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Showing results for tags 'mazon creek'.
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Today I decided to take a Personal Day today and head down to the cooling lakes and do a little fossil collecting at Pit 11, I was only out for about 2 1/2 hours. The day was cool, 37 degrees and with a 13 mph wind, it made the “feels like” temp 30 degrees. Luckily, I was collecting in a bowl like depression at the top of a high ridge, so I did not feel the wind and I only needed a light hoodie to stay warm. Pit 11 is no way near what it use to be. Back then there was no vegetation and the concretions were easily found. After the reclaiming of the land and reseeding, it has made this collecting a real jungle. The area that I was collecting today is an area that I will not collect in the Summer. By that time the leaves will be on the Flora and the ticks and other insects will be out. It is not so much the ticks, but when all of the leaves are on, you can not see the ground and maneuvering around makes it extremely difficult. Here are some pictures of the area that I was collecting today. I parked my car on the road near the parking lot for Monster Lake. A pic of my car, taken on top of a hill. Collecting area- Yes, it is rough to collect at this spot, but that is why I like it. The harder the spot is to get too, the less likely people hit it.
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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.
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Today was a nice day, low 40’s F this morning and seeing that we are supposed to get 3-5 inches of snow, I decided to go with a friend of mine to collect at a site that I had not collected before. It was not a very productive site, but it was nice to get out collecting. I only found two concretions that were opened (Neuropteris and a Pecopteris) and they were both very weathered. Here are some of the concretions as I found them.
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When I got home from work today one of my neighbors called and asked me to come over to his house, when I arrived I saw that he had 3 large containers of fossils, rocks, etc. He reminded me that several years ago I gave 2 of his kids some fossils and that they recently went through them and kept what they wanted and asked me if I wanted the others back, of course I said yes. I cannot tell you what they kept, but I think there were a couple Oreodont upper skulls and probably a couple other cool pieces. Here is the stuff I brought back home. Most of the trilobites I believe are from Utah. I know the first large one is from Morocco and another is from Canada. If you know of any of the ID’s and you want to mention it, please feel free to do it. There were a lot of Mazon Creek fossils and a couple unopened concretions. Here are other pieces of Mazon Creek fossils. Here is a large Jurassic ripple mark plate from outside of Sundance, Wyoming. Here is a not very good example of Knightia fish from Wyoming. Mosasaur vertebrae- Dinosaur Bone- Belemites- Continued on next post.
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Siderite nodules coeval with those of Mazon Creek and containing comparable fauna and flora are also found in Great Britain and Poland, where this Euproops originated. Reference: Filipiak, P. & Krawczynski, W. (1996). Westphalian xiphosurans (Chelicerata) from the Upper Silesia Coal Basin of Sosnowiec, Poland. - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 41, 4, 413-425.
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A specimen from the 1970's or 1980's, but unfortunately date and specific locality are lost to the ravages of mind.... I would appreciate any help in un-Insertae sedising this one! The light blue grid is one inch.
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Hi guys. I'm looking for some more help identifying these Mazon Creek (Illinois) fossils. I think one is some sort of calamites? Thanks for your time.
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Current forecast is perfect – rain all weekend but sunny and clear on Monday. Fingers crossed it stays that way! Hope to see some of you out there.
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Location: Mazon Creek (Illinois) I think some or all of these may be jellyfish, but I'd like to defer to others. If they are not jellyfish, what are they? The last two photos are both sides of the same pieces. There appears to be something on both sides. Thank you for your time.
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Hello. I'm new to this forum and new to fossils in general. I live only minutes away from Mazon Creek in illinois. More specifically, I live minutes (less than 10) from Mazonia State Fish and Wildlife. I have been wanting to go fossil hunting for a long time. I plan on going soon when the "season" opens up. I've had a growing interest for a long time but I want to bring my 4 year old daughter as well, hoping she will find an interest. I'm mostly here to learn from the experienced and read as much useful information as possible. Hopefully, in the not-so-distant future I will be posting pictures of our finds. -Nick
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Hey everyone, I recently got a bunch of stuff from Mazon Creek, which I have zero experience with. I would really appreciate some help in identifying this stuff, so here's a few of the things. Everything is from Mazon Creek Pennsylvanian in siderite concretions, the scale bar is in mm. The picture labels are what came to mind looking at them. Thanks Everyone!
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Hello everyone As a quick Christmas present to myself (mainly driven by being unable to get out in the field) I bought a cheap job lot of mazon creek fossils. The lot was entitled fossil wood and was advertised as partials and repaired specimens which I was happy with at that price. However this wee oddity was included as well. It appears to be something soft bodied? I'd love some more info from any mazon creek knowledgeable folk out there if possible. Thanks in advance. Approximate size of feature is 35mm Hollie
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I Like Poop- Mazon Creek Coprolites- A Visual Post
Nimravis posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Today I was looking at fossils that I have paid any real attention too in quite a while. I figured that I would try and organize some of them and I started moving containers and pulling out concretions that contained coprolites. The pieces that I was working with were larger pieces, and that is what this post will show. I have found coprolites in the Essex (Marine) and Braidwood (Fresh) biotas. Many collectors in the past would skip over coprolites, just like they did with Essexella asherea Jellyfish, but that is not me, I would pick them all up. Mazon Creek coprolites have been known to contain plant material, bone, fish scales, etc. Again, the following pictures will show some of the pieces in my collection and will not include smaller pieces or concretions that contain fecal pellets that are found associated with the leech, Coprinoscolex. @GeschWhat Lori, you might like this post. Here is a Spiral Coprolite and it should be long to a shark.
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Greetings! I'm retired from a geospatial career, a geology major who did most of my collecting from the 1950s through the early 1990s. My collection is a disappointment to kids who want to see dinosaur fossils - it is 99% invertebrates and plants. For decades, I relied on paper notes, but am now cataloging using Trilobase. I am up to 1,800 specimens, but some catalog number represent dozens of individual species and some specimens (i.e. amber) have up to 67 catalog numbers for individual bugs, plant material, etc. I still have a lot to learn, thus my participating in Fossil Forum and other fossil sites. But I hope to be able to reciprocate by helping others whenever I am able.
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Collected at Mazon Creek, Essex #11 in Illinois in 1973, but it wasn't a typical ironstone concretion. Just a large piece of ironstone(?), with lots of tiny white segmented elongated ovals. The light blue grid is one inch. Magnified image is 40X.
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Over the Summer I conducted research in Illinois so naturally I spent as much time as I could collecting fossils. I had a particular interest in collecting Mazon Creek concretions. I had the fortune of making one trip to the area once over a decade ago but that was short and I didn't collect any Essex stuff. Because of that I focused in on Pit 11 this time. Summer may not be the best time for collecting there but my time in Illinois was limited and going in summer beats not going at all. Over the summer I persistently traveled to Pit 11 from Urbana 5 or 6 times. Most of the concretions are now open and I figured I'd share some of the better specimens I collected. First some worms, a nice Didontogaster cordylina and the better of two Dryptoscolex matthiesae.
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Hi all, I've been working on the pit 11 concretions I collected this summer and some difficult identifications have piled up. These might not be preserved enough to be identifiable but they seem preserved decently enough that some people might have a better idea for identification. Any help is appreciated. Measurements are the lengths of the fossil and not the concretion. The first fossil measures 30 mm across. This seems like it's probably just a weird shrimp molt? Fossil #2 measures 15 mm across. I don't hold out much hope for this one as it's rather broken up and lacks detail but it superficially resembles a Dithyrocaris sp. carapace. Fossil #3 is quite possibly not a fossil at all but the texture and color difference in the concretion is distinct enough to consider the possibility. It is 20 mm tall and 15 mm wide at widest point.
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Hi all, this is one of the polychaete worms from the batch of Pit 11 concretions I'm working on. From what I can see of the conical jaws it most closely resembles Didontogaster corydylina but the jaws blend a bit together and aren't as distinct as some other specimens I've found. The body profile seems a little off (no swollen front section for one) so I wanted to ask for second opinions. Am I getting too hung up on the profile of a body that could just be more outstretched? I appreciate everyone's thoughts.
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Identification Help from Mazon Creek, Pit 11 (Arthropod appendage?)
Thomas.Dodson posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hello all, I have been a long time lurker of the forum (simply reading has been helpful enough these years) but have finally decided to request identification help on some fossils. I spent the summer conducting research in Illinois and spent my spare time collecting fossils. I was fortunate enough to collect Mazon Creek fossils about 14 years ago on a trip so I was thrilled to finally return to the area and collect at the Mazonia Braidwood Fish and Wildlife Unit. I have Key to Identify Pennsylvanian Fossil Animals of The Mazon Creek Area as well as Jack Wittry's The Mazon Creek Fossil Flora and these have been very helpful in identifying specimens but this one has thrown me a bit. As for the fossil, it resembles an arthropod appendage (like a Eurypterid walking leg) but I might be blinded by my wishing it to be that. I appreciate any help and insight from people more experienced with Mazon Creek. I will likely post more unidentified material from Illinois and Missouri soon. Thanks for your time. -Tom
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So I live near the Mazon creek and have found many fossils in my yard but this one has be puzzled. Most if not all of the iron nodules I have found have been smooth and oval or rounded in shape, This one has bumps all over it similar to some species of tree branches. it is long and round and heavy for it's size and the typical color of most of the iron nodules I have found and opened. But I have never seen a long one like this. Hopefully I got the size right on the photos, and I do have much higher resolution photos. Found lots of grass and ferns and a large piece of coral as well in the past. Along with lots of coal. The area where is live was once a very large strip mine area so the spoils were piled all over and if you dig you will find something almost every time. Edit to add about 6" long and 2" in diameter.
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The spiny millipede which is part of the Braidwood Biota was found in an ironstone concretion.
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I decided to take the time and try to shoot pictures of slides that I received years ago from my Fossil Mentor Walter Lietz. They are slides that he would show and talk about at the various Fossil talks that he would give prior to us taking the participants out collecting. This post may take me a couple days to complete due to the number of slides that I have to take pictures of. I have tried to do this before, but the machine I was using made it difficult. This time I am using a lighted hand held slide viewer and shooting them with my I Phone. It is tedious, since I then have to e-mail them to myself in a reduced size format and then save each one. Some will show up real good and some may not. The slides contain pictures of many of the fossils that were in his collection, as well as some that were in his friends, Francis Tully, of who the Tully Monster was named after. There are also slides that we received from Northwestern University’s Mazon Creek Project and probably some from other collections. This post is more as “Eye Candy”, as I will not be naming the individual slides. There will be a lot of different flora and fauna species to look at, as well as pictures of the collecting areas. I am going to post about 50 pictures now and I will try to take more pictures later in the day. They are in no particular order, I am shooting them as I grab them and I believe you will enjoy these. If you see something in particular that you find interesting and want to know what it is, let me know and I will try to help out, or another member may be able too. I figured that I would start with a couple pictures of Walter that were taken about 40 years ago. The first picture is of him out in the field collecting and the second is him in his garage standing by some of his display cases, he had tons of them. He entrusted me with his slides, knowing that I would always take care of them. These are the first time that they have been shown in maybe 20 years. Most of the slides that you will see throughout this post were taken in the early 70’s and 80’s. I hope you enjoy these. On with the fossils-
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Mazonomya mazonensis is a saltwater bivalve found in the Mazon Creek fossil beds. This species is the most abundant and common bivalve included in the Essex Biota. This specimen is preserved in an ironstone concretion.
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Today I had the pleasure of attending I & M Canal Corridor Trip to collect on the "actual" Mazon Creek (River) in Morris, Illinois. I believe that this is the 11th year for this trip, which is held on Saturday and Sunday on a 400 acre farm that has access to the river. This is the first time that I have participated in this trip and thanks must go out to Rich @stats for letting me know about this trip last year. In January of this year Rich contacted me again to let me know that the sign-up for the trip was on line, so on 1-6-20 I sent my payment of $150.00 in and reserved my space. Some of you may question the $150.00 payment for this trip when you can collect out at the pits. First off, the money goes to support the I & M Canal and at the end of the day there are drinks, hors d'oeuvres and then dinner, which includes steak, chicken or pork chops, plus vegetables, corn on the cob and dessert. (Social Distancing was in place). We all met around 12:30 pm and the lecture started around 1:15 pm. The collecting started around 2:20 pm and we collected until 5 pm, which was plenty of time. When we arrived back we had dinner and sat around to talk until about 8 pm and then I headed out for the 1 hour drive home. Prior to the collecting portion, there is a nice informative talk given on the history of Mazon Creek fossils, what to look for and also some displays so the participants can visualize what they are looking for and what they might find. There were also a number of Fossil Forum members present and I will let Rich tag those members since I forgot their Forum names. I will start off with a few pictures of the pre-collecting time of trip. There were 3 dogs that were running around the property and I could not stop petting them. Some pics of us driving to the collecting site- The walkway to the river. Here are some pictures of the creek area. Continued on next post.
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I headed out to Mazon Creek IL a few days ago and came back with some fair nodules. I found a big nodule(6) and used the freeze thaw method to open it, I think it might be a jellyfish but I’m unsure, as I guess it could be nothing. 1 and 2 just have irregular shapes and I believe are made of pyrite. 3,4 and 5 are nodules that did not open from freeze thaw so I broke them with a hammer, and they have some white marks but I’m not sure if they are anything at all. Help with any of these finds would be awesome, and I had quite the adventure at Mazon as it rained and was quite filled with ticks!
