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  1. Ive decided to start a crab prep thread instead of doing a post for every single crab I prep. If it works, great. If not, then I will go back to seperate posts for each. I will start with this one that I just started today. This is Pulalius vulgaris from the state of Washington and Eocene in age. This was 'Whacked' open by my youngest son. Turned out to be a purty good whack. This first picture is with the top piece of rock tossed away and the 2 pieces you see on the side are pieces from the bottom of the rock. You can easily see how the crab is not situated correctly in the rock. Not usually a good thing? There is almost always a reason for this. These next two pics are gluing the pieces back onto the bottom of the concretion. This way the concretion will look complete. I ALWAYS save all the pieces just in case! Now I have a complete bottom half of this concretion. There was a small crack and I very softly and carefully pried it off exposing quite a bit more of the crab but it also took a part of the arm off the crab. Had to glue it back on. Not a big deal, just a tad bit more time. And now after a few hours of scribe prep, its easy to start to see all the problems. Very tuff to get an A-Grade crab!!! There seems to be no left claw to speak of. Also looks to be only a 4 legger. There might be another one in there somewhere but its not looking good. But really, so far, it may be a purty good one clawed 4 legger crab? The preservation is really nice!
  2. Yesterday was my first outing of 2024 to go south into some of Utah's beautiful deserts. There were two stops, one of collecting and the other for scouting the terrain on a canyon outcrop. Mounds Reef in a word is fossiliferous. it is roughly a 125 square mile area of Cretaceous period sedimentary layers of the Juana Lopez formation filled with fossils. And the Morrison formation of the late Jurassic period is right next door. Since the early morning was still frosty I did some scouting around on side roads that my Chevy would struggle with but my recently purchased Honda Element AWD, higher clearance vehicle got me where I was going easily traversing some eroded ditches and washed out portions of the dirt roads. Due to the weather I knew that the ground would be frozen and any collecting would be predominantly surface finds which was fine with me since the fossil bearing concretions which had weathered out of the cuestas were just sitting there...by the hundreds wherever one stops. These concretions were from lemon sized up to 2 meters in diameter. I was hunting the bowling ball sized which could be cracked open with a standard rock hammer or with one of two others in my kit...a 1.4kg and a 2.7kg. The drive to the destination involves a mountain range crossing and the summit is 7500 feet above sea level or 2286 meters. What it looks like and what it feels like. Yeah, that's kinda chilly for fossil hunting. But after the descent it warmed up to balmy 25F and by the time I headed home it was a toasty 48F. Looking southeast with the Book Cliffs in the background. The lichen covered rocks are always a pleasing find. These ones are easily hundreds to thousands of years old growing less than a mm per year. These are one of the three common type - crustose lichens. Moving along...here's the center of a weathered out and naturally split open concretion. Some have fossils and some fill with calcite veins around something miniscule. This one reminds me of a septarian nodule like I have on my hearth from a rock shop, all polished and nice. This would probably look nice displayed after a polish job. Here's one of the gargantuan concretions still embedded in the Ferron sandstone layer. You can see the natural split across the center. When it weathers out in a few hundred years it will roll down the hill, drop off the cliff and bust open to reveal its contents. I'm looking for the smaller low hanging fruit. My hammer and glasses are just barely hanging on to a crevice by the pick. A few miles down the well groomed BLM gravel road I stop at my destination. Again the Book Cliffs are in the background. By now it's close to noon and warming up nicely. I have on three layers of undergarments, fleece pants and a cashmere sweater with military camou pants and a down jacket and a beanie to top it off. Not long later I removed the fleece pants and jacket. High altitude desert climate with low humidity feels much warmer with the UV rays cooking everything. Plus the brisk hiking and hammering has warmed me up. If one looks closely the frontside of these formations are mostly devoid of concretions with the exception of a few large ones. Whereas on the back side the ground is covered with them. This large broken open concretion down in front has a stack of 3 ammonites in its center with the "knuckles" showing nicely on the top specimen. I gave an exploratory whack or two beside the fossils and realized quickly I would be admiring this only. A rock saw or jack hammer would excavate them but power tools are not allowed...only surface collecting and manuals tools like geology hammers, shovels and picks with any holes dug being refilled. Moving on the back side where the concretions are pretty much "pick how big you want to split" ...one or two whacks with the rock hammer, or get out the bigger hammer and swing hard. My experience from last year's trips tell me that the larger sized concretions have a greater potential for larger sized bivalves and ammonites. Anything larger than a basket ball is beyond splitting easily. So out of 25-50 on the surface there may be 10 prime concretions. I was being very picky on this trip. This one looked promising. And it was! First hit and I see something I immediately recognize. The unique flat keel and smooth sidewalls of a Placentaceras pseudoplacnenta ammonite; from late Cretaceous period. Wooh Hoooo! A bit more matrix removed confirmed my guess. A few more delicate taps revealed more. And then a second one appears! Whaaaaat ?!?!? I certainly wasn't expecting that. The second ammonite of the same species was hidden right under the stack of bivalves in the bottom right of the above image. Not even a clue that it was there. It was time to stop whacking and start packing it for the trip home to do the prepping. Part Two ... coming soon. Steve
  3. Cynthia Wren

    If no identity, please throw a bone

    The more I look, the more I see. I need guidance and education about these fossils. The rocks (3) were found in Fulton County, New York. The first specimen shows some accidental shovel strike marks.It is shown with parts together in the 3rd pic.3rd specimen has 4 images-the second being a close up of the first shown. Each of all is quite weighty. (“please throw a bone” means tell me thoughts and opinions as well) Thank you.
  4. As requested, here are some fossils found in concretions from the Pennsylvanian Muncie Creek Shale.... Two conularids and some chitin, possibly from a crustacean: Crustaceans are occasionally found: The phyllocarid shrimp Concavicaris is the most common. The two nodules on the left contain its spiky telson. At top and lower right, its carapace can be seen. The nodule in the middle with the fly-like form may be a shrimp tail. The nodule in the upper right appears to contain chitin. There appears to be a curled-up shrimp in there, but I'm not sure. Ammonoids are found too. The square-edged Proudenites seems to be the most common: A suture pattern is visible in the one at the bottom. Fish material is quite common: Most are bones and spines that are hard to id. Occasionally, one is recognizable. The mandible on the left, for instance. I call these 'chicken bones': This distinctive form has bilateral symmetry. I'm not sure where it would fit into a fish. A piece of another 'chicken bone', and a scale: And finally, the coprolites: Bones and scales pass straight through a fish. That big bone on the right must have been painful....
  5. Just like the title says, right now, as I type this, I'm out and about in southeast Utah under the rising moon and for real am hunting fossils. Gotta be so far out of the box that my sanity may be in question...again. Naahh...this is better than TV, which we turned off in '06 or '07. From April to October I'm out under the stars during the new Moon phase enjoying a little astrophotography and solitude in the desert. But the moon is huge and bright so no Astro tonight. I busted my rear all week at work and my wife hearing me whine offered some cheese to go with it. Actually, she said take Friday off and go have fun. You deserve it! You never take time off! Work will be there Monday! Do it! I checked with the department head today around noon to see if I could cut out early today and take off Friday . Being said Dept Head...I said to myself go boy you deserve it. I did. And I'm lichen it. Say... is that a fossil concretion on top of that boulder? You betcha! And there's more where that came from. Earlier today I drove past the road cut known for its " abundant gar fishes" fossils. I arrived around 4:30 and drove through the Mounds Reef for a dozen or so miles of groomed BLM gravel roads checking out some pinned spots along the way. A few were scenic cliffs with the concretions 60 feet below. Some of the concretions were over a meter in diameter. I kept driving to the next pin in Google maps to see where I wanted to stop and put boots on the ground. One promising spot already has boot prints on the ground ahead of me. Fresh, too. Sigh...another has prints and smashed concretions laying about. Okay, fair enough . This isn't some big secret honey hole. More like the wide open desert with plenty to go around. I found one not busted open and was rewarded with a small Ammonite. Yay! I found a couple more Ammos before sunset but was focusing on finding a productive concretion spot. On to the next and final spot. The exact same location as two weeks ago. I learned from a wise charter boat captain years ago...you don't leave fish to go look for fish. So here I am. Break is over moonlight is wasting. Crazy how bright the desert is right now. I hope I can sleep later. Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode...when Steve stays hydrated all day despite the fossil fever in full swing.
  6. Prepping a fossil in the GRF layered matrix is one thing. Carefully and slowly. Prepping a limestone embedded fossil...jack hammer...okay mini jack hammer = air scribe or engraver. Prepping a concretion...depends on the matrix and condition I guess. So I'm now facing a different approach to a concretion which could best be described using Mars Candy, Hershey's Chocolate or Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs wording. Hard on the outside coating with a munchy, crumbly inside, filled with surprises. What I did on site while collecting was to first discern what concretions were the "right " ones. Looking back, they ALL were. I just happened to have picked the type that falls into a thousand piece puzzle when you crack it open. Whereas later in the excursion I began to notice that the harder solid concretions also had fossils inside them, perhaps only a few of a single larger specimen like the English Coast nodules. " Whack, Crack...instantly prepped Ammonite!" The info I researched suggested to look for the rusty brown concretions. Kind of suggestive, IMO. One person's rusty brown isn't the same to another. So finding a chocolate brown concretion first and having every species of mollusk pour out of it suggested to me to find more chocolate. So the question: How do I prep these correctly? Several options obviously - Whack it. Gently tap it. Manually pry it apart. Air scribe usage. Or the freeze thaw method. The last one, F&T, seems like a quick way to completely disassemble the entire puzzle in one thaw cycle. None seem to be the best method in my opinion as each concretion is a bit different. However most have similar traits. Hard rind on the outside up to an inch in thickness. Or a slightly less hard rind with more obvious cracks. Did I mention cracks? More cracks than the San Andreas fault line. I'll be buying bulk cyanoacrylate before the weeks out. My first prep attempt last night did get CA'd wherever I found a crack. Parts on the backside would wiggle loose while scraping, picking, etc. on the front side. Anyone with experience prepping crumbly concretions, please advise. I'm going the cautious route but still think some nice ammonites will crumble. Some seem hardened with mineralization and others look like dark brown sugar crystals pressed into an ammonite mold. Crumbles like that, too. Are they then Steinkerns? This one from last night's prep work. And a new home on a book case shelf.
  7. The fossil hunter: Bill Neville’s spirited search for relics from the Champlain Sea By Andrew Duffy, Ottawa Citizen, July 6, 2023 Yours, Paul H.
  8. Hi all! I have a few questions from the massive amount of new info I’ve learned on here since I started collecting 3/124 at pit 11. I’d went just one time before w my dad back in probably 1982 or so, I have visions of just concretions everywhere, and hammering lots of random rocks, it’s always been a great memory in my mind. It’s been along time, and it’s juuuuust a bit harder to collect now, but I don’t mind the army crawl in the woods, and my 16 year old loves rocks and fossils, she’s having a blast with me. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel in the freeze/thaw method or anything but I see a few different methods mentioned on here and had a question. I’ve been soaking them in single file layers in several trays(for 2 full weeks before I start the freeze), then removing the tray and draining all the water and then it goes right into the freezer. A few hours later I remove from the freezer and the tray goes right back into the water to thaw, and I rotate a new set into the freezer. 5 trays in the freezer- A set in the water It’s a lot quicker this way and I can get several cycles a day. I can’t imagine the concretion loses any water in the brief time it takes for the outer shell to freeze - but I’d prefer to ask the question instead of assuming! So for you long time Mazon masters, is this ok? Also - ok let’s say your out collecting, you find an open concretion that is obviously something more rare, not an Essexella, but it’s covered in deposits. Or one pops in freeze thaw and it is also covered in deposits. Do you just do the 25% vinegar and gently brush with cotton or something soft? I’m pretty sure I’m being too rough on some of these and am removing the remaining fauna fossil material. I’ve searched and I can’t find much detailed description on prepping anything from Mazon Creek, just bone fossils, trilobites and shale fossils etc. Anyone here have a YouTube channel where they prep/clean Mazon concretions or a book to recommend? Lastly - I had an idea to ask “Take it or Leave It?” I’ve collected a lot of smaller concretions that have more of what looks like sediment layers, and are not the perfect looking concretions. The first freeze thaw has turned lots of these to mush/pieces. To the long time hunters - would you have left these? 1 2 3 - both sides 4 Thanks for taking the time to read all that! Patrick
  9. Patrick K.

    Mazon Creek ID help

    Hi All! I have a lot of concretions soaking for freeze thaw, but while I wait I have a few of the open ones I found that were pretty covered in mineral deposits, that are now cleaned. I know most are probably not ID-able, but I would love help with some identification if possible! This first one is my favorite - the might be a molt or badly preserved animal but there are some clear abnormalities that I hope can get me an ID or at least narrowed down to some guesses? Mainly the 4 antennae or possibly tails (like in a mayfly) - they are only visible from certain angles, and in some of the pics, so my kiddo added drawings along the tails/antennae in one image - they run clear out of the edge of the concretion. Also an area that looks like wings or legs. #1 2 3 4 - both sides 5 - I wish this was a fish - I doubt it is or can even be ID’d but my daughter can make any of my badly preserved fossils look like fish on her phone editor - it’s pretty amusing actually. The center has signs of a skeleton or maybe plated carapace, hard to capture in pictures. Here is the fossil and one w w her artistic additions 6 - the problematic H? 7 - bark? 8 - more bark? 9 10 11 - I lost the other half to this one - I forgot to zip up my backpack while army crawling in pit 11. And I think I messed up the vinegar soak and ruined some details. 12 - I can not get a good picture of this. The animal looks to have been smooshed like a T along a ridge right in the middle, it was covered in deposits. The really looks like what I saw in RCfossils gallery and Google images - Gilpichthys greenei - I can 100% see the shape, just no details. 13-Lastly this large concretion that looks so odd. The edges were broken off both sides so perfectly before it opened at some point it almost looks cut. This little chicken neck looking thing is all that is there. Thanks in advance! Patrick
  10. In a nod to Ralph’s entertaining post, I thought that I would start a thread that I can continue to add on to over the upcoming months. With the Pit Eleven collecting season coming to a close, I decided to venture out one more time before the season ends on September 30th. Pit Eleven is a difficult site to collect due to the heavy overgrowth (lots of thorny plants), uneven terrain and did I mention the bugs. Late Summer/early Fall is especially tricky because unlike the Spring, the vegetation is in full growth obscuring many of the areas that can produce early in the year. The one upside is that the lake water level is a bit lower so I decided to explore a few more out of the way areas that I do not search very often. It paid off in a big way. In just a few hours, I was able to collect 514 concretions! Many have nice shapes and I might even have a Tully or two. While it is likely that at least half of them will be “duds” I have a decent chance of having something rarer pop open. Since we will be heading into the Winter months soon, I thought it might be fun and informative to share the results of my freeze/thaw cycles with the forum. I will try to update this post with each cycle (probably around once a week) posting pictures of any interesting finds. I will also keep a record of all plants and animals found in the 514 concretions. In my experience, most of the better quality fossils will usually split open within the first 20 cycles. I am currently soaking the concretions for a few days and will buy them in my chest freezer early next week. I did find a few concretions that had already split open that I am not including in this count. Two were the common Essexella, one Aviculopecten, one coprolite and a few small plant fragments. I also found an interesting artifact. A section of rail line (approximately 30”) from the old mine carts. Here are a few pictures of the concretions. Enjoy!
  11. One of the questions I always had, and got asked, was how crabs and other fossils get into those round concretions without being scavenged on. After reading up on it and looking at a great paper by Yoshido et al [2018] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-24205-5, I thought I kinda understood it. Here are the steps I see in the process: 1. A turbidity current washing down the continental shelf, dragging aimal remains from the land (in the case of a tsunami) into deeper water. 2. The tons of sediment carried by the turbidity current buries a colony of crabs, no scavenging can occur on their remains as they are buried too deep. 3. The decomposition process (see video below) causes carbon to reacts with calcium from the sea water to create a calcium carbonate cement binding the mud / silt particles together into a concretion. 4. The concretions are roundish as the reaction occurs from the center of the crab (most meat) outwards until decomposition stops. 5. The concretions are harder than the surrounding siltstone and erode out of the cliff. The tips of the leg are often not part of the concretion as the are fully encased by the chitin / shell so don't create a good reaction. Most of the decomposition occurs around the middle of the crab. I've made a video showing the process: I would love to hear people's opinions on this!
  12. Oxytropidoceras

    Is Brooksella Even a Fossil?

    This Strange Ancient 'Fossil' May Not Have Been Left by Any Living Thing Carly Cassella, ScienceAlert, Nature, February 25, 2023 The open access paper is: Nolan, M.R., Walker, S.E., Selly, T., and Schiffbauer, J. 2023, Is the middle Cambrian Brooksella a hexactinellid sponge, trace fossil or pseudofossil? Peer J. Yours, Paul H.
  13. Yesterday I stopped by another good friend of mine (Marty) that I have known for about 30 years. He has been collecting Mazon Creek fossils a lot longer that I have and also use to collect with my mentor Walter. Every once in a while he contacts me and has me stop by to pick up Mazon Creek concretions that he does not want and I go through them and place them into 5 gallon buckets for the ESCONI Braceville trip. I then bring the buckets and dump fossils for the participants. Here is a picture of the bags that I picked up yesterday. Marty also pointed out a bag of concretions that he received from Walter, probably back in the early 1980s. In this bag there were two fossils mounted on cardboard, that were given to Walter from a fellow collector that lived in Marietta Ohio. These two fossils, one is a Cyclopteris, and the other I am not sure of, or collected from the Permian- Washington formation, that is found in southeast Ohio. Pictures are below. I also looked at one other piece that was in this bag, and it came from Pitt 11. It is really cool, since it has four different fossils in the concretion. Euproops danae, Pecopteris, Neuropteris? and maybe a lycopod leaf. I had to get acetone to get rid of the writing on the concretion. When I go through the other bags, I will include some future pictures.
  14. ChrisSarahRox

    What could this be?

    Found in Hidalgo County NM and the area is from the Maastrichtian epoch. I know what it looks like however I know it's probably just geologic. Also, this was found among other smaller pieces similar in texture and color in approximately 20 square meter area.
  15. ChrisSarahRox

    Geologic?

    Found in a field near a rest area outside of Lordsburg NM and the area is still Hidalgo County NM and is still an area that is from the Maastrichtian epoch. Very suggestive shape and was curious as to how something like this forms.
  16. ChrisSarahRox

    Unusual texture

    Was found in Grant County NM near a dry wash but this one was under around a foot of soil. Any help would be great.
  17. Lone Hunter

    A few odd Woodbine things

    All of these came from a cliff face on lake Grapevine, no.1 both of these stood out because of rounded shape, plucked from the face of uppermost part of cliff. no.2 there was a thin layer of limonite running length of ledge, all was unremarkable I saw except this piece, thinking impression of plant material? no.3 assuming it's a concretion, thought it was an ammonite when it was cloaked in dirt, found in crevice with some gravels at top of cliff, doesn't look like Woodbine material so stood out, not calcite. Pics are out of order, first one should be last.
  18. Here is my most fun video to date. This is part 1 of a 3 part crab prepping series. Its about prepping 3 Tumidocarcinus crab concretions from New Zealand at the same time and all the problems that come with prepping them. Part 3, (isn't out yet) will have 2 BIG surprises! The entire series is almost 1 hour long but I had to cram in over 100 hours into an hour. Enjoy https://youtu.be/HlXroj1_hW0
  19. Last Sunday I took the day to scout some former coal-mined land in western Indiana as well as revisit some sites I hadn’t been to in a few years. The mines at these sites were working the Springfield, Hymera, and Danville coals at various points in the mid-late 20th century. The land has been reclaimed to varying degrees, but I hoped that typical Mazon Creek-like fossil-bearing concretions could still be found, despite almost no information in the literature. Temperatures were a little chilly with the wind blowing as I arrived at the first site. There to greet me was a herd of cattle grazing on the property, including this friendly? individual. I looked at the ground as I walked along the road to the property and quickly saw some promising concretion-shaped rocks. In a very good sign, I also found a faint but distinctive fern that had already split. The finds weren’t frequent, but consistent enough to keep me searching. In addition to the cows, I was completely surprised to find my myself joined by a veritable army of black and yellow flat-backed millipedes that were marching along the ground everywhere I turned. I have never seen anything like it! Here are two of them making their way somewhere. Out in the pasture I came across this sizable cable, which I can only imagine is a remnant of the former mining activity. I ended up with about a gallon of concretions and I’m excited to see what they may hide within. I did find one additional already split fern as well. I then made a short drive to the second site I had in mind. This one also presented me with immediate encouragement, with this tiny Neuropteris pinnule showing up only a few feet from where I parked my car. Walking up and down a dirt/gravel road under construction, I found many potential concretions, including this faint Annularia and an interesting one with a productid brachiopod poking out. I collected a nice little pile of concretions from this site and made my way to the final location, where I had collected previously a few years back. Here I found at least a gallon of nice-shaped concretions, and also came across an already-split Macroneuropteris, my first mostly-complete one from here. It was a beautiful day to be outside and as a bonus I now have many concretions to start freeze-thawing- hopefully these promising shapes will pay off and I will have some new sites to start visiting regularly.
  20. Here’s more pics of my wierd awesome rocks and fossils
  21. I live in Chicago and for a while I’ve been wanting to try Fossil Hunting in Mazon Creek. My first trip three weekends ago I tried to have myself prepared but still wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into. I hiked to the tipple area, there I had a really hard time telling rocks from concretions because especially in that area most of the rocks are covered in an orange rust. I collected 5 gallons of what I later realized were almost exclusively rocks. The trip was still worth it though because there were lots of these fast little lizards running around on top of the exposed coal, and I had never seen wild lizards in Illinois before. Since then, I’ve done a lot more research and went on two more trips. I mostly collected along the northern ridge of the southern section of Monster Lake. I spend nearly the entire time crawling on my hands and knees through thick undergrowth up and down ridges. I’m sort of used to off trail hiking like that so I wasn’t very bothered by the vegetation. For a beginner I think I’ve had good success, but I still have some questions about identifying the right kinds of concretions. In an ESCONI youtube video on Mazon Creek they mention that siderite plates and diagonal concretions are no good and should be left behind. Does anyone have any tips on how to better differentiate these? For the plates, unless it’s obviously thin I can’t quite tell. I’ve included pictures of examples of what I couldn’t quite tell were plates or not. And for the diagonals I’m honestly not sure at all. Other than that I’ve so far really enjoyed fossil collecting, and I intend to continue through the summer until I am either consumed by the undergrowth, or my limited freezer space creates a massive backlog. I’m lucky in that I haven’t gotten a single tick yet (and I check thoroughly). I treat all of my hiking clothing and equipment with permethrin and I wear both the Picaridin lotion and Deet spray. The bugs run from me. Here are some concretions that I wasn't sure if they were siderite plates or not. Here are some I was more certain about
  22. This is a statement that I often make to myself throughout the Summer and the vast majority of the time I decide to stay home. This was not the case in decades past and it is not because I am older and slowing down, which is definitely not the case, the main culprit is vegetation. Today I had the idea of going to the Pit and taking pictures of the area so new collectors can see areas that they collect at and also see the conditions that they will face in the summertime. I usually go to the Pit at the beginning of the fossil collecting season (March 1st), this is your best chance to find concretions since there is no foliage. Now I also am not saying that there are no fossils to be found in the summertime, I found some today and I was not really looking, it is just that much more difficult and when you add the ticks and mosquito's into the mix, it makes for a real fun day.- NOT. So this morning I left at about 8:00 am for the 45 mile drive to Pit 11, I brought a small backpack and a hammer along with my mountain bike, I was really glad that I brought it. I road up and down hills, road through mud and water and across flat lands with 3+ foot vegetation- after 4 hours I decided to leave. This Post is PICTURE HEAVY and will take SEVERAL POSTS to complete, so bear with me- I will include screen shots of aerial views as well as a couple pictures from about 20 years ago to show how things have changed. This post should also help the new comer get acquainted with the area the so they gain hopefully have better success when collecting. If others have pictures or other things that they will like to add, please feel free to do that. The first area that I stopped is an place that we use to call "Inside the cooling lakes". Years ago before they made this all access entrance, we had to enter on the other side of the cooling lakes at a location called "Fossil Gate". This was an area that was only opened on Saturdays and Sundays and it was manned by a guard from the Nuclear Power Plant. Cars would line up and when the guard opened the gate, you had to show your collecting pass and he would double check it against cards that they had with our signature. Once everything was cleared, you were free to drive in and find your area to collect. There were times when only me and my son were out collecting and the guard would wait in the shack until 4 pm when we left, it was pretty sweet. Mazonia / Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area This is an aerial shot of where you turn in for the Mazonia area that allows access into the cooling lakes. The island that you see below is Turino Hill and it is about the only place that is still free of vegetation on the sides of the hill. I collected this area a few times with a friend that had a boat, there are fossils to be found there. The other shot shows the parking lot where you will leave your car. After you park and you are getting ready to go collect, if you are facing the lake, you want to go down the road to your right. I have never found anything on the road to the left, except fishermen. Here is an aerial shot that shows the other islands that you can collect on if you have a boat. Here are a pictures of Turino Hill- On top of the hill there is a flag. Here is a picture of Turino Hill and the Nuclear Reactors to the right. A close up- Here is the road to the right, you can go past the chain blocking the path, it is there so no vehicles drive down the road. Again, before they made this entrance we had access to that road, only from farther down it- it saved a lot of walking. You can check for concretions along the shore, but at this time of the year it gets really rough to get to the shore as you continue down the road, as shown below. I crossed the chain and continued down the road on my bike for about 15 minutes until I arrived at an area that I use to collect at in the Summertime- it has really changed. Below are some older pictures of how it use to look. As you can see from the pictures above, there were plenty of places to collect concretions that were weathering out of the sides of the spoil piles. Here is an aerial shot of where this collecting area is. I will show pictures of how this area looks now in the NEXT POST.
  23. Peat Burns

    Pennsylvanian fern concretion

    Hi, This is an historic specimen collected in the 1870s or 1880s. Unfortunately, it has no provenance. I suspect it might be from northern Illinois or Southern Indiana. Any help on ID would be much appreciated. I was thinking along the lines of Lobatopteris or Pecopteris strongii?
  24. Howdy all, Any Houston area members interested in trying your prep skills on Mississippian black shale concretions from Fayetteville, AR? I collected too many last year and I’d like to give them away rather than see them collect dust in my garage, or worse, rot outdoors. These concretions are mostly made up of siderite and contain pyritized marine fossils. I dug these out of the lower unit shale and they’ve had limited exposure to moisture and have been stored indoors for months. If interested I’ll mark the exact spot I collected them. This specific unit and location is known for its goniatites, actinoceroid, and pseudorthocerid Nautaloids. Unfortunately this matrix is beyond my equipment and skill level. I honestly have no clue what else could be in these and I lack the experience and equipment to properly prep and ID what’s there. I mainly focus on ammonoids and nautaloids. Here’s an example: While trimming that half, I found another pyritized ammonoid under it. If interested, shoot me a PM . I live in NW Houston.
  25. In November 2018 I found a site in the Middle Cenomanian Tarrant Formation. Parts of the site were in the Lewisville member of the Woodbine. In the Lewisville I only found a few common bivalves, but the Tarrant produced multiple large concretions packed with ammonites, plant material, fish bones, and some unknowns. Some of the largest concretions were about 2 meters by 2 meters by 2/3 meter thick. But of course sizes and shapes varied. The concretions were a bit crunchy on their weathered exteriors, but in their blue interior they were harder than concrete. Lots of weathered ammonites covering the concretions, but when broken open the concretions' blue showed how well the ammonites inside were preserved. Their shells had been replaced with (I think?) calcite, so they were nicely shiny. Most of the ammonites seemed to be Acanthoceras amphibolum and Tarrantoceras sp. On March 1, 2020 I got a trailer and bobcat to, with the landowner's permission, haul a few giant concretions home. I did, and they are sitting in my barn. It would take years of preparation for one person, but there are probably some cool things in them. I hauled off around 2 tonnes of concretions, at least. Here are some pictures, spanning November 2018 to March 1, 2020. November 2018. FIG. 1-2: Concretion size. FIG. 3: Fossil wood. FIG. 4-7: Fossil hash. FIG. 8: Dog for scale. May 2019. FIG. 9: More hash. FIG. 10: Too much to carry... May/June 2019: Close-ups at home. FIG. 11-13: Same rock with close-up on wood with boreholes. FIG. 14: Ammonites and fish-bits hash. FIG. 15-16: Two different rocks. FIG. 17: Plant material. March 1, 2020. FIG. 18: The haul home.
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