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Mazon Creek ID please? Jellyfish? Anything? Nothing?


aardie

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Hi guys!  Newbie here and finally joined so i could post this after our recent opening day trip to Mazon Creek, Mazonia-Braidwood and Pit 11.  My daughter and I found this one and I can't tell if its nothing or something.  Maybe an essexella asherae jellyfish?  or maybe i'm dreaming. 

 

It was already split, we haven't done our freeze/thaw yet on the whole nodules yet.  Seems we did manage to get at least two of the pieces that go together - could possibly have the last piece in the bucket still as we are still going through our haul, but after a preliminary look, I suspect this is all we have.  I tried to get a few pics the best i could, but they now don't look as good as i thought.  And I just read that using coins for scale is not a good idea - sorry.  Hoping my Mazon experts out there will be more familiar with US currency, anyway.

 

So - these are the same nodule from a few angles and one pic with the two pieces together.  Any ideas?  Or maybe it's nothing.    I know i have a small one with annularia.  This is one of the largest we found, so maybe it's just wishful thinking.  After hours of looking at these things, i think i could see fossils in anything now.

 

THANK YOU!

 

(ok, now it's not letting me add my pics - too big.)  I'll be back with the rest of them as soon as i figure out how to get the size down.  Sorry!)

 

  5e5d6a1ece0b1_mazon5.thumb.png.c5b5d6b3b418bc318c3d09cb9fe38828.png     

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Essexella jellyfish. 

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Finding my way through life; one fossil at a time.

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Essesella asherae most likely. Well weathered. Welcome to the forum.

 

You can post additional photos as replies to your original post after refreshing the page.

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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1 hour ago, aardie said:

I'll be back with the rest of them as soon as i figure out how to get the size down.  Sorry!

As mentioned above you can sometimes refresh the page in your browser to be able to post additional images in a single post. Alternatively, you can post follow-up replies to your initial post and load that with additional imagery. I don't own a smart phone but I've heard tell that you can email an image to yourself and it should give you the option of resizing the image down to a smaller number of megabytes when sending. Images shrunk this way are often easier to post to the forum here.

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Isn't the concept of a fossilized jellyfish just mind blowing? :blink:

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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Nice find.

Hello, and a very warm welcome to TFF from Morocco. :)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

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That is a solid jellyfish, it has some good definition. You can try cleaning the white stain off by soaking it in a mixture of vinegar and water for a few minutes then scrubbing it with a brush, then rinsing it thoroughly afterward.

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Thanks, guys!  SUPER helpful and welcoming!  And we are super excited to have confirmed our jellyfish!  My five-year-old decided she would have a PB& Essexella sandwich for dinner last night in it's honor.  She's fossil crazy now.  (That's her purple stuffed trilobite in my profile pic.)  I won't post the other pics because looking at them again now, I don't know if they would add any value, but thanks for the tips on the photos for my next post.  I will surely have others as we go through our bucket. 

 

Deutscheben - you suggested soaking the white residue off with vinegar/water.  I considered that too, but then thought I read on here that that can be harmful?  Or also saw that maybe it's ok for flora but more riskly for fauna?  I have a LOT of white in the others nodules - especially a potentially interesting one that I have both halves of, but there is so much white, I can barely see what's going on.  We've used vinegar solutions on some cheap bulk fossils I bought (ammonites, gastropods, etc) and it worked great on the ammonites, but it seemed to really eat away at the gastropods, so now i'm very cautious.  But, boy, I'd REALLY love to get this white stuff off some of these so I could see them better!  Maybe I'll just try a quick soak.....  

 

Digit Ken - And, YES, it is mindblowing - after you pointed out to me that it is!  Thanks!  I didn't really think about it, but it's not like dinosaur bones or an ammonite shell.  Jellyfish are all soft tissue!  Crazy to see this thing from 300M years ago!  

 

Thank you again!  You guys are awesome and you made our day!

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2 minutes ago, aardie said:

She's fossil crazy now.

:thumbsu:

 

2 minutes ago, aardie said:

And, YES, it is mindblowing - after you pointed out to me that it is!

That any trace of a creature that was 95% water being visible 308 million years later is really stunning if you think about it too long (best to do while sitting down). ;)

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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4 hours ago, aardie said:

But, boy, I'd REALLY love to get this white stuff off some of these so I could see them better!  Maybe I'll just try a quick soak.....  

You're better off carefully picking away at it with dental tools or a pin vise, both available online at affordable prices. Yes, acids like vinegar will react with and dissolve the matrix of MC concretions. The calcite actually helps define the shape of fossilized jellies. Without it the fossil is defined by only the bas-relief of the matrix, and the longer you soak it the less remains.

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Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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36 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

You're better off carefully picking away at it with dental tools or a pin vise, both available online at affordable prices. Yes, acids like vinegar will react with and dissolve the matrix of MC concretions. The calcite actually helps define the shape of fossilized jellies. Without it the fossil is defined by only the bas-relief of the matrix, and the longer you soak it the less remains.

Thanks for the advice!  I'll leave the jelly alone.  It was more THIS one I had in mind.  Feels like something there to me, but so much calcite, I can't see.  A bit easier to see when it's wet...

dry fossil.jpg

wet fossil.jpg

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I hope that you don't mind, but I lightened your photos to see if that helps in getting an ID.

5e5ec7612a31f_dryfossil.jpg.b36e11b415df6a6a1b566e9b755a449d.thumb.jpg.ef0d2ec081b389f7709cb6c3777e81a8.jpg

 

5e5ec784bc0e3_wetfossil.thumb.jpg.fe9428715ab2ace5bea783cae68e23c7.jpg.31827bf30716b09a0de24ba8ddc7f875.jpg

 
12-2023TFFsig.png.193bff42034b9285e960cff49786ba4e.png
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6 hours ago, aardie said:

Thanks, guys!  SUPER helpful and welcoming!  And we are super excited to have confirmed our jellyfish!  My five-year-old decided she would have a PB& Essexella sandwich for dinner last night in it's honor.  She's fossil crazy now.  (That's her purple stuffed trilobite in my profile pic.)  I won't post the other pics because looking at them again now, I don't know if they would add any value, but thanks for the tips on the photos for my next post.  I will surely have others as we go through our bucket. 

 

Deutscheben - you suggested soaking the white residue off with vinegar/water.  I considered that too, but then thought I read on here that that can be harmful?  Or also saw that maybe it's ok for flora but more riskly for fauna?  I have a LOT of white in the others nodules - especially a potentially interesting one that I have both halves of, but there is so much white, I can barely see what's going on.  We've used vinegar solutions on some cheap bulk fossils I bought (ammonites, gastropods, etc) and it worked great on the ammonites, but it seemed to really eat away at the gastropods, so now i'm very cautious.  But, boy, I'd REALLY love to get this white stuff off some of these so I could see them better!  Maybe I'll just try a quick soak.....  

 

Digit Ken - And, YES, it is mindblowing - after you pointed out to me that it is!  Thanks!  I didn't really think about it, but it's not like dinosaur bones or an ammonite shell.  Jellyfish are all soft tissue!  Crazy to see this thing from 300M years ago!  

 

Thank you again!  You guys are awesome and you made our day!

As you mentioned, there are some differing opinions on the use of vinegar and scrubbing for cleaning Mazon concretions- if used carefully on most fossils I believe it presents very little risk, especially in situations such as your jellyfish where there would only be the impression preserved anyway, however I would not advise it for delicate fossils or finely detailed ones. As long as you do not soak for too long and rinse well afterwards, it should be fine, and I know this method is used by a number of veteran Mazon Creek collectors here. This is a link to a very thorough post by another member from a few years back who used the method to clean a partial Tully Monster he found: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/63529-mazon-creek-tully-monster-find-2016/ 

 

I have personally used it to clean Mazon Fossils for 4 years and have had almost no issues, and certainly none when using it on a jellyfish. Again, I think it is fine to use on common fossils, and much much easier and less risky than trying to manually clean off the residue with dental tools, in my opinion. 

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18 hours ago, deutscheben said:

As you mentioned, there are some differing opinions on the use of vinegar and scrubbing for cleaning Mazon concretions- if used carefully on most fossils I believe it presents very little risk, especially in situations such as your jellyfish where there would only be the impression preserved anyway, however I would not advise it for delicate fossils or finely detailed ones. As long as you do not soak for too long and rinse well afterwards, it should be fine, and I know this method is used by a number of veteran Mazon Creek collectors here. This is a link to a very thorough post by another member from a few years back who used the method to clean a partial Tully Monster he found: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/63529-mazon-creek-tully-monster-find-2016/ 

 

I have personally used it to clean Mazon Fossils for 4 years and have had almost no issues, and certainly none when using it on a jellyfish. Again, I think it is fine to use on common fossils, and much much easier and less risky than trying to manually clean off the residue with dental tools, in my opinion. 

Thanks again!  I decided to go for it - carefully.  It's not like any of these are tullys.  Definitely gave me a better look at a few of them.  Maybe someone will help me identify a few more.  I think A is another jellyfish.  I suspect B is bark or a stem?  I think C is a fairly nice (for me anyway) annularia?  No idea what D is - shrimp maybe?  fish?  Feels like something there, but makes my eyes go funny trying to look at it.  Also think E could be something but seems soooooo tiny to be annularia.  Don't laugh at me, but can the white stuff just crystalize in that flowery pattern?  When I zoom in, looks like real fossil though.  Maybe F is a negative of a clam?    G+ and G- are the two halves of the one I posted above, now cleaned up a bit with the vinegar solution.  I still have ZERO idea what I am looking at here.  Almost looks like maybe it broke in the middle the wrong way - cross-section way?  Anyone with an idea?  Thanks guys!!!!

abc.jpg

DEF.jpg

G.jpg

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A. Essexella Jellyfish

B. Calamites or some other type of plant material

C. Annularia sphenophylloides

D. Coprolite

E. I believe this is mineralization (not a fossil)

F. Appears to be a fish scale

G. Un known

 

Please try and take a better picture of the scale to confirm

Nice finds!

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5 minutes ago, RCFossils said:

A. Essexella Jellyfish

B. Calamites or some other type of plant material

C. Annularia sphenophylloides

D. Coprolite

E. I believe this is mineralization (not a fossil)

F. Appears to be a fish scale

G. Un known

 

Please try and take a better picture of the scale to confirm

Nice finds!

Thanks!  I was actually looking through your albums earlier and saw your fish scales after I posted this and it made me wonder about F.  I will try to do better with the camera now that I have another idea on what to try to capture there.  E is sort of what I suspected but couldn't express it.  Re: D - the 5 year old will be SOOOOO excited to find out she has fossilized poop!  Thank you!!!  So curious about G.  I wonder if it, too, is a coprolite.  If we take it to the local ESCONI Gem/Fossil show later this month, I wonder if someone there could tell better by looking at it in person....  Thank you again!

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Here are the new pics.  Not quite the same fish scale detail that I have seen on others...  

A9F63E5F-2735-4FEC-8E71-D2941E14A846.jpeg

68F8415B-9558-412C-A5AC-BC89B2C10685.jpeg

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