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This is a half nodule with impressions of several leaves and what I believe is a stem connecting them, from Mazon Creek. Are they Cyclopteris?

This is getting to be a regular visit of mine, but this may be the last time for this garage sale that was being held by the daughter of two older ESCONI members who collected rocks and fossils all over the US and Canada. They had so much stuff, it could not be put out at one time, thus the weekly Saturday visits to see what was new. But before i put up the multiple picture heavy posts that will follow, I want to show a couple pictures of how some of the stuff was arranged. Today I was again got to meet the great Fossil Forum and ESCONI member Rich @stats, we spent time talking and revisiting items to make sure that we did not miss anything. Here are a picture of Rich searching for something good. Here are a couple pictures of the sale. Now before I post the items that I picked up today I want to show a couple pieces of Mazon Creek (MC) fossils that I picked up from the daughter after I went for an arrange showing of MC fossils on Tuesday. I wanted to see what they had since the were never put out before and I knew that others had set up similar visits in the past with her. I picked up the following pieces for $40.00 and though I do not generally buy MC fossils, I do love Annularia, and fertile ferns and I did get some. I also picked up Neuropteris, Alethopteris, Pecopteris and the Leech Coprinoscolex ellogimus. Now to my surprise, I picked you a couple pieces that struck my fancy and I sent a PM to Jack Witry @fiddlehead who gave me some surprising ID's to plants that I did not have in my collection. This piece I did not know the ID of this piece, but I did like the way it looked and I got it for $2.00. Jack stated that it "is a rare sterile example of Myriotheca scaberrima. He stated that an example of this species will be in his new Mazon Creek Flora book that will be coming out soon. This other piece I thought was a fertile Pecopteris and I just happened to send him a picture of it and my ID was wrong. Jack stated that it is an exceptional example of a fertile Diplazites unita. He stated that one of the interesting mysteries of the Mazon Creek flora is why 2 out of 3 examples of this taxon fertile. He further stated that no other fern except for some very rare taxa is anywhere near that ratio. Jack thanks again for your expertise and I can't wait to get your new book. Starting with the next post I will show some of the great stuff that I picked up today.

Hi all, I'm still going through 20 flats of mostly unmarked Mazon Creek fossils, purchased from the estate of a prolific collector here in Central Illinois. I have many questions about identification. The following are a few of my still unidentified specimens, of which I realize their may be a number of worms, as well as some possible fauna. I would like to throw these pictures out there and see if anyone can positively identify them just based on the photographs. I'll start with number 1, and post three pictures of each. Thanks so much!

I've purchased 'The Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna' by Jack Wittry, and have been fascinated, and nearly overwhelmed, by the wealth of information presented. With the great descriptions and photography, I've been able to identify quite a number of pieces in my collection, but it has been difficult for many of the specimens. I'm certain that this is the normal course of education that most of you have undergone over a period of years, and I'm sure that experience and familiarity will help. I'm requesting your help with identification on some of the more difficult pieces I've run into so far. The first one may simply be a seed pod or some other type of flora that wouldn't have been in the book, but on the chance it might be a coprolite, I'm asking for help: There are two 'pods' in the concretion. Each measures approximately 3/16" x 5/16". The photos are of the positive and negative of one of the pods. Second image in next post.

B, really has me stumped. It's a very 3D specimen, and I've seen similarities in pictures of flora as well as fauna. My totally wild guess is Amynilyspes wortheni, a pill millipede.

C. I'd like to think is a bristle worm.

I've viewed many of the members' photos of Mazon Creek fossils, but as still running into problems with identification. Many of the identified specimens have a doppelganger counterpart in another kingdom, or a similar-looking counterpart in the same kingdom. Sometimes, in my own collection of Mazon Creek fossils, I don't even realize what I'm looking at until I photograph it and look closely at the picture. And I realize that some specimens are simply inadequate in detail to make an identification. I would like to present some of my questionable pieces, and would welcome your commentsl Possibly Asterophyllites equisetiformis?

I've gone through the galleries (some of, anyway) of Mazon Creek flora, and have a question on two concretions in my possession. Specimen # 1 resembles]pictures of Lepidostrobus, but I am uncertain.I could not find a photo of anything exactly like specimen #2, but it resembles a Neuropteris leaf with a round object at one end. Is it just another small leaflet?