not as well preserved. Thanks.
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- black shale
- grundy county
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Hello! I’m hoping you all can help me ID this scapula; it should be fairly easy for you all. I was creek hunting for native artifacts in northwestern Illinois, and I almost stepped on the end of this scapula, trying to stay on the edge of the bank. I found it buried deep inside the eroded hillside wall, so I know it wasn’t brought there via creek from another location. Only the “socket” was sticking out. It was 10-12 feet below the surface. I was hoping it was bison, but guessing it’s equine. The end could not be located. Once pulled from the bank and it dried out, it became extremely brittle and fragile. I’m thinking it might’ve been used as a hoe and the end broke off in use. Also, is there any way of dating such a thing—ie ideas on if or where I could go or whom I could talk to about it? Thanks so much for your information and insight!
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Last Saturday I had the pleasure of going on an ESCONI trip to a giant shale pile in Danville, IL in search of Pennsylvanian fossils. I was fortunate enough to find a beautiful Trigonocarpus seed. (I included it for comparison to specimen 3). Second specimen seems to be another seed I can’t quite identify. After some research, I’ve come up with basically nothing. It’s textured, and has the shape of a teardrop. (Below) As for number 3, I actually just noticed it today while going through some of my finds. I don’t know if it’s wishful thinking, but it looks kinda similar to my Trigonocarpus seed, but with more ribs. I was thinking possibly Holcospermum because of how ribbed it is? Unfortunately it’s a little hard to see as not much of it is exposed. Could just be nothing, but I thought it looked peculiar. (Below)
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- illinois
- pennsylvanian
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New details of Tully monster revealed 3D scanning of enigmatic fossil may have brought an end to debate about whether it is a vertebrate or invertebrate University of Tokyo, Nature, April 17, 2023 70-Year-Old Mystery Over Bizarre 'Tully Monster' May Finally Have Been Solved Science Alert, April 18, 2023 The paywalled paper is: Tomoyuki Mikami, Takafumi Ikeda, Yusuke Muramiya, Tatsuya Hirasawa, Wataru Iwasaki, Three-dimensional anatomy of the Tully monster casts doubt on its presumed vertebrate affinities, Palaeontology: April 17, 2023, doi:10.1111/pala.12646. Yours, Paul H.
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- illinois
- mazon creek
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Hello, I am new to the fossil finding hobby. I have been finding nodules with no discernible fossil but are different than others. If anyone could tell me what these are, that would be great. Thanks for your time. These 2 have grey circles in the center. Are these just mineral deposits? This one is similar but it also has crystals in the center, almost like a geode? Then I also find nodules like these that have this strange inner part.
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Hi all! I hope this is appropriate for me to ask, but I was just wondering if anyone knew of any roadcuts that are good to hunt at in the Rockford area. I'm planning on visiting the Burpee Musuem today, then hopefully fossil hunt around the area. I've heard talk of roadcuts that are quite rewarding there, but I can't find the exact location of them. If anyone is willing to share please let me know! If not that is ok too Thank you!
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I found this fossil about a year ago in Kane County, IL along the fox river. I’m not really sure of what it is, but if I had to guess possibly the internal mold of a Crinoid stem or an archimedes bryozoan?
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Some of my favorite neospirifer specimens I found yesterday in Oglesby, IL! They’re nothing too crazy but I think they’re pretty cool regardless. Just felt like sharing.
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- brachiopod
- carboniferous
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Found in Kane County, IL. Never seen anything like it before around here, found buried in dirt near the fox river with few other pieces that had broken off.
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2023- Des Plaines(Illinois) Valley Geological Society Show
Nimravis posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Today I made a quick stop at a local show that is put on by the Des Plaines Valley Geological Society. The show is runs for two days and ends tomorrow. It is held at the Des Plaines Park District Leisure Center, if you are in the area, stop by and check it out. There are several vendors, a silent auction, raffle, kids corner, displays and exhibits. This was my favorite, a cool rock store diorama, I would love to own it. Silent Auction- Some Raffle items- Being in Illinois, there a number of nice Geodes at cheap prices, I bought a couple for my grandson. A couple I bought. Some random pics-
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- des plaines
- illinois
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Hello, I recently posted about my second trip to Mazon Creek in the Trip Forum. I added some pictures of my fossils to ID but I believe that was the wrong forum to ask that in. I am now posting those pictures in this forum so I can get some more help. Below are some of the fragments I found. I apologize if this is excessive posting. Thank you in advance for your time to ID. The pictures below I believe are jellyfish 1) 2) Below are some I believe could be Tully fossils. 3) Looks like the fin? 4) Could be the body 5) Looks to me to be a beak, not sure if any other creatures found in this area would also have one? Very smooth to the touch. These are fossils that I have no clue what they could be. These were already fractures when I found them so some of the fossil could be lost. 6) 7) 8) Tried to clean this one best I could. Kind of resembles a leaf to me. 9) Strange grooves that go in a circular shape. Also a big divot that almost leads to a stem like opening?
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@RCFossils @stats @connorp @Mark Kmiecik I do not think that I have posted these unknowns that I have. If I have, I do not have an ID. What do you think about these 8 pieces?? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Hystriciola delicatula?? 7. 8.
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Hello, I'm considering purchasing some unopened Mazon creek nodules to open for fun, since I'm unable to hunt fossils myself. I'm inexperienced with the material so I wanted to ask if there is a rule of thumb for judging if a nodule is going to be good or potentially contain some rare stuff? Here is an example batch I'm considering. The nodules range from 4-8 inches. My gut tells me the very long thin ones are most likely the common plants like Pecopteris, and that I should try to get more of the round/oval ones?
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Hello. this one I found as part of fill on a dirt road in Illinois near the Mazon Creek area as I was looking for concretions. Part of the fossil was covered by a "hood" of limestone that I ground off with my dremel tool. I think this actually saved it from being really torn up on the road.
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Hey all was outside today at Pit 11. Came across this piece open. Possibly the back half of a tully monster? Will try cleaning more once home if it will help. Thanks in advance. @Nimravis@RCFossils@connorp @Mark Kmiecik
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Yesterday I had the pleasure of getting out for one of the nicest opening days of the fossil hunting season at Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area that I’ve experienced. The sun was shining, the ground was relatively dry and temps were in the 40s-50s. And I only encountered 1 tick! I ran into a few other collectors over the course of the day, including @connorp. The park was mostly quiet as usual, with the sounds of birds and passing cars nearby, as well as the distant rumble of trains and planes. My hunting area for this trip was south of Monster Lake- after getting nearly skunked when it came to interesting fossils the last two years I wanted to go back to a site that had given me more success in the past. It’s about a one mile hike to get down to the collecting area, although I was able to pick up a few concretions on the way there. I’ve been using an 8 inch wide plastic rake the last few trips to clear leaves and litter from the ground and I have found it really effective. It’s a full length rake like this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ames-60-in-handle-Collector-8-in-Poly-Shrub-Rake-2915900/204476248 so maneuvering it in the underbrush can be annoying sometimes, but since I’m already trying to fit a 6’3” frame through there it doesn’t make it notably more difficult to get around. Here are a couple concretions in an area where I didn’t clear things up: I didn’t find too many already split concretions- a few dirty plants I’ll share once I’ve had a chance to clean them up and some mystery things that may or may not prove to be anything (and one exciting find I will detail below). As usual, there were also plenty of split Essexella blobs to be found, but I didn’t bring any of those home. Towards the end of the day, I found myself at the base of a small hill that was veritably covered in both split and unsplit concretions. At first I thought it might have been a dump pile from a collector back in the day, but the number of unopened smaller concretions made me question that, as well as the next find I made- a very partial Tullimonstrum gregarium! It’s a wee one, but only the second example of our state fossil that I’ve found. Here is a wider shot of the hill where I found it: By this time I was starting to get pretty sore, so I decided to head back. I ended up with around 2 gallons of concretions, a pretty average day at Pit 11 for me. Here is my bucket at the end of the day: I’ve got about 10 gallons of other concretions in the queue ahead of these, so it may be a while before I start freezing and thawing them, but I will work on getting them cleaned up and ready to go in the meantime. As @Mark Kmiecik famously said about hunting Pit 11, I left “bruised and abused and grinning from ear to ear”. It’s a tough experience, but you can count on me keeping at it as long as I can. Anybody else planning to make it out to the park this week?
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- carboniferous
- illinois
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i’ve been doing some research on places i could go fossil hunting around illinois and sugar run looks really interesting. But admittedly i don’t know a whole lot about it or really about fossil hunting in general, so any tips or advice y’all have, like any particular road cuts or other locations that i should go to, or what places i shouldn’t go to, would be cool. more importantly though, from what i’ve read, fossils from that formation generally aren’t eroded out of their matrix, which will be my first time dealing with this. Is there any way to know like which rocks to split, or where in a rock to split in order to best expose a fossil without damaging it? any help is very appreciated!
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One of the nice things about collecting Mazon Creek concretions is that most specimens don't require any prep - they open up and are good to go. This however was not one of those cases. This concretion exploded during freeze thaw last year into hundreds of pieces, and on most pieces the fossils were still covered by sections of shale. It took around 25 hours in total to reassemble the concretion and prep out what wasn't exposed. Big thanks to Kris @Ptychodus04 for helping to finish the prep work. This is a large frond of the rare fern Mariopteris nervosa. And if that wasn't enough, there was a second layer to this concretion, containing more plants and an opisthosoma of the horseshoe crab Euproops danae. A lot more work than is usually necessary, but well worth it in the end.
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- carboniferous
- illinois
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I am planning a visit to the Oglesby site over the next few weeks. This will be my first trip where fossils aren't already eroded out of their matrix. Does anyone have any advice for me? Should I spend time attempting to break rock on site, or try to observe fossils already exposed? Are there any concerns with bringing tools to sites like this? Hammering rocks doesn't quite feel like surface collecting, and I would very much like to avoid getting into any trouble with any authorities. Let me know your thoughts. Im excited to give this a shot and will post any of my finds!
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are there any good places to find trilobite fossils near chicago?
Rh_4m posted a topic in Questions & Answers
i’m pretty novice when it comes to my fossil hunting experience, i’ve done a few trips but nothing crazy. During most of those trips, i always had the goal in mind of finding a trilobite fossil, but, as of now, i haven’t had much success other than a partial pygidium. i think the main problem for me is that i don’t really know where to look. When i try to do research online i don’t really find much. the most pat payoff i’ve had is looking through old geology surveys. I know that finding a trilobite, let alone a complete one, is very rare, but are there any places in particular that I could go to that could yield them? anything that’s like 6 hours away from chicago would do, and also ideally it’s at a place where i don’t have to worry about the law getting on my back. and as long as i’m here, are there any good resources around for finding fossil hunting locations? like websites, PDFs or books? -
(Edit: properly formatted below.)
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This concretion opened up recently and I'm pretty stumped. My best guess is that this is a lateral view of some sort of pollen organ, but I haven't been able to find a match in literature. I was hoping someone here might have an idea? @paleoflor @RCFossils @fiddlehead
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- carboniferous
- illinois
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Questions about any large and currently unnamed Ctenacanthiformes sharks known
Joseph Fossil posted a topic in Questions & Answers
As I have been researching large ctenacanthiform sharks from North America, I've been wondering if there are any known globally that are currently unnamed. I definitely know of the large Ctenacanthiformes Saivodus stratus (found in both what is now North America and Great Britain), the large Ctenacanthiform from the Permian Kaibab formation in Arizona, and the 'Texas supershark' (a likely large species of Gilkmanius) from the Pennsylvanian Texas Graham formation (all three as larger or larger than an adult Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias)). But are there any large ctenacanthiformes (at least in size comparable to a modern day adult Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias)) currently unnamed that are also known? Ctenacanthiformes are known from North America, Greenland, Europe, Asia, and South America. https://www.mindat.org/taxon-P34476.html Even though study of Ctenacanthiformes as a whole is just starting to become more through within the past few decades, I'm wondering if anyone on the forum is aware of any currently unnamed Ctenacanthiform fossils from areas outside of North America of Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias)) size? -
Hello, I have two slabs that I would like ID help with, one is a hash plate with trilobite cephalons and pygidiums, the other has a crinoid calyx/crown. I'm told they were collected in Reynolds County of Illinois, USA. I did some googling and I don't think there is a Reynolds county in Illinois, but there is a Reynolds village in Rock Island/Mercer County Illinois which is what I'm guessing the seller meant. Anyways, assuming this info, the geological map of Illinois suggests that this locality consists of the Tradewater Formation which is Pennsylvanian in age: https://isgs.illinois.edu/content/bedrock-geology-map-illinois The crinoid calyx is small at just 1 cm across not including the very long primaxil spines. From what I've seen, primaxils produced as spines is a feature that seems uncommon in most geological periods but commonly seen in many Pennsylvanian crinoids. So I'm more convinced that the crinoid is Pennsylvanian. On the other hand, the trilobite cephalons (also measuring about 1 cm) look very much like calymene/flexicalymene which are Silurian/Ordovician genera, so I'm a little more doubtful here. Anyways, here are photos. First the crinoid plate: And the trilobite hash: Thank you.
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Hello. I found this piece during my first visit to Mazon last year and just got around to asking about it. I believe it may be tracks of some sort, as they look vaguely like other arthropod ichnofossils. I was wondering if anyone may be able to confirm my suspicions and possibly ID what kind of animal it could be. I understand this second part is difficult without anything else to go off of, and I apologize for lower camera quality than the other images I’ve seen here. Thank you!
