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Showing results for tags 'mecca quarry shale'.
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Yesterday I went on a combined field trip with ESCONI and LOESS to the Starved Rock Clay Products pit in Utica, Illinois. ( @connorp was there too!) This open pit exposes the Pennsylvanian Mecca Quarry black shale, Francis Creek shale, Colchester Coal, and an underclay below the coal- an assembly of strata that have produced world-renowned fossils elsewhere, including Mazon Creek fossils further east and complete sharks from the Mecca Quarry Shale in Indiana. At this location, unfortunately, the concretions are almost all blanks but the black shale does produce isolated fauna including bivalves, brachiopods, cephalopods, and shark teeth and scales. The underclay also contains petrified and pyritized wood and root traces. About 30 of us gathered at a nearby McDonalds before heading to the pit- dark clouds on the horizon brought intermittent hard rain that kindly let up by the time we reached the pit floor. My interest for this trip was in the black shale, with hopes of finding shark material in particular. With the recent rains everything was muddy, and the black shale could be found in chunks strewn along the slumping highwall. Some folks were splitting the shale, but I did not have any luck with that-all of my finds were already exposed. The mud really made it hard to see whether or not there were fossils in the exposed black shale, but I was happy to be able to find a few pieces worth taking home- as often seems to be the case for me when fossil hunting, I found my best stuff in the first hour and virtually nothing the rest of the time I was there.
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I had a great time hunting with ESCONI at the Starved Rock Clay Pit. It exposes the Pennsylvanian aged Francis Creek Shale and Mecca Quarry Shale. There were tons of concretions lying around, but we were told they are usually empty and rarely split well, so I didn't bother. I was really there for the black shale anyways. I found a bunch of bits which may prove to be more interesting after prep, but here are the more exposed finds of the day. I am not familiar with this fauna, so I was hoping to get help with IDs. #1) I found a few similar specimens. Best guess is coprolite. #2) Not sure if this is a fossil. Maybe coprolite or an arthropod carpace. Or just a mineral stain.
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