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Showing results for tags 'illinois'.
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Hope you guys can help found in Illinois in a creek. Southern Illinois near st. Louis
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Found this while splitting some slabs I brought home from an outcrop of the Maquoketa Group (Upper Ordovician) in Illinois. Started a bit of prep work but figured I'd try to see what I'm dealing with before going any further. My completely uneducated guess would be a lichid pygidium or something of the sort?
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Bivalves always challenge me. If the ear (is that the right word?) on the left wasn't present, I would have called this Dunbarella sp. But the rounded ear doesn't match any species of Dunbarella I've seen. Maybe another genus, like Aviculopecten? Not sure. From Pennsylvanian black shale in Illinois. Thanks for any help.
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I feel like this is a smattering of disarticulated fish bones, but I'm not positive. The preservation is not amazing so even under magnification I'm not sure if these are bone or not. Found in Pennsylvanian black shale in Illinois. Any thoughts? @RCFossils Various levels of magnification
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Found this about three hundred feet underground in between coal and limestone
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Today I decided to revisit a stream exposure of the Upper Ordovician Maquoketa Group in northern IL. I believe these outcrops are all Brainard Shale, which is the second highest member of the Maquoketa in Northern Illinois. The olive-gray shales exposed at the base of the outcrops are packed with Tentaculites, and the few times I've been here I've always searched for those. Today I wanted to explore more of the creek and see what else I could find. The stream was running pretty fast but wasn't too high, despite all the recent rain. Shale and dolomite outcrop for quite a distance along the stream, although the water is usually too high to get to many of them. I probably won't come back until the water level drops quite a bit so I can wade through, the stream isn't super deep. The stream runs near shops and well-traveled footpaths, so to be respectful I don't hammer here. That makes it a little tough since most rock faces are highly weathered and covered with vegetation, but some nice things can still be found. Water-worn brachiopods are common sights, though rarely worth collecting.
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- brachiopod
- illinois
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Yes, I realize that mammalian fossils in Illinois are extremely rare, however, this appears to be a fossil, based on rock being present below the layer of red. This was found near the Illinois river in a dried area.
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For the last 4 years I have been collecting plant fossils from sites in East Central Illinois. These fossils were all brought to the surface by underground coal mining in the first half of the 20th century. Most of the spoil piles in the area have been graded or flattened out, but a few still remain, standing tall above the flatland. One particular pile is, I believe, the source of most or all of the fossils I find. The shale that makes up the spoil has been fired by the internal heat of the pile, resulting in the hard, reddish material known as "red dog". This shale is then crushed and used as paving material, on trails, parking lots, and construction sites in the area. It's at these secondary locations that I am able to search the material for the impressions of ancient plants and collect them. The shale is pretty smashed up, so complete or large fossils are rare, but the preservation of detail is generally quite good. Geologically, the fossils come from the Energy Shale Member of the late Pennsylvanian Carbondale Formation.
- 72 replies
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- 6
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- carboniferous
- ferns
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I found this right above the coal seam in black shale. It is approximately 4 1/2-5 inches, 1 inch at the base and a 1/4 inch at the point. It is a 1/4 in thick. I am completely lost on what it could be.
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Ordovician inverts are not my specialty, and thus I have a few that I would appreciate some help narrowing down the species on. The first three are from the Upper Ordovician Platteville Group (Mifflin Member I think). 1) A large cephalopod section. 2) What I think is a bivalve steinkern. Not sure if a species can be ascertained. 3) A tiny trilo pygidium. 4) This last one is from the Upper Ordovician Maquoketa Group. My guess is Eochonetes? Any thoughts @Tidgy's Dad? Thanks for any help.
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Hi, my kids and I are completely new to this, would love some help. Also if there is a paleontology version of "Let Me Google That For You", or Fossil ID for Dummies, etc., we'll gladly take those too! We found this one in Pit 11 of Mazon Creek a few weeks ago, on an eroded slope under heavy shrub cover. It was cast in a concretion/nodule that we exposed through freezing and thawing. The nodule was already broken, so we do not have the whole fossil. To my untrained eye it looks like a fish tail (my 8 year old is convinced it is the claw of a Tully monster, of course). Can anyone make it out?
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Hi, my kids and I are completely new to this, would love some help. Also if there is a paleontology version of "Let Me Google That For You", or Fossil ID for Dummies, etc., we'll gladly take those too! We found this one in Pit 11 of Mazon Creek a few weeks ago, on an eroded slope under heavy shrub cover. It was found as-is (exposed), this was not inside a nodule. The rock is harder than the sandstone of the nodules. To my untrained eye it looks like debris in pond muck: snail shells, and a twig. I found a very similar fossil last summer on a rocky beach of Lake Michigan, though much more worn down and polished.
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This came from a quarry in Kankakee county near Manteno, IL.
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Originally from Bigsville Quarry, Bigsville, IL. Small bone chunks also present.
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This is a very odd fossil that I collected from a Pennsylvanian aged black shale site in North Central Illinois. i have been collecting this site for many years and have never found anything like it. The specimen measures approximately 3”. The site primarily consists of a Thylacocephalan type arthropod along with a variety of fish and a few nautiloids. it is very similar to the Mecca Quarry Shale of Indiana. My best guess is that it is some type of nautiloid or possibly a spiral coprolite. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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- black shale
- illinois
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Found this small (presumably fish) bone fragment last weekend while at my usual Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) limestone roadcut in northern IL. Not really sure what to make of it. It's small, not even 1cm long. My only guesses were either a partial jaw of some sort, or maybe a small fragment of a spine. Any thoughts? @jdp @Fossildude19 @deutscheben
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Hi, everyone, it's been a minute -- I hope y'all are well and that you and your families are healthy and safe. I'm required to say "y'all" since we moved to New Orleans last summer. Fantastic city, great people, but I won't be peeking in the Chesapeake or anyplace else on the East Coast again any time soon. Then, *this* all happened. During this lockdown, it occurred to me that I could finally get around to trying to identify some of the material I've had sitting in boxes for years (and I'll post a few others). But what do I find when I log onto the FF after ages? A positive gaggle of Mazon ID posts. Love it! I collected this little fish in 2010 from the South Unit at Mazonia-Braidwood. He measures a whopping 13mm from nose to tail. I've been poking around on the web but I'm having a hard time with the ID. It looks like he has two spiky fins sticking up from just behind his head (they're clearest in the last photo). My brain itches with knowing that I've seen this guy someplace before, but I just can't find him again. Thoughts? Thanks...y'all.
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- bony fish
- carboniferous
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I wanted to join the squad of great Mazon ID threads we have had in the last week. These two were found split on my opening day trip to Mazonia-Braidwood/Pit 11. I only found half of the first one. It doesn't look like much, and it may be nothing, but its worth asking! The second one was split, but both halves were present. It is much more clearly something, but I'm not sure what, as there are not any clear features, although it is preserved with good definition and a nice contrasting color.
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- carboniferous
- francis creek shale
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Yesterday I decided to make a quick trip before the Illinois stay at home order took place. For the past 4 years I've been trying to find all 16 of the trilobite taxa in the Sugar Run formation. So far I've found 12. The lichids are eluding me, except for a partial Trochurus welleri found last year. Here is what I think is a lichid fragment (?) Dalmanities illinoisensis pygidium continued...
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A few nodules I need help ID with @Nimravis. Essex biota and found in Pit 11. Thanks! #1.) I think this is some type of worm? #2.) Thanks for the help! I may be adding some more in the next few days for ID
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Would this specimen be described as Cheirurus cf. niagarensis, or Ceraurus hydei, Weller? Sugar Run formation.
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On March first, I decided to rent a car and drive south. I'm finishing school in Chicago in May and am preparing to move west, so I really had no time to waste collecting Illinois. I hit three spots - one limestone road cut and one shale road cut in Oglesby, IL and the Mazon pits on the way back up to the city. I'm grateful to a few members for their posts and message replies regarding the road cuts, I couldn't have done this trip without them. I took off at 7 AM towards Oglesby. Here's the map, if you look at Oglesby on Google maps the location here should come together: Once you're there, it's basically a free for all. You are searching through the LaSalle Limestone Member of the Bond Formation which houses Pennsylvanian fossils. There are brachiopods everywhere you look which crumble down the hill and expose new matrix. Here are some of the Linoproductus I took home: I'll make another post for the second road cut
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- brachiopods
- central illinois
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This concretion from the Mazon Creek area Chowder Flats site split earlier this week but I just had a chance to examine it today. It preserves a narrow ~10 mm long veined object, unfortunately with a portion missing from the middle. The shape and venation makes me think of an insect wing, but it could certainly be a partial leaf of some sort instead. I would love to hear thoughts from anyone with more experience. I had to take the pictures through my loupe since it is so small- the first two are of the part and the third is the counterpart.
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Beginner newbies wanting to search for fossils in northern illinois
MaizyMae posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
My granddaughter and I are coming to Chicago from 3-29 to 4-4. We’ve looked for Petoskey stones along the shores of Lake Michigan in Michigan, and found a few small fossils, but we don’t know how to hunt for them or what to look for or what equipment we would need. Any info would be helpful. We are looking into Mazon Creek, but a lot of what I’m finding is that it’s all picked over. Any other sites that would be good for two beginners? Thanks! -
Hello. Today was the Des Plaines Valley Geological Society Show. There were many dealers selling gems, minerals, fossils, and jewelry. Here are some pictures.
