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  1. Anomotodon

    Mazon Creek trips

    Just got back today from my first trip to Mazonia-Braidwood (pit 11) this year! I unfortunately couldn't make it on the opening weekend, and was afraid we won’t find anything this late - but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. By this point I ran out of concretions to freeze-thaw from last year, so I’m very excited for the next few months We decided to go back to the Tipple hill area. Here is what it looks like now - open, barren fields of rocks 99.9999% of which are not what we are looking for. What I found especially challenging about this area, is that there are numerous concretions that have perfect shapes, but are not actually the right type of rock - yellow/light orange. I haven’t seen them at other places within Mazonia. I tried cracking a few last year, but they just have quartz (?) crystals on the inside. I guess they are not actually from Francis Creek shale? I forgot to take pictures, but would be curious to hear from people familiar with this. And of course, here are a few dinosaur eggs (the right type of rock) in situ Here is the total haul. Probably not a lot for this site, but this is definitely the most productive pit 11 trip I’ve had so far. Even better, unlike my previous visits, this time I found quite a few fossils in already open concretions. Here is a shrimp molt Both halves of a Calamites I think this is a Cyperites leaf These two halves of Annularia whorls cracked on the drive home And, of course, a neat anemone - Essexella ascherae. Surprisingly, this is the only one we found (so far). Will keep this thread updated with new fossils as I freeze-thaw the remaining concretions. I will also be back to Mazonia this weekend, but will probably go to a different site. I’m hoping this will become a mega-thread of all of my future Mazon creek trips. Out of all of the fossil sites I ever collected at, this is genuinely one of my favorites, if not the favorite - amazing fossils you can’t find anywhere else, plus instant gratification from finding concretions is always followed by delayed gratification over months of opening them. Here are my past trips to Mazonia and Braceville in 2023:
  2. Spent a couple days collecting at Mazonia/Braidwood last weekend. Found a couple areas with decent open concretions, excited to see what opens up in coming weeks. ID help very welcome on these open ones, thank you!
  3. We are slowing finding a few things in our freeze/thaws! Please help ID the six posted below. I am very much a novice on this so my guesses are likely not right, but I tried. 1 & 2: Annularia type? Second pic is how it is also visible from the other plane! It didn't split well, whatever was on top of it crumbled off in the freeze/thaw cycle instead of coming off as a smooth plane so I unfortunately don't have the other half. 3. Probably nothing? I think it's just an unusual fracture, kids are convinced it's more. 4. Coprolite? No clue. 5. Stepanospermum konopeonus? 6. Love this tiny fern! So hard to figure out what kind it is though. Help please! 7. Could this be a caulopteris? THANK YOU!
  4. Josher

    Mazon Creek Finds

    Kids and I went out to Mazonia Braidwood last spring. Been freezing/thawing nodules and found one that has us stumped. Would appreciate some expert input! My son asked me to also post the other one to see what you guys think. Thanks in advance!
  5. deutscheben

    My Mazon Creek Finds

    I will be using this thread to post what I have found fossil hunting in the Mazon Creek area, including the ESCONI Braceville pile, Mazonia/Braidwood, and any other sites I get a chance to explore. Although I had been to Mazonia a few times previously with virtually no luck, my first successful trip was with ESCONI last September at the private spoil pile they have access to. These first fossils are all from there. I have tried to give the best IDs I can- please jump in if you think I have anything wrong. I also forgot to put something in for scale on this first batch of photos, my apologies. First are three that I believe to be Essexella asherae, all very different looking though. The first is quite large, 7.5 cm across, and I love the red color. Next are two Achistrum sp., the first is my favorite fossil I have found from Mazon Creek thus far- curled up neatly in the nodule and nearly complete. The second is partially pyritized- I couldn't find any similar examples online, so it seems fairly unusual. Here are a few Mazonomya mazonensis, the top one is adorably petite- the shell is less than 1 cm across. This is small impression fossil of some bark- I'm still learning to ID the Pennsylanian flora, so I'm not sure exactly what this would be called. This appears to be a trace fossil, possibly a tunnel of some sort? I believe this is a coprolite. Finally, a few incomplete worms. The first I have identified at the tail end of Didontogaster, while the second nodule seems to have a few thin worm-like fossils preserved- perhaps Flabelligeridae sp.?
  6. Rockwood

    Fish bone ?

    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.
  7. Rockwood

    Sponge ?

    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 ?
  8. Rockwood

    Trace fossil ?

    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 ?
  9. Rockwood

    Sponge or coral ?

    Found on a spoil pile in the Mazonia wildlife management area in northern Illinois. I'm leaning toward it being a chaetetid sponge, but I would like other opinions.
  10. Rockwood

    Trace too

    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.
  11. CrustaceousBaki

    Mazon Creek millipede

    This just split this morning and I’m beyond happy. I’m really thinking it’s a millipede. Thoughts?
  12. econ23

    Mazon Creek - Fossil ID

    Hi all, I have been collecting at Mazon Creek for several years, but I have not run into anything like this. This particular example was collected in September of 2020, but I just recently got around to freeze-thawing. Any suggestions on what it could be, if anything at all? Thanks! Ethan
  13. blancostudio

    Fossil trip to Mazonia

    Hello, I am planning a fossil-hunting trip to Mazonia, this will be my first time going, I appreciate any suggestions and advice. Thanks!
  14. Rockwood

    Fern seed ?

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

    Mazon creek ID

    I’m sorry these photos are probably awful cause my phone quality is awful lol. But I had a few small concretions from mazon creek that opened today and these two im having trouble identifying. 1st reminds me of an egg case but I highly doubt it. It kinda looks like coprolite too. 2nd a bivalve of sorts?
  16. Sauropod19

    Mazon Creek finds

    Hello. I found three pieces in the Mazon Creek area that I’ve finally split open and am interested in. While there is a very good possibility that all three are just consequences of opening the concretion and not actually fossils, I figured I’d check. Image 1: I thought there was a slight possibility it was a leaf or a worm, but due to lack of detail, I imagine it is not. Image 2: Potentially the top of E. asherae or something similar. Image 3: I am actually just curious about what causes the small, light circles on the right side of the bottom piece and in the middle of the top piece. I’ve noticed these on many Mazon rocks and wonder if it is a mineral inclusion or something else. Thank you for taking a look!
  17. I've been to a least a few museums where they would have a part of an exhibit dedicated to the Carboniferous era (of which the Field Museum's section for that in the Evolving Planet is pretty good). But I do wonder what would it be like if a whole A grade small to medium sized museum opened dedicated solely to the fossils found in the Mazon Creek area, including the Essex Fauna. It could be located close to the Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife area and include life sized reconstructions of both the terrestrial and aquatic environments. It could also be a place where fossil hunters could donate there finds to have them displayed so scientists will have an opportunity to study any fossils found (where most of the fossils from the area now I fear end up in private hands). Any thoughts?
  18. Sauropod19

    Mazon Creek find

    Hello! I recently went to Mazon creek and was in the process of thawing my concretions when I saw this, and was wondering if y’all could help me ID it. I’m thinking maybe a shrimp, but am not very familiar with the fauna (or flora for that matter) of the area. Thank you!
  19. 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
  20. Hello everyone! Today I ventured out to the Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area for my first time, and it was… something. This post is going to serve as both a journal of my day, and as a request for assistance as I try to figure out what exactly a concretion looks like. Once I got my permit outside the office (which is just down Huston Rd a bit from the IL-53 and Huston Rd intersection; this is for people like myself who struggled to find an address or location of the office), I headed to Mazonia south unit, where I went to fossil hunting site 3. There were not really any exposed rocks here, so I went deeper into the brush. I spent two hours picking up random rocks that looked remotely orange and red, until I realized that I was probably looking for the wrong types of rock in general. I had seen a ton of pictures online of concretions from Mazon creek, but all of them were of the fossils people found on the inside, which left me befuddled about what the outside looked like. I walked around until I found a place with cell service and planted myself on rock so I could watch a couple YouTube videos of people who had visited the area before. I learned a little about what I should be looking for, but I was still very confused. I managed to find the rock below, which looks vaguely like a fossil and gave myself some false hope, but I believe it’s probably just the way minerals formed on the rock that are deceiving: As morale dwindled, I made my way back toward the parking area and decided to walk a bit down the road. I found a neat little skull in a ditch as I was walking: As I kept going, I started stopping at some small exposures within a few feet of the road, and that is actually where I saw what I now understand to be the nodules I should be looking for. It was one of the two below: It made me feel a bit better that I found an actual concretion, as I went much of the afternoon without seeing any rock exposures. I have come to believe that fossil hunting site 3 may have a dearth of concretions, though I may be incorrect. Anyway, after finding the first concretion, I found a few similar rocks. However, I’m not entirely sure if they are potentially fossil containing material or if they’re just rock: They all have the dark red sections that I associated with iron, so I took them with. That is about the extent of what I grabbed that I thought were concretions, though I realize now that not all of those are even concretions. As I was wrapping up a mostly forgettable day, in the last roadside stop before my car, I came across this: I asked elsewhere on the interwebs and was informed that it might be a trackway, which I would think would be from an insect. However, if it is something else, please do let me know. Regardless, I was thrilled with this. I didn’t know what it was, but I did know it wasn’t something I had ever collected. In fact, today was the first day I have ever collected fossils from organisms that lived on land. It more than made up for the cold, gloomy weather and the disappointment I had experienced earlier. Just make sure to know generally what you should be looking for before you get there, unlike me. Now to my big question. How do I differentiate concretions from any regular old weathered rock? Are they typically round to some extent, as I see on others’ posts, or do they sometimes occur as jagged shapes? Are spherical rocks more likely to be regular rocks, whereas concretions are generally flatter in a dimension? I understand their shapes and sizes are diverse, but are there any patterns that tend toward a concretion over any a generic rock? As I finish up this topic, I do have one question about the two oval concretions I showed in my hand. Are the theoretical fossils inside the “egg” shape that lies inside the shell, or would they be on the outside of the egg shape? In other words, once I remove the rest of the shell from each of them, do I do the freeze-thaw cycles on the rock inside the shells? Thank you for reading and helping, and I apologize for all the questions!
  21. Megalodoodle

    Weed Whacker- Mazonia?

    I’ve heard that Mazonia is pretty overgrown and the fossils are difficult to get at. Are weed whackers allowed there?
  22. Megalodoodle

    Recommended Gear for Mazonia?

    So I was wondering what gear you guys would recommend bringing to Mazonia. I know the brush is insanely thick, but I know very little beyond that. Oh, I also know digging isn’t allowed. Is it marshy in some areas? Do I need muck boots or waders (the kind fly fishermen use)? Is bug spray required? What is the best month to visit? Is the collecting better or worse after it rains? Should I bring sunscreen and bug spray? Any other tips for gear would be helpful in my never-ending quest for the elusive Tully Monster.
  23. First fossil? ever found from hitting rocks with hammer... I’m afraid to try to expose any more of it. Any ideas as to what it could be. First pics with ruler for scale and then without for better detail. I found it along Monster lake in an area where the sides had very recently eroded to expose lots of coal.
  24. Hello- I am hoping to get some help with id for this concretion recently found at braidwood, pit 11. It was found already opened, unfortunately we couldn’t locate the other 1/2 of the fossil. looking at my literature, I am wondering if this is a roach? Thanks for any help with the id of this fossil! -tom
  25. Who is going to be heading out to Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife area for the start of the Pit 11 fossil hunting season on Sunday? They are forecasting a high of 58 degrees right now, practically t-shirt weather! (but watch out for those ticks) I am planning to be there Sunday and Monday, my first time trying two consecutive days. I hope to run into some other fine forum members out there.
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