Search the Community

I found this on a gravel bar in se Kansas the surface rocks are Pennsylvanian age. it looks to me like fossilized mud cracks, first I would like to know if you guys agree. second I'm trying to figure out how this was formed, the cracks curve around the edge of the rock and show up on the bottom edge. my guess is that it was pressed up on the one side exposing it to the air, maybe from something stepping in the mud? anybody have a better explanation?

Today I decided to drive about 150 miles round trip to go to an auction that sometimes has fossils. This time there was only a Riker mount of composite Spinosaurus teeth and a huge ammonite that hardly fit into a banana box. I believe that the ammonite might have come from Texas and it looked like it weighed +120 lbs. Neither of these items sparked my interest, and since it was a sunny, 55 degree day, I decided to stop at a couple road cuts that I had visited earlier in the year. The first road cut (Site 1) is near Oglesby, Illinois and is located right next to the former Lonestar Quarry, that contains limestone from the Pennsylvanian Bond and Mattoon formations. The second (site 2) is about 5 minutes away and appears to contain the same type of fossils, just in better shape, since I have yet to find any loose fossils here. On my way back home I drove by Site 1 again and met Fossil Forum member @Siwash and his family collecting. Composita argentia Brachiopod Juresania nebrascensis Brachiopod Punctospirifer kentuckyensis Brachiopod (?)

As I am going through my boxes of findings from the Llewellyn formation at St. Clair, PA, I came across some more interesting plates. Normally I would call this short, rounded foliage "Sphenopteris" but some research with the PA Geological Survey's book "Fossil Plants from the Anthracite Coal Fields of Eastern Pennsylvania", General Geology Report 72, 1982, John Oleksyshyn, I'm thinking these might be more accurately called Mariopteris cf. lobata. Here is Figure 14 from the book that illustrates (plates A,B) what I think is a close match to what I have. The book also states that the specimens that are used for the plates come from St. Clair so it is known to occur there. Thoughts?

I was bored this morning so I decided to take a quick 70 mile drive to an area close to the Illinois State Park- Starved Rock. The road cuts are not to far from the former Lonestar Quarry in Oglesby that contains limestone from the Pennsylvanian Bond and Mattoon formations. When this quarry was accessible, brachiopods, nautiloids, ammonoids, crinoid (stems / cups), bryozoans, horn coral, trilobite pieces and shark teeth. At the road cuts, I was hoping for some of the same. (If you see that I identified something incorrectly, please advise). My first stop was along Route 71. I was able to collect on both sides of the road. The most abundant fossil that I found was the brachiopod "Composita argentia". If I was in the quarry, I could literally pick of hundreds of these in no time at all, but at this road cut I found about 20. I also found a couple of what I believe to be the brachiopod "Juresania nebrascensis". 1 piece of horn coral "Lophophillidum proliferum". 1 brachiopod which I believe to be "Punctospirifer kentuckyensis". A couple small crinoid stems and 1 small crinoid hash plate, which was not worth the taking, but I did. The second road cut was about 5 minutes down the road on Route 62. Unlike the first site, this area is very unstable and caution needs to be the first thing that you practice here; I would not suggest this are for smaller kids and people who are not sure-footed as the approach is steep, littered with loose rocks and the head wall is not secure. The matrix at this location appeared to be different and I did not find 1 of the common "Composita argentia". The most common at this site was the brachiopod that I believe to be "Juresania nebrascensis". A couple brachiopods that I believe are "Linoproductus cora". A few Spirifer brachiopods. And laslty- a couple crinoid stems. It was not a great haul and I do not think that I will be visiting either site again, but is was a great weather and what else is better than fossil collecting. Hope you enjoyed this report and again, please correct any mistakes that I most likely made.

Some more items from the Llwellyn formation at St. Clair that I'm trying to pin the ID down on. I have found oodles of these in some layers at St. Clair and the rounded shape makes me think they are Cordaicarpus seeds. However, there is not enough detail for me to be sure. Someone also suggested then could be fish scales but they have no blue tint (which is from the phosphates found in bones and scales) nor ornamentation. Thoughts?

Here is another item that I am looking for an ID on- It is a Pennsylvanian seed from the Manning Canyon Shale, Utah. I am thinking "Trigonocarpus" or "Cordaicarpus"- any suggestions or ID?

I recently found this odd item and am trying to determine if it is a fossil, maybe a bivalve, or just geological. I found it at the Pennsylvanian site in Jacksboro, TX at Lost Creek Reservoir. The scale hash marks are 1mm. Thanks for any help.

Which of the Mazon creek Horseshoes would have been closer to fresh or brackish environment. Has anyone found a Euroopes at Fossil Rock??

My beautiful wife scheduled a three night stay at a cabin in a Thousand Trails campground near Lake Texoma. We were to arrive on Sunday and check out on Wednesday. So, I figured that, since I hadn't been fossil hunting in months, I would schedule a trip to central Texas to follow the Texoma trip. I set up a rendezvous point in Fairfield, Texas to meet my dad on that Wednesday, and head off toward Brownwood and Cisco, Texas. I figured that the fossil hunt would begin then. But that's not quite how things played out... My two oldest daughters and I met my wife and youngest daughter in Salado, Texas on Saturday, October 14th. They had left the previous morning to spend a day with my mother-in-law in Waco and Salado. We spent Saturday night in Salado and then parted ways with my mother-in-law on Sunday morning and headed toward Lake Texoma. As we drove through Waco, my wife asked if we wanted to take a detour. She had never been to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas, and she thought the girls would enjoy seeing the dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy River. I got really excited. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and at that time, the river was high and the tracks were not visible. So we adjusted our GPS to take us to Glen Rose. We pulled in and stopped off to get a map of the park. We then drove straight to the spot where Roland T. Bird made his first discovery. It was amazing. The water was low and gave us a clear view of the trackways in the river. Above you can see both the sauropod and theropod tracks, They are a little obscured by mud, but they are still very visible. We left the R.T. Bird site and went to another place called the Ballroom Track Site, where so many tracks go in so many directions, it was like the theropods were dancing. It was in slightly deeper water, but it was still beautiful! The rippling water was crystal clear and the girls couldn't help but get into the water, even as a cool front brought chilly winds down the river valley. My wife loved it. She told me that Dinosaur Valley State Park was our next camping destination. Before we left, we stopped off by the iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex and Apatosaurus models built for the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York. They were permanently installed at Dinosaur Valley in 1970 at the park's dedication. We left Dinosaur Valley and drove the rest of the way to our cabin at Lake Texoma, arriving just after dark. We settled in and tried to decide what we wanted to do the next day. It was Monday, and we figured there had to be something for the girls to do nearby. We quickly discovered that our options were limited. It had turned too cold for the pool at the campgrounds. The putt-putt at the campground was okay, but the girls quickly tired of it. And most of the other recreational equipment was not well kept, or available. So, we decided to leave the campground to find something for the girls to do. I had mentioned that I would like to check out the Permian site at Waurika, Oklahoma. It was only two hours away, and this was the closest I had ever been to the site. My wife was a bit miffed by the lack of things for the girls to do, so she said "Let's go." I jumped at the chance. I had done no research on the site, other than what I had read about it on TFF. I wish I had consulted the TFF experts before we left, because I had no idea of the best places to look. We focused mainly on the sandy floor and reddish rocks, and found nothing. When we returned to the cabin, I asked where we should have looked. Jesuslover340 informed me that the gray colored exposures were the places to find the best material. So, we came away empty handed, with only one major discovery. My wife wouldn't let me take it home, though... Continued in next post...

Think this is a tooth fragment. Found in the Rico Formation near Potash, UT which is just outside of Moab, UT. 1 1/4" x 1/2".

Found this slab today. Early Pennsylvanian. The brown blotches are lepidodendron leaves I believe. They've stained the surrounding stone. Edit: I should probably add that it's from southern Indiana.