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A Few Mazon Creek Fish, etc.


Nimravis

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In this post I am going to show you a couple examples of fish related fossils that are found at Mazon Creek. Many of these are my finds and many are from my fossil mentor.

 

The pics are zoomed up, I apologize for that, but I mounted my fossils (pairs) on white cardboard, so I do not want to pull them off and have to reattach them.

 

First up is a lamprey - Mayomyzon pieckoensis. This lamprey was collected at Pit 11.

 

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Next up are a 3 examples of the Jawless fish- Gilpichthys greenei . These fish were found at Pit 11.

 

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Now I do not know if these names are still acceptable, but when I first started they were. These fish were found at Pit 11.

 

Acanthodes marshi 

 

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Acanthodes beecheri

 

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Here is a nice paleoniscoid that was found at Pit 11 and was ID’d by Dr. Dave Bardack, I believe the correct name is - Elonichthys peltigerus. 
 

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This is a Rhabdoderma exiguum - Coelacanth. This fossil was found at Pit 4, in the area that I always called “Across From Pit 4”-(AFP4).

 

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Here is another nice Coelacanth- Rhabdoderma exiguum with a little coprolite. This piece was found at Pit 11 and I acquired it last year in a collection that I purchased.

 

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Here is another example-

 

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Now here is an odd one, it is called a Pipiscius zangerli. Many older collectors called it the “Push me- Pull me fish”. This second pic shows what should be the mouth.

 

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Now I know they are not classifying these as larval lungfish as they did when I first started, but I wanted to show a couple anyways. Here is Esconichthys apopyris. The first example shows multiple individuals.

 

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The next 3 are individuals.

 

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With this example you can see why collectors call them “ Ghosts”.

 

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This next piece was identified by Dr. Bardack as a fish head, but unknown species. This was found at Pit 11.

 

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This next piece I had brought with me to one of the Mazon Creek Open Houses at Northeastern and showed it to Dr. Bardack. He identified this as Acanthodian fish scales. This piece was found at Pit 11.

 

Here are a few nice fish scales found at Pit 4 (AFP4).

 

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Here is a piece that I have identified as an Orthacanthus sp. tooth. This piece was found at Pit 4 (AFP4).

 

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Here are a couple Palaeoxyris. These pieces were found at Pit 4 (AFP4).

 

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Now these next pieces, all found at Pit 11, are described as either fish or amphibian eggs cases, either way they are very cool fossils. Mazonomaya helmichnus.

 

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This last piece is a spiral shark coprolite, not my best example, but one that I just came across. I also could not locate my Vertebrate Fossil of the Month find to post. Again these are some examples, I hope you enjoy them. 96751332-0D73-481C-82B1-DE4565EDD205.thumb.jpeg.76791f7c619d9daac5a7a62243095ebf.jpeg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Nimravis
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12 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

Fantastic collection mate

Thanks Bobby, I just added one more piece. Pipiscius zangerli.

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1 hour ago, flipper559 said:

Very nice , extensive collection of fishes  and related !! Thanks for sharing them with us Ralph !!

 

Phil

Thanks Phil

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11 minutes ago, connorp said:

@Nimravis If you have a chance to take some more images of spiral coprolites I'd really love to see them.

I will do some siding and see if I can locate some. I have a real nice mold, the coprolite itself fell out, but shows the spirals real well.

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@connorp Here is the one that I mentioned above. I found this one in the the cooling lakes (Pit 11) in May of 1990. I use to have the actual coprolite pieces in a small envelope to look at it one day when I bought a stereoscope, but I misplaced it. The mold shows a nice spiral on the close up. I will look for others.

 

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Thanks for the glimpse into your amazing collection, Ralph! I can’t pick a favorite, they are all incredible.

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11 minutes ago, deutscheben said:

Thanks for the glimpse into your amazing collection, Ralph! I can’t pick a favorite, they are all incredible.

Thanks Ben

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