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Part 2 Fossil hunting trip in Utica, Illinois October/29/2022
Joseph Fossil posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
This is the second part of my post describing my recent fossil hunting trip with @Tales From the Shale in Utica, of which it was awesome!!! So after visiting the abandoned clay pit, we decided to go to another location in Utica one might not expect to be productive - the former peabody coal company Pit 15 (or at least its outskirts), located not to far away from Lake Shannon, Kankakee County, Illinois (I'm am not going to tell the specific route or address so the area doesn't end up being picked clean). We went there as I had heard a report that a while ago, someone found a sizable Cladodus (or cladodont labeled as Cladodus) tooth at Pit 15 itself. At the top of the outskirts of the Pit was truly Beautiful!!! I expected to find simply nodules in the area. What I found instead were a staggering amount of different rocks with a descent portion containing fossils, most of brachipods though. As the area was once a mine, I've somewhat come up with a theory as to why this is - when the mines were closed, the pit was filled not just with nodule containing rocks but by all the types of rocks available in the Utica area ranging from shale to clay to limestone, likely either Ordovician or Carboniferous in age. It's still a pretty productive site and I've recently analyzed many of the specimens with a microscope and dissecting scope and I hope to get some IDs from them! Here's a possible shark spine I found there!- 28 replies
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Fossil hunting trip in Utica, Illinois October/29/2022
Joseph Fossil posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
On Saturday, I went on a fossil hunting trip with @Tales From the Shale in the area of Utica, LaSalle County, Illinois. After some time driving and looking for roadcuts, we discovered an abandoned clay bed/outcrop not too far away from the town itself. There, we discovered an absolutely massive amount of shark spines and teeth! I would like to know if anyone could properly ID some of the specimens we found!! \ This is one of the best shark spines I found at the site!!! It does look somewhat like the spine of Listracanthus, but I'm not 100% sure!! Possible Crusher plate tooth or maybe the bottom part of a large cladodont? Likely fish teeth or denticles, but I'm don't yet know what species/genus this could belong to? I really don't know what this could be? Maybe some sort of mineral or a fish head? Truly beautiful chondricthyian tooth in a clay matrix!!! However, I still don't know what specific group it could belong to? Maybe it could be a large crusher plate?- 31 replies
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- brachipod
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On Saturday I went fossil hunting with @Tales From the Shale in Utica, LaSalle County, Illinois! We drove for some time looking for roadcuts when we discovered an abandoned clay pit not too far away from the town itself. I learned later its rocks date to the Pennsylvanian period of the Carboniferous era. There were also a bunch of nodules there too, but mostly it was stark shale and Excello shale. We opened the shale rocks up and we found a massive amount of small fossil imprints. But we also found some likely Chondrichthyan spines which I was wondering if anyone could ID the genera? This first specimen I found after breaking open a large piece of Stark Shale. I asked @Tales From the Shale for an ID and he said it very likely a Listracanthus spine. Here is the specimen under a dissecting scope!!! The striations typically seen on chondrichthyans like Listracanthus or Cladodus are more visible here, but I'm a bit unsure if these could be matched to either of these genera?
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- carboniferous
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Hi everyone, recently I took a trip out to upstate New York in search for eurypterid and trilobite fossils. The first spot I took a look at was in Herkimer, where lots of Eurypterids and Stromatolites can be found. Whilst there, I made my best fossil find to date. A partial Eurypterid! After this spectacular find, I made my way up to Utica to check out a spot that I had found multiple Triarthrus beckii heads and pieces, along with a ton of marcasite-diseased cephalopods. Unfortunately when I reached the spot it was completely flooded with water. Oh well... After this, I headed to another spot I Herkimer that a friend of mine recommended that I check out. One area near this spot is completely covered in posted signs, however I managed to find a spot that had no signs. Once there, I was finding T. beckii heads and bodies all over the place! The first T. beckii I found at this spot ^ 2 very nice T. beckii body segments Lots of graptolites at this spot! Another T. beckii head A huge multi plate of T. beckii heads and bodies A partial T. beckii body A possibly enrolled T. beckii? Not sure if it really is enrolled. This spot is insanely good, but unfortunately I didn't find any completes. After spending a couple hours in that area, I headed back to Herkimer to check out the eurypterid spot again. The best find I made from the second stop there was this plate with multiple attached segments, along with some stromatolites. 3 eurypterid segments Multiple stromatolites That concludes my post for this trip, hopefully I can head back out there soon!
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Found this near Utica, is it a trilobite head? The area has tons of triarthrus heads and nautiloids, but nothing as big as this. Unfortunately this is the best photo I can get at the moment as I stupidly misplaced the possible head. Also included is a fossilized sea shell, if anyone knows what species it belongs to that'd be great.
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Hi everyone, I recently took a trip down to New York for fossil and mineral hunting and I found this cephalopod(?) fossil on a Utica road cut. Any ideas on species or if it is a cephalopod? A friend said it could be pyritized, but I'm not sure.