True or false Mazon Creek trilobites

[Bobby Rico]

Hi all

 Just a quick question , I have been very interested in the material from Mazon Creek since I won a great auction lot from Ralph that included a few fine specimens . While looking today online I spotted a trilobite pygidium that was labelled Mazon Creek it looks like the right type of siderite  concretions but it could be from some where else . So what do we think? I don’t think they was native to Mazon creek but maybe transported there by floods ? 

Edited August 12, 2021 by Bobby Rico

[connorp]

Looks more like the 'pygidium' (I don't know if that's the correct term) of the horseshoe crab Euproops danae. There are no published descriptions of trilobites in the Mazon Creek fauna. There are rumors of specimens in private collections, but there are also rumors of Bigfoot so

Edited August 12, 2021 by connorp

[Bobby Rico]

6 minutes ago, connorp said:

rumors of Bigfoot

I never new Bigfoot been spotted in Mazon creek cool, So the Trilobite of Mazon Creek is a legend. Thank you 

[piranha]

Richardson 1956 reported on the old urban legend that J.M. Weller once saw one in a private collection.

And I have heard similar tall tales from a couple of the old-timers. Unfortunately....trilobites have never been found at Mazon Creek.

 

 

 

Richardson, E.S. 1956

Pennsylvanian Invertebrates of the Mazon Creek Area, Illinois: Marine Fauna.

Chicago Natural History Museum, Fieldiana: Geology 12(3):59-67  PDF LINK

[Bobby Rico]

4 minutes ago, piranha said:

Unfortunately....trilobites have never been found at Mazon Creek.

Very interesting thank you

[Bobby Rico]

I think if it’s an urban legend it is the only one I know about regarding fossils . 

[piranha]

58 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

I think if it’s an urban legend it is the only one I know about regarding fossils . 

 

 

How about some of the earliest fossil myths from Ancient Greece and the Middle Ages? Take a trip down memory lane for the incredible claims given back in the day to amber, belemnites, echinoids and other mysterious stones of power....aye, a little belemnite powder for whatever ails you....or your horse!  

Just imagine some of the tantalizing topics that would be posted on: 

 

Duffin, C.J. 2008

Fossils as Drugs: Pharmaceutical Palaeontology.
Ferrantia, 54:1-83  PDF LINK

[Bobby Rico]

33 minutes ago, piranha said:

How about some of the earliest fossil myths from Ancient Greece and the Middle Ages? Take a trip down memory lane for the incredible claims given back in the day to amber, belemnites, echinoids and other mysterious stones of power....aye, a little belemnite powder for whatever ails you....or your horse!  

Yes of curse and Saint Hilda's Spell In Whitby, the legend of snakestones or as we call them ammonites, Named in honour of St Hilda, Hildoceras 

Edited August 12, 2021 by Bobby Rico

[Top Trilo]

And an elephant skull was thought to be a cyclops skull in ancient Greece

[Mark Kmiecik]

I have never heard of nor seen one. Those mentioned by others are probably cases of mistaken identification, although there may be a very, very slim chance of a molt having drifted into the area from someplace far away. Not likely, yet not impossible.

[RCFossils]

As others have pointed out, there have been no trilobites found in the Mazon Creek deposit.

Like the Euproops opisthoma (abdomen)pictured above, any identification as a trilobite is simply a case of mistaken identity.

There are occasionally trilobites found (mainly calymene) in Silurian aged dolostone that can be collected in some of the same areas that concretions are found.

Some of the reports of “old timers” finding trilobites can also be attributed to a very rarely found arthropod group named Euthycarcinoids.

Before being formally described, they were referred to by both amateurs and professional researchers as trilobitomorphs.

There are a few described types known from the Essex (marine) portion of the Mazon Creek deposit.

This is a picture of the largest known example of Kottixerxes gloriosus.

You can see how someone might confuse one for an unusual trilobite.

[Bobby Rico]

So we can comfortably say Myth is Busted. Like with all myths regarding creatures,  the foundations are that of miss identification . Mazon is a incredible formation that seams to lend itself to the folklore. Even Illinois state fossils name has a sense of horror to it. Maybe the “Mazon Creek Trilobite “ is the only legend in the fossil record of real creatures been falsely associated to a fauna of a particular formation.  I hope the stories will be still told other campfires and fossil forums of the bug that was seen it in an old boy’s collection.

 

I have a very small collection myself of Mazon creek bits that I treasure and I understand that a lot of hard work is need to collect there with brambles and biting insects.
So thank you all very much for the interesting comments here, they are much appreciated . Making this silly thread quite interesting. 
 

@RCFossils thanks for adding the cool trilobite lookalike and info. 

 

Bobby 

Edited August 13, 2021 by Bobby Rico

[DPS Ammonite]

6 hours ago, RCFossils said:

This is a picture of the largest known example of Kottixerxes gloriosus.

Here is one from @Nimravis

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/67183-mazon-creek-fauna/

 

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by DPS Ammonite

[Bobby Rico]

7 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Here is one from

Wow beautiful specimen . Ralph has an amazing collection Cheers Bobby 

Edited August 13, 2021 by Bobby Rico

[flipper559]

11 hours ago, RCFossils said:

There are occasionally trilobites found (mainly calymene) in Silurian aged dolostone that can be collected in some of the same areas that concretions are found.

 I agree with @RCFossils . That being said, my wife and I have each found a trilobite in the Mazon Creek, both of which are on dolostone and NOT a "Mazon Creek Fossil" or in any type of concretion. Maybe glacial deposits ??

 

Rock On !!

 

Phil

[piranha]

On 8/13/2021 at 1:23 AM, Bobby Rico said:

Maybe the “Mazon Creek Trilobite “ is the only legend in the fossil record of real creatures been falsely associated to a fauna of a particular formation.

 

This 'Cambrian' phantom was published as a new species of ?Paradoxides

....but later determined to be an Ediacaran organism: Pteridinium carolinaensis

 

 

St. Jean, J. 1973

A New Cambrian Trilobite from the Piedmont of North Carolina.

American Journal of Science, Series 5, 273-A:196-216  PDF LINK

 

Gibson, G.G., Teeter, S.A., Fedonkin, M.A. 1984

Ediacaran Fossils from the Carolina Slate Belt, Stanly County, North Carolina.

Geological Society of America, Geology, 12(7):387-390

[Bobby Rico]

14 minutes ago, flipper559 said:

 I agree with @RCFossils . That being said, my wife and I have each found a trilobite in the Mazon Creek, both of which are on dolostone and NOT a "Mazon Creek Fossil" or in any type of concretion. Maybe glacial deposits ??

 

Rock On !!

 

Phil

Very interesting indeed please could we see some pictures of the Trilobites . 
 

I love your sign off.

 

cheers Bobby 

 

[flipper559]

2 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Very interesting indeed please could we see some pictures of the Trilobites . 
 

I love your sign off.

 

cheers Bobby 

 

Sure Bobby , I'll take a couple pictures and post them tonight. My wife also found a cephalopod about 5 inches long in the Mazon Creek on dolostone as well. 

Her trilobite is much nicer than mine. Mine is just a partial. Like I say, I'll photograph each of them and post pictures to this thread .

 

Rock On !!

 

Phil

[Nimravis]

5 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Very interesting indeed please could we see some pictures of the Trilobites . 
 

I love your sign off.

 

cheers Bobby 

 

I have found many trilo-bits while collecting at the pits, they were all brought to that location in glacial till. I did not keep any of them since they were not complete and they were not Mazon Creek. At the time that I found them, I was only interested in MC stuff as well as Oligocene mammals from South Dakota.

[Bobby Rico]

That could also explain the connection with trilobites and MC, erratic rock. 

Edited August 14, 2021 by Bobby Rico

[Mark Kmiecik]

On 8/12/2021 at 2:20 PM, Bobby Rico said:

I never new Bigfoot been spotted in Mazon creek cool, So the Trilobite of Mazon Creek is a legend. Thank you 

The Mazon Creek Bigfoot has never been spotted; it has always been striped. 

[flipper559]

Here are the tritobites my wife and I each found in the Mazon Creek, but are NOT Mazon Creek Fossils. @Bobby Rico

The one my wife found is the nicer, more complete one.

 

Rock On !!

 

Phil

[Bobby Rico]

11 hours ago, flipper559 said:

Here are the tritobites my wife and I each found in the Mazon Creek, but are NOT Mazon Creek Fossils. @Bobby Rico

Wow very nice bugs, thanks for sharing and help this thread with other become quite interesting.

All of you members that collect there I think you are really very lucky, I do believe it to be hard work but MC is one of the most interesting and valuable fossil formations in the world .

 

 I am very proud of my little collection and this week with very little money I have add a worm ( no ID as yet ) and a sea cucumber , looking forward to them arriving.
 

enjoy your Sunday 

Edited August 15, 2021 by Bobby Rico

[Thefemaleindianajones]

On 8/13/2021 at 2:49 AM, Top Trilo said:

And an elephant skull was thought to be a cyclops skull in ancient Greece

As an archeology student who happens to be Greek as well I can confirm that's a lie. Greece in ancient times was not that familiar with animals of Africa or Asia. So there could not possibly have found a skeleton of elephant in greek land. We don't have elephants in our country in general (obviously except zoos etc). So yea 

[Top Trilo]

3 hours ago, Thefemaleindianajones said:

As an archeology student who happens to be Greek as well I can confirm that's a lie. Greece in ancient times was not that familiar with animals of Africa or Asia. So there could not possibly have found a skeleton of elephant in greek land. We don't have elephants in our country in general (obviously except zoos etc). So yea 

Thank you for explaining your knowledge. By elephant skull I did not mean only the extant members, Loxodonta and Elephas, poor wording on my part. Some extinct proboscideans such as Deinotherium giganteum have been found in Greece. This national geographic article, mentions fossils found of D. giganteum found on the island of Crete.