3-20-22 Olgesby, Illinois Pennsylvanian Road Cut

[Nimravis]

Before going back to the ESCONI Gem and Fossil Show, I decided to leave the house early and make the 75 minute trip to Oglesby, Illinois to a roadcut that I like to collect and was last there 19 days ago. This roadcut, exposes the Pennsylvanian LaSalle Member of the Bond Formation. 
 

Within those 19 days, portions of the head wall came down, dropping several thousands of pounds of rock. As I have stated in previous posts, this is not a road cut for younger collectors and people who are not sure-footed. 
 

Here are a few pics of the exposure as I found it this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This tree branch…..

 

 

broke off of this tree after being hit but a lot of rock.
 

 

The rock that I am holding broke off of the larger piece in the background during the fall.

 

 

The large boulder in the left of the picture that has my Estwing stick on top fell all of the way down to the base of the cut. I am guessing that it is a distance of about 50+ feet.

 

 

Here are a couple pictures of some of my finds.

 

 

 

Three different species of brachiopods in this freshly freed piece.

 

 

 

Here is my first Conularida and it is next to an inarticulate brachiopod. I will post a better pic at the end of the post.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Nimravis

[Nimravis]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what I believe is a beautiful Crusher tooth. @connorp And @deutscheben, what do you think?

 

 

 

I will show a cleaned up and scaled pic at the end.

 

Here is another piece that looks like a portion of a shark tooth.

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple cleaned up and scaled pictures.

 

Deltodus Crusher Shark tooth-

 

 

 

Inarticulate brachiopod and Conularid-

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Nimravis

[connorp]

Awesome stuff!! I’m pretty sure that’s an inarticulate brach though.

I really need to get back there soon.

[Troodon]

Very productive trip, like the crusher and pelatodus tooth..a bit chilly?

[Nimravis]

23 minutes ago, connorp said:

Awesome stuff!! I’m pretty sure that’s an inarticulate brach though.

I really need to get back there soon.

Thanks- I was thinking that too, but the colors threw me off. 

 

And yes, you need to get out there.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Nimravis

[Nimravis]

10 minutes ago, Troodon said:

Very productive trip, like the crusher and pelatodus tooth..a bit chilly?

Thanks Frank. The temp when I got there was about 36 degrees, but when I left a couple hours later it was about 57 degrees, perfect collecting weather.

[deutscheben]

Super cool conularid! It’s exciting to be able to add that to the fauna list for this site, I know they have been found in the La Salle Limestone elsewhere. The crusher tooth is nice too, probably Deltodus? I agree with Connor that the other one next to the conularid is an Orbiculoidea in all likelihood. 
 

Hopefully I’ll be able to get up there in the next month, with all that rock that fell I’m sure there will be more interesting new things to find. 

[Nimravis]

20 minutes ago, deutscheben said:

Hopefully I’ll be able to get up there in the next month, with all that rock that fell I’m sure there will be more interesting new things to find. 

Thanks for the Id on the tooth Ben. By the time you get out there, hopefully it will give it time to dry out and settle down, it was very muddy.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Nimravis

[Tidgy's Dad]

Splendid trip! 

Love the brachiopods and the conulariid! 

 

[Nimravis]

19 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Splendid trip! 

Love the brachiopods and the conulariid! 

 

Thanks Adam.

[stats]

Wow, awesome finds and a beautiful day to get out!  Be careful out there!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by stats

[DPS Ammonite]

Probable brachiopod genera:

 

Neospirifer (alatus?)

 

Composita 

 

Antiquatonia

 

Linoproductus

[Nimravis]

13 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Thanks for the ids, I use to Id the brachiopods in the past when I grouped the pictures, but now I just post the pics in random order and only call out the pieces that are special.

[minnbuckeye]

An excellent start to the season!! Hopefully the hunting season will start in Minnesota soon. Seeing all of the nice finds gives me an itch that needs "scratched" badly!

  

mike

[fossilhunter21]

Wonderfull finds! That crusher tooth is awesome! Thank you for sharing.

[fifbrindacier]

Neat finds Ralph, those brachs are awesome.

[Nimravis]

This is another piece that I have been working on. I collected it on this trip and only a small patch of black was showing on the limestone.

 

After removing matrix, the fossil started taking shape and and it appears to me that it is a Cladodont tooth, minus the right cusp. I do not think that I am going to prep it out any more and will leave it in the matrix. I had to cut into the limestone in a bowl like depression in order to expose the left cusp of the tooth.

 

Here are a few different pictures of the tooth.

 

@connorp , @deutscheben

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2022 by Nimravis

[connorp]

11 hours ago, Nimravis said:

This is another piece that I have been working on. I collected it on this trip and only a small patch of black was showing on the limestone.

 

After removing matrix, the fossil started taking shape and and it appears to me that it is a Xenacanthus shark tooth, minus the right cusp. I do not think that I am going to prep it out any more and will leave it in the matrix. I had to cut into the limestone in a bowl like depression in order to expose the left cusp of the tooth.

 

Here are a few different pictures of the tooth.

 

@connorp , @deutscheben

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not Xenacanthus, some kind of cladodont though. 

[Nimravis]

7 minutes ago, connorp said:

Not Xenacanthus, some kind of cladodont though. 

Really, I was thinking it was and missing one of the cusps. Thanks for the info. I made the change above.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Nimravis

[Nimravis]

@connorp the reason I was thinking that it was a Xenacanthus is because the cusp is missing on the right side of the tooth. The crude pic below is how it would look if it was there. 
 

[deutscheben]

I think that is the base of a cusp, but there would also be one on the opposite side of the tooth, still in the rock or broken off. Orthacanthus/Xenacanthus are not known from this deposit and would be unusual (although not impossible) to find in a completely marine environment like this. 

[Nimravis]

3 hours ago, deutscheben said:

I think that is the base of a cusp, but there would also be one on the opposite side of the tooth, still in the rock or broken off. Orthacanthus/Xenacanthus are not known from this deposit and would be unusual (although not impossible) to find in a completely marine environment like this. 

Thanks Ben, I might try to prep it out some more to see if there is anything else. That piece that I say is missing, just appears to be as big as the other piece.

[masonboro37]

I would have taken the time to do that too. Splendid finds! Thanks for sharing and great pics!

[Nimravis]

2 hours ago, masonboro37 said:

I would have taken the time to do that too. Splendid finds! Thanks for sharing and great pics!

I am, it takes a while and hopefully it will reveal something.