Indiana Pennsylvanian Scouting Trip

[deutscheben]

Last Sunday I took the day to scout some former coal-mined land in western Indiana as well as revisit some sites I hadn’t been to in a few years. 
 

The mines at these sites were working the Springfield, Hymera, and Danville coals at various points in the mid-late 20th century. The land has been reclaimed to varying degrees, but I hoped that typical Mazon Creek-like fossil-bearing concretions could still be found, despite almost no information in the literature.

 

Temperatures were a little chilly with the wind blowing as I arrived at the first site. There to greet me was a herd of cattle grazing on the property, including this friendly? individual. 

 

 

I looked at the ground as I walked along the road to the property and quickly saw  some promising concretion-shaped rocks.

 

 

In a very good sign, I also found a faint but distinctive fern that had already split.

 

 

The finds weren’t frequent, but consistent enough to keep me searching. In addition to the cows, I was completely surprised to find my myself joined by a veritable army of black and yellow flat-backed millipedes that were marching along the ground everywhere I turned. I have never seen anything like it! Here are two of them making their way somewhere.

 

Out in the pasture I came across this sizable cable, which I can only imagine is a remnant of the former mining activity.

 

I ended up with about a gallon of concretions and I’m excited to see what they may hide within. I did find one additional already split fern as well.

 

 

I then made a short drive to the second site I had in mind. This one also presented me with immediate encouragement, with this tiny Neuropteris pinnule showing up only a few feet from where I parked my car.

 

 

Walking up and down a dirt/gravel road under construction, I found many potential concretions, including this faint Annularia and an interesting one with a productid  brachiopod poking out.

 

 

 

I collected a nice little pile of concretions from this site and made my way to the final location, where I had collected previously a few years back. Here I found at least a gallon of nice-shaped concretions, and also came across an already-split Macroneuropteris, my first mostly-complete one from here. 
 

It was a beautiful day to be outside and as a bonus I now have many concretions to start freeze-thawing- hopefully these promising shapes will pay off and I will have some new sites to start visiting regularly.

 

[Fossildude19]

Great report!

Thanks for taking us along.

Good luck with the nodules.  

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very interesting..

Thank you for sharing. 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Thanks for the tour. I enjoyed it.

[aek]

Fun exploratory trip- those concretions look promising.

[Nimravis]

Great hunting and finds, can’t wait to see what pops.

[deutscheben]

Thanks everyone! I have my first batch soaking right now, and I will start freezing them next week.

[Easwiecki]

The millipedes may have been Apheloria virginiensis as they're pretty widely distributed in the Eastern US. Like most colorful millipedes they'll release an almond-scented cyanide-based toxin if they feel threatened. I had no idea they swarmed like that!

[deutscheben]

I have been freeze-thawing concretions from the second Indiana site I visited, with minimal returns so far. As expected, I have found more plant material, generally with lower-detail preservation but some interesting colors:

 

 

I have found that the concretions are a mix of hard siderite ones and softer, shaley ones. The softer concretions almost exclusively contain scattered unidentifiable plant fragments, as well as one megaspore and a tiny brachiopod (which I will photograph later). All of the fossils above are from the harder siderite concretions.

[deutscheben]

Here are those microfossils- each is 2 mm wide.

 

Megaspore?

Brachiopod?

[deutscheben]

The last of my concretions from the two new Indiana sites split earlier this week.

 

The first site would up being relatively barren, with the most common find being very partial Cyperites. The only other recognizable fossils were this Neuropteris and Sphenophyllum.

 

 

Although I might make a stop if in the area, I wouldn’t go out of my way to make a second trip here.

 

The second site continued to be more productive. The nicest piece of flora was this Annularia inflata whorl.

 

 

I also found a small piece of Sphenophyllum and some rough ferns.

 

 

 

 

Finally, the most exciting find for me was this (crushed and incomplete) Euproops danae- it’s actually my first ever horseshoe crab fossil. I will definitely plan to return to this site for some further exploration.

 

 

 

[jdp]

oh very nice! We should talk about meeting up there sometime!

[Nimravis]

Those are some pretty pieces.

[Mark Kmiecik]

Very nice finds. Thanks for posting the photos.

[Fossildude19]

Great report and finds!

Thanks for sharing these.

[deutscheben]

Thanks @jdp, @Nimravis, @Mark Kmiecik and @Fossildude19!

[Missourian]

Nice finds all.

 

Awesome score on the Euproops!

 

Plus, I wouldn't have expected for there to be Linoproductus in Mazon-like concretions like these (unless it came from a different horizon).