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Showing results for tags 'sparrow foot creek'.
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I ended up going out yesterday for a good portion of the day to my favorite creek. I've collected so many treasures here now that I don't mind sharing my favorite creek now, and figured I would show how a normal stream can have more than meets the eye. Of course these fossils are by no means easy pickings, as it requires splitting large slabs of chert. This is the more risky way to collect the fossils as they are delicate steinkerns that can easily break. The chert can also fracture in dangerous ways so I always wear glasses when I split chert, and would be a blind man if I didn't! Well heres a shot of favorite creek, pretty boring looking right? It's a real treat this time, because the water level has never been so low when I've come here. Usually the water is about 4-5 foot high when I walk through this stream, but currently there is only a few inches of water in certain spots of the creek. That means there is a lot of rock I can look at that I've never layed my eyes on. You can see on the bottom left of the photo where I started work on the first chunk of chert. Taking photos is not my forte! It's hard to see (I thought it was a better photo when I was out fossil hunting) but this chunk has a nice brachiopod in the dead center I worked out. While it was nice to see so much exposed rock this time, the timing wasn't. The leaves falling from the trees ended up making my job more difficult as the leaf litter covered many rocks. As I was splitting chunks off the large slab to get to my brachiopod, I was very delighted to see a small associated sliver that had some coral and brach pieces embedded. From much experience, I used my pocket knife to removed some of the terebratulid brach's delicate (paper thin) steinkern, revealing it's small loop support. I can't express how fragile these things are, they usually pop off or just break into countless pieces. I set that nice piece to the side, and continued to split away. Right before I got to my big brachiopod, this little spirifer popped out and landed in my lap, I kid you not. It was pretty dirty, but it did have a nice noticeable bit of it's spiralia intact. Should clean up nicely. Anyway, heres the nice bigger brachiopod I had my eyes set on, freed of the chert. I like this one very much, and considered prepping it off the chert. I ended up working the chert so it will set up by itself during display. I didn't see much wildlife while I was out this time. I did see this cute caterpillar though. I've always had a soft spot for bugs. I think this guy is a Yellow Bear Caterpillar, Spilosoma virginica. I was fortunate, and took a lot of goodies home this trip. Here is what I find worth sharing. Yet to ID this brachiopod. Terebratulid brachiopods with small support loop intact. Spirifer brachiopod with partial internal spiralia Platyceras gastropod (needs cleaning) Actinocrinitidae (I think) crinoid calyxs, I left one embedded inside the chert and again worked this chert so it sits upright during display. Blastoid calyx, removable from its chert home
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