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Showing results for tags 'mazon creek'.
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Esconichthys with potential soft tissue donated to field museum
TheRocksWillShoutHisGlory posted a topic in Partners in Paleontology - Member Contributions to Science
I donated the below specimen to the Field Museum of Natural History. It is identified as an Esconichthys apopyris. Work is being done on redefining/solidifying the categorization of this species, and a professional helped facilitate my donation to the museum. There are details on this specimen such as a yolk sac and I look forward to hearing if there are internal details such as vascular structures. I feel like I can see them but I am excited to open it up to professional analysis through donation to a research institution..thumb.jpg.8dc003a0ff06756e8f9e168ce661ff19.jpg)
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2022-09-17 ESCONI Field Trip to a Spoil Pile Near Danville, IL
stats posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
On September 17th, 2022, ESCONI held a field trip to a coal mine spoil pile near Danville, IL. It was a fairly hot day with temperatures in the upper 80's. However, it was a productive field trip. There had been quite a bit of work on the hill this summer and it was looking quite different from the spring. The road to the top went around from the left instead of the right. There weren't as many exposed fossils in "Red Dog" found this time, but concretions were readily available for collecting. There were a few Forum members present. @deutscheben @connorp I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, please announce yourself! Here are some photos of the trip. Some of the photos were taken with a drone. I need to take some more photos of fossils, so stay tuned... I'll post concretions if/when they open. There was a bunch of poison ivy all around outside of the hill. Mushrooms were plentiful. And, of course fossils!
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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!
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Today was the late Summer ESCONI Braceville Shaftmine collecting trip. Well it was the first day, tomorrow will be the second day of the outing. Today’s trip ran from 9 am - 3 pm. I arrived early and unpacked my car. I try to bring a number of fossils that are dumped out for the participants to go through around noon time. Today I brought a potpourri of fossils that included a bunch of opened Mazon Creek fossils, Pleistocene/Pliocene shells from Florida, Oligocene mammal fossils from South Dakota, Cretaceous Pierre Shale ammonite / bivalves from South Dakota, Mississippian fossils from Vienna, Illinois, Pennsylvanian brachiopods from Oglesby, Illinois, Ordovician fossils from Southern Indiana and Kentucky, Shark teeth and mammoth ivory pieces from Florida, petrified wood from Arizona, cephalopods from Graf, Iowa, Carboniferous fossils from Catlin, Illinois and other fossils. I believe that there were between 40-50 participants. I only stayed around until 10 am, due to prior commitments, but I wanted to bring fossils to dump. There were several Forum members present, including @stats , @deutscheben , @connorp and others, hopefully Rich can add them. Prior to the start collecting , row call and rules are gone over. After that is taken care of most participants walk the 1/4 mile to the Shaftmine spoil pile, while others hang around and learn about fossil collecting at the site and what to look for. There are also Jack’s @fiddlehead books available for purchase. Then it is off to the collecting site for the others. Here are various pictures of the collectors doing their thing. More pictures to follow-
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This evening I had a little bit of time to do some collecting. It was not my best day, but it was still enjoyable. Here is a large Annularia, I was tapping the “crust / outer shell” off of the concretion, and it split open. Also found a nice Lepidostrobophyllum majus. And I am thinking that this is Sigilaria. Here are some concretions as they were found. Sometimes you find concretions near other collectors footprints, as below. I have found concretions next to my footprints, not knowing I missed a piece unti I circled back. Time of day, lighting, etc. are the main causes. Here are my concretions for the day, about 45 of them. I love fossil trackways and found these possible future fossils. The sunset on the drive home.
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2022 I&M Canal Corridor Fossil Trip - August 27th and 28th, 2022
stats posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
The annual I&M Canal Corridor Fossil Trip was split between two weekends this year. Saturday, August 13th and Sunday August 14th, 2022 were family and beginner days, while more experienced collectors had their opportunities on Saturday, August 27th and Sunday, August 28th, 2022. From the look of what was found, the families barely made a dent in the supply of fossils. In case you are not familiar with the history of the site, the Kodat/Benson farm is designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1997. Statement of Significance (as of designation - September 25, 1997): The Mazon Creek Fossil Beds are important in the history of U.S. geology. When they were discovered in the mid-19th century, the beds provided the best and earliest representations of the oldest plants and animals known. Sites where fragile fossils are common and well preserved (here in distinctive ironstone nodules) are exceedingly rare. The Mazon Creek beds continue to be a prolific source of fossils. This trip is always well attended. The family and dinner event (August 28th) included an informative lecture by Andrew Young and Dave Dolak about the geology, history, and the fossils found at the site. There were quite a few opened concretions found on each day. The finds ranged from a shark tooth, to a huge lungfish scale, and many of the spectacular ferns common throughout the Mazon Creek fossil deposit. I saw many Fossil Forum people at the event. Please post photos to this thread. I gave most of my open pieces away, but will be adding any new fossils as my unopened concretions go through the freeze/thaw process. Please add yourself, if I have missed you. @deutscheben @connorp @bigred97 @Roby Here are a few photos over the 4 days.
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I just came across this piece that was found at Pit 11. I am leaning towards a weird preservation for a Octomedusa pieckorum, but it reminds me of something else that I cannot put my finger on, non Mazon Creek related. What do you think? @RCFossils @stats @Mark Kmiecik @connorp @deutscheben And any other Forum members.
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Looking for a little help on this piece- Flora, Fauna, nothing? I have not seen anything like this before, it was found at Pit 11.
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I decided to do a little collecting again this evening, not that I need any more concretions, but I hear them calling to me. Below is a picture of the concretions that I found this evening. I like big concretions, as most people do, but most do not contain anything, so I leave them alone, like I did to the one below. My favorite concretions to find are the smaller ones, like the ones below. The one pictured below is a nice shape, but not perfect. This larger, flat one is promising, but will most likely be a dud. This next piece was showing both ends, at first I thought that it was two different concretions, until I popped it out. Here are a couple pieces that were found opened. Here is one that I whacked open, I will have to look at it later to see what is included. I was not going to take it, because the shape was not the best. A nice view as I was getting on the highway.
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- 11
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This will be my shortest post ever. I had some time after work to drive the 45 minutes to a site to collect some Mazon Creek concretions. I did not spend much time collecting and only found about 30 concretions, many that I cracked open for a police officer who had asked me how the collecting was going. He was interested and will give the fossils to his kids. Here are a couple pics of open concretions that were in the ground and how they looked after I got them home. Neuropteris ovata- You can see the split open concretion in the ground. Here is an Alethopteris Macroneuropteris Cyperites- Bark-
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@connorp @fiddlehead @stats @deutscheben @Mark Kmiecik @RCFossils What do you think? I was thinking that it is possibly an example of Rhacophyllum spinosum, but only about a 51% chance.
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From the album: Mark's Mazon Creek Fossils
BOTH HALVES SIDERITE CONCRETION, SEPARATED BY FREEZE/THAW METHOD & LIGHT HAMMER BLOW. SPECIMEN 37mm X 30mm (1-7/16" x 1-3/16"). MILD SULFURIC ACID BATH APPLIED. -
From the album: Mark's Mazon Creek Fossils
BOTH HALVES SIDERITE CONCRETION, SEPARATED BY FREEZE/THAW METHOD & LIGHT HAMMER BLOW. SPECIMEN 70mm X 25mm (2-3/4" x 1"). FRAGMENT OF EACH HALF GLUED BACK INTO POSITION. -
From the album: Mark's Mazon Creek Fossils
CONVEX HALF SIDERITE CONCRETION, FOUND AS-IS. SPECIMEN 63mm X 21mm (2-7/16" x 13/16"). -
From the album: Mark's Mazon Creek Fossils
BOTH HALVES SIDERITE CONCRETION, SPLIT BY FREEZE/THAW METHOD & LIGHT HAMMER BLOW. SPECIMEN 80mm X 27mm (3-3/16" x 1-1/16"). BOTH HALVES GLUED. -
From the album: Mark's Mazon Creek Fossils
BOTH HALVES SIDERITE CONCRETION, SPLIT BY HAMMER BLOW. SPECIMEN 70mm X 30mm (2-3/4" x 1-3/16"). -
I did a little collecting today, found a lot of nice concretions, below are some “in-situ” pictures of concretions and a few pics of some of the open stuff that I found- all Flora. Most of the concretions and the fossils that will be included, will be posted in my “Sometimes you have to whack it“ post. Hopefully this contains a beautiful fern. m
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Here are a couple pieces that I want to post to see what others think @RCFossils @Mark Kmiecik @stats @deutscheben @connorp This first piece, I think might be a G. Greenei. This next piece may be a “blade”, Esconichthys apopyris. And lastly, 2 worms.
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Here are two new Mazon Creek finds I'm not positive on. This first one looks very familiar but I can't place it. The second is a nice 3D piece of wood. My best guess is a Psaronius stem (tree fern), but I haven't found anything like this before so I was hoping for a second opinion. @Nimravis @stats @Mark Kmiecik @deutscheben @RCFossils I appreciate any help.
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From the album: Mark's Mazon Creek Fossils
BOTH HALVES SIDERITE CONCRETION, SEPARATED BY FREEZE/THAW METHOD & LIGHT HAMMER BLOW. SPECIMEN 50mm X 18mm (2" x 11/16"). MILD SULFURIC ACID BATH APPLIED. -
J0015 ?Senftenbergia plumosa forma dentata
Mark Kmiecik posted a gallery image in Member Collections
From the album: Mark's Mazon Creek Fossils
BOTH HALVES SIDERITE CONCRETION, SEPARATED BY FREEZE/THAW METHOD & HAMMER BLOW. PART OF BOTH HALVES CRUMBLED. SPECIMEN 43mm X 28mm (1-11/16" x1-1/16"). NONE. MILD SULFURIC ACID BATH APPLIED. -
From the album: Mark's Mazon Creek Fossils
BOTH HALVES SIDERITE CONCRETION, SEPARATED BY FREEZE/THAW METHOD & LIGHT HAMMER BLOW. SPECIMEN 40mm X 27mm (1-9/16" x 1-1/16"). TWO FRAGMENTS OF RIM OF CONVEX HALF GLUED INTO POSITION. MILD SULFURIC ACID BATH APPLIED. -
From the album: Mark's Mazon Creek Fossils
CONCAVE HALF OF SIDERITE CONCRETION, FOUND AS-IS. SPECIMEN 24mm X 14mm (15/16" x 9/16"). -
From the album: Mark's Mazon Creek Fossils
FRAGMENT OF CONCAVE HALF OF SIDERITE CONCRETION, FOUND AS-IS. SPECIMEN 50mm X 21mm (2" x 13/16"). MILD SULFURIC ACID BATH APPLIED. -
I am thinking that this is an example of Palaeoxyris prendelli, if it is, I believe it is my first of this specific one. @RCFossils @stats
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