Search the Community

My great grandfather majorly shaped who I am today by getting me introduced to biology, paleontology, and earth sciences at a young age. He left me with many fossils that he had gone out and found himself, picking about in the Mazon Creek Formation of the Carboniferous. Among the ferns and leaves I had found this one, it looks a lot like a negative impression of an invert to me, although I could also see it being a leaf impression. I'm pretty immature so I'd appreciate any help, thank you

Hello everyone! I've been inspired by so many good Mazon Creek topics in this forum, I thought I would start my own. I'll post my own finds, which so far don't include anything as exotic as a Tully Monster, but maybe I'll get lucky on page 134 or so... I have to credit my kids with getting me interested in fossil collecting. I was always interested in rocks and fossils but when my 10 year old son had his dinosaur phase it really sparked my interest again. I wondered if an ordinary person like me could go out and find fossils? So I Googled fossil collecting and found out that not only could I search on my own, one of the world's best sites for amateurs was just 3 hours away! The date I discovered Mazon Creek existed was 9/10/2017. I know that date because earlier in the day was the last ESCONI trip to the Braceville spoil pile for the year - I just missed it! So in May 2018 I finally went on that trip and was hooked. Since then I've gone to Braceville several times, the I&M Canal trip once, and a handful of trips on my own into Pit 11. I want to thank too many people to list for helping me learn about this new hobby. Everyone I've met on the field trips has been so friendly and helpful. And if you have posted something about Mazon Creek on this forum, I've read it. Special thanks to Nimravis for his Sometimes You Have To Whack It thread, which he started the day after my first trip to Mazon Creek - it has taught me so much and I'm so impressed at what a genuinely nice person he is. And Andrew Bach's book from his American Fossil Hunt site is wonderful, so so helpful. With that, onto the fossils (and lots of questions from me). I thought to start I would show some of my jellyfish, all Essexella asherae, I believe. I find it interesting that they are all so different, although they tend to fall into various "types" - some have a distinct "head", others are just faint outlines, some are just cylindrical shapes. #1-3 below are all from Pit 11 - the first two have a distinct head and the other is more cylindrical. For anyone who hasn't heard of Mazon Creek, these fossils are found in siderite concretions from the mid-Pennsylvanian epoch of the Carboniferous period, from roughly 305-310 mya. Cheers! Chris

I'm happy to announce i possibly found the most complete Listracanthus to date. And we may finally get a proper ID for this strange creature. I thought this was regurgitation, but while prepping i believe i ran into cartilage. So i will stop prepping and give this to a professional, or at least let someone with more experience look at this. Unfortunately the rest is in a giant wall of black shale that i won't be able to get back to until next Spring/Summer. The denticles are up to 6mm thick and associated with smaller denticles. I will get more pictures under a scope when i get a chance. God willing i will recover the rest of this creature in 2019. Happy hunting! Possible cartilage

This was found on the spoil piles at the Mazonia Wildlife Management Area in northern Illinois. It looks like fish bone to me. Please excuse the poor photos. I found it just before rain set in and am impatient to get opinions on it.

This was found on the spoil piles at the Mazonia wildlife management area in northern Illinois. I forgot to include a scale, but the piece measures 6cm x 5cm x 4cm. Can I toss it as a chert nodule ? Or is there a chance it's a sponge ?

Found on a spoil pile in the Mazonia wildlife management area, northern Illinois. I've found a couple other cool trace fossils in the area. Is this one ?

I had a concretion open up. I am confused what it could be, I was thinking some kind of worm, and I thought it had a weird texture and I was wondering if anyone has any insight.

Here's another trace, pretty sure at least, found nearby. There were several other pieces with the meniscate shapes in them, but this one seemed to be most informative.

Hi, as the title said I’ll be headed to University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and I just wanted to ask if there’s any interesting places around there to look for fossils? I’ve done a little reading on some of the publications in ISGS, but haven’t found anything honestly at all, regarding fossils and that area. But I was wondering if maybe y’all knew a few places yourself? Thanks in advance :3

I'll update this thread with my Mazon Collection over the next few weeks. With some good weather out yesterday, I managed to get my first fossil hunt in for the season and will post a report in this topic. I will be moving this upcoming summer which will put me even further from Mazon Creek so I have purchased a few pieces to fill in the genus/species I haven't found yet and will mention if I purchased a fossil. I still hold out hope to find some of these pieces I purchased eventually but will realistically be difficult if I only can make 1 trip a year. Fauna Tullimonstrum gregarium A weathered eye-bar I found on my first trip several years back. There is an eye spot evident under the right light. Still the only piece I have found at this point. Euphoberia armigera (Purchased) Acanthodian indet. (Purchased) Note: Under magnification the scales are present. Cyclus americanus What's a Mazon Creek thread without some Essexella asherae? I still like finding these guys despite the vast amount I have found. Here are a few of my favorites: Note: My largest piece, this is about 6-7 inches in diameter. A couple shrimp pieces. I believe Belotelson magister (Traded for the first one) Here is a cool insect wing from the order Palaeodictyoptera. (Purchased) Now I believe this piece may be a Dasyleptus sp. and if it isn't one, I would love to be corrected! Europops danae (Purchased) Mazonomya mazonensis I'll add to this thread with additional fauna and flora later and will continue to add as I go through freeze-thaw cycles.

From the Mazonia wildlife management area in northern Illinois. Is this a fern seed ?

Can anyone help me identify these bones. They look old. Found in South Eastern Illinois Length is about 4-5" and both are about the same length.

Two teeth I need help identifying

Discovered in creek in southeastern illinois. VERY heavy. Any help with an id would be greatly appreciated!

good evening all I stopped at a couple road cuts between Carbondale Illinois and Anna Illinois on Rt51. Thing is mi no good at reading the geological map. Does Anyone know what formation that is along there> And secondly, the formation on the Rt146 from Ware to Jonesboro. I would appreciate any help i can get thank you scott

Hey all I was out collecting in Vienna, Illinois yesterday and amongst what I found was this which looks like vertebrae. The thing is it looks to me to be a fossil but I'm not sure. It's about 3/8 th inch diameter. The area is Mississippian in age. Please can someone help, is this a modern critter vertebrae or indeed fossil. It was laying with a bunch of crinoid stems

Hey y’all, I found these fossils in my garden, in northern Illinois. The last two photos are the same rock, but flipped over. I can see some feint outlines of something, but I’m not sure if it’s a fossil or not. Anyways, I was wondering what they are and how old they could be! Thank you so much

As many of you know I recently bought a Mazon Creek collection from my friend of mine that I have known and collected with for the past 30+ years. Along with the fossils was a lot of his paperwork on the fossils- not where they were found, etc., but pictures and times that he loaned specimens to museums. One specimen was a winged insect that he had loaned to a person from Harvard (Museum of Comparative Zoology- MCZ). Bob did not have a picture of the fossil and kind of thought it was a dragonfly. This person had visited the Mazon Creek Open House that was held on October 27th, 1984, at Northeastern Illinois University, which was the home of the Mazon Creek Project. Bob had brought the fossil to show other collectors and probably to get an id. The person asked if she could borrow it for study at Harvard and he agreed and “loaned” it to her and later received a receipt for the fossil and personal letter from her. That was the last time he had ever heard anything about the fossil. This has always been a sore subject with Bob and he would mention it all of the time, and that is why I have always been turned off to loaning any specimens. A couple months back I told Bob that I was going to reach out to Harvard and see if they could tell me anything about the fossil, since it was never returned. I sent a nice e-mail to them along with PDFs of the receipt and letter. About two weeks later, I received an email response from a Curatorial Associate at MCZ Harvard. She advised me that they looked at all of their Mazon creek fossils and could not find a particular fossil that I was describing with the information and # that I had for the specimen. Mind you, the receipt had a number assigned to it as well as what it was, as far as their identification (Spanidoera). She did send me an attachment, that contained all of their fossils from Mazon Creek. She further advised me, that after the person that borrowed it left Harvard, she went to another school to get her PhD and then advised me where she might be currently working. I thanked her for the information and that she advised me that they will continue to keep an eye out for the fossil. I then did some more searching, and I actually found the person that I had been looking for and an email address for her. I sent her an email and attached the same email that I sent to Harvard and I expounded by stating that I was Bob‘s friend and that he has talked about this for the past 25 years. She got back to me and stated that she was on vacation and when she arrives home, she would look through some of her old boxes from MCZ, but also stated that it could be in the MCZ Collection , but hard to locate. I thanked her and waited for a response. She got back to me on Wednesday and advised me that she was going to go through the boxes over the weekend. A couple of hours later I received a follow-up e-mail from her advising me that the had found the fossil and it matched up with the number that was assigned to it. I was so happy. I asked her to send me some pictures of it, which she did. She sent a very nice email, apologizing and say that she did not know why she did not return it after she left MCZ and thought maybe she was going to do a paper on it, or something else, but she did not remember. Either way, it was great that she went through her stuff and found this piece. She mailed the fossil out to me on Friday and I received it this evening. I have not let Bob know, as I want to drive to his house and show it to him and then let him know what it is. She also included a nice letter that I will present to him. I advised her that I will send her a picture of Bob holding the fossil. I know what many people are thinking, why did he not check on the fossil before? All I can say is that is how Bob is, he loaned it and just figured it was lost, although it always bothered him. In addition, he does not have a computer and since I had the receipt and letter, something that I did not know he had in the past, I decided to play detective. If I had known about the letter and receipt, I would have handled this decades ago. Now for pictures of the fossil. This piece was not freeze/thawed by Bob, as most of his fossils were. Looking at it, I can tell that he found it opened in the field. One side has great detail, if he had found it when it first opened, it would have been outstanding. Still this is a great looking piece, and in my opinion, large for an insect. If anyone has an ID, pass it on please. As stated above the woman who borrowed it listed it as “Spaniodera”. I am wondering if it is from the family Geraridae?

Any ideas on this micro tooth? Sand grain-sized. Holocene sediments ancestral Lake michigan.

Today was Day 2 of ESCONI’s Braceville Shaft Mine Trip. Rich @stats will add some pictures from yesterday’s visit. He advised me that there were several FF members in attendance, including, but not limited @connorp , @bigred97. I believe that there were 50 participants yesterday and I believe that there were that many today. The weather was great for collecting, with the temp hitting a high of 80 by the time I left at 12:30 pm. People arrived a little before 9 am for the welcome talk and information on the site and collecting details. As usual, I brought a lot of fossils to dump for the participants. I had Mazon Creek fossils, other Pennsylvanian plant material from Danville, Illinois, Pennsylvanian brachiopods from Olgesby, Illinois, Ordovician hash plates from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, Fossil shells from Florida as well as dugong ribs, Mississippian hash plates from Vienna, Illinois and I even dropped in a few echinoids from Morocco. It is a great way for me to get rid of excess stuff. @stats also brought a bucket to dump, in addition to stuff he brought yesterday. Here is a picture of FF member @CrustaceousBaki Caroline heading in to start collecting. Here she is getting her dig on. FF member @deutscheben was also out collecting today, here are a couple pics. Continued on next post.

Hello again. I got the time to scrub off my finds from Friday and found one of interest (and a second that I haphazardly split open that I think is a dud). The top one’s shape remained after several rounds of intense scrubbing, and feels slightly 3D in the middle. Other views of top one: Is there anything in the top one or is it just suggestive mineral staining? Additionally, since there is a crevice present around the entire perimeter, would you recommend I try and pry it open or leave the concretion as is? Lastly, just so I can document the correct number of concretions collected on my permit, which of these four examples (if any) would you consider to be a concretion or half concretion. “a” and “d” are extremely thin, both likely part of the outer “shell” of a concretion. “b” is just an odd shape, and “c” is thick but flat. As always, thank you!