Search the Community

I found this rock about 20 years ago while hiking a piece of property I was considering buying, which was perched on a high bluff over looking the Illinois River. I picked it up because of the beautiful druzy crystals on it. I have been cleaning quartz crystals this week, which I found a few weeks ago near Hot Springs, AR. I was using Iron out to remove the iron stains. Anyway, I have kept this rock in my kitchen window so it could catch the sunlight and sparkle for me all these years. It is not the finest home decor, but definitely my style. I picked it up today to see if it had any iron stains on it that might need to be removed. As I was looking at it something in the chert caught my eye! I’ve had this rock all these years, but never realized, to my great delight (squeal!!!), there were fossils in it until today. That just makes it all the more special and cool. The formation there is Keokuk and Reed, which is Mississippian. I think these may be Bryozoa, but I’m not certain. I’m not sure I’ve ever hunted a Mississippian formation and found much besides crinoid pieces. Note the little rice grain size/shape dark spots on the top right side. I saw them and began to wonder if they were fossils. I turned the rock around to look at all sides and saw these rice grain size and shapes that were clustered together. See top center just below the crystal. These look flat, but in the next pic they have more dimension. Rice grain size and shape center of pic. The bottom of the rock. Note bottom center it almost looks like a plant leaf of sorts, but I assume Bryozoa. I have not found many fossils in the area. I found a couple crinoid fragments on the nearby land that I ended up buying instead. So, I’m pretty sure these are marine fossils. A few miles away to the east in Arkansas, in the Boone Formation, I found 3 Spirifers and abundant crinoid stalk fragments. Can anyone confirm that these are Bryozoa and if so what type they may be? Thank you in advance for your comments and input. Kim