Mazon Creek Collection- Purchased

[Nimravis]

@stats @Mark Kmiecik  @RCFossils @Peat Burns @connorp @deutscheben@fiddlehead
 

 

I had been in contact with a friend (Bob) of mine that I met over 30 years ago. I met him through my fossil mentor Walter. Bob and Walter would collect in the 70’s and 80’s with many well know collectors, including Francis Tully. The would also bring fossils to the Field Museum so Dr. Eugene Richardson and others, could ID some of their finds. 
 

In our talks over the last several months, he had spoke about selling his collection and I advised him that I would be interested. We came to an agreement on price and today I stopped by his house to get the collection. It contained an unbelievable amount of fossils, all prom Pit 11, with the exception of a couple that he collected at Pit 14, a place he only visited one time.  
 

I am going to post just a few pics of some of the fossils in his collection that he amassed over 30+ years of collecting. I have only looked at a small sample of what I purchased.

 

Without further ado, here are a few of the fossils.

 

A few flora pieces to begin with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see from this sample, many of these are how he found them and they were never cleaned.

 

Now to some of the fauna. 
 

This first piece is shown in the 1979 Matthew Nitecki book- Mazon Creek Fossils. This Titanoceras so. Cephalopod is shown on page 337, figure 1a - Lateral view of ventrolateral portion of body chamber. This was in the chapter “Middle Pennsylvanian Cephalopoda of Mazon Creek Fauna, written by W. Bruce Saunders and Dr. Eugene S. Richardson, Jr.

 

Bob advised me that he found this piece at Pit 14 near a chiton that he also found there.
 

 

Here is one of my favorites, Bandringa rayi. This shark was loaned to the Field Museum and Dr. Rainer Zangrel took a look at it. He stated that this specimen showed the mouth (white dot area).

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple Tully pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The below one is cool because it shows the claw/mouth, folded over on the body.

 

 

This looks like a spider.

 

 

Here is a scorpion.

 

 

 

A couple winged insects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continued on next post.

 

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by Nimravis

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple worms- the first one is an Esconites zelus.

 

 

 

A cool jellyfish- Anthracomedusa turnbulli .

 

 

 

Mazonova eggswith a fern.

 

 

A large Cockroach.

 

 

Acanthodes Fish-

 

 

 

Gilpichthys greenei fish-

 

 

Esconichthys apopyris- Blade

 

 

Cyclus americanus 

 

 

 

That’s all for now- there are a lot more great pieces.

 

 

[connorp]

Wow, crazy stuff!

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple more cool pieces of flora and fauna.

 

Here is a nice association of two jellyfish and a shrimp.

 

 

Beautiful pieces of bark and a couple nice ferns.

 

 

 

 

 

I believe his ID is correct on this ne t piece.

 

 

Sea Cucumber 

 

 

Crayfish

 

 

Another winged insect and a cool Tully.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by Nimravis

[fossilcrazy]

I have seen many excellent Mazon collections and your purchase is a real WOW of a collection. I'm sure you paid a pretty penny, but you or anyone would be hard pressed to score a better instant collection of Mazon material. Kudos on the buy.

[RJB]

 HOLY COW!   Im not crazy about most Mazon Creek stuff but this stuff is Awesome!  Quite impressed with these most fantastic fossils. 

 

RB

[Meganeura]

Excuse my language, but holy **** these are absolutely INCREDIBLE. Some of the coolest pieces I’ve ever seen!

[Tidgy's Dad]

There are no words to describe these pieces. 

I know how much this means to you, Ralph, on a personal note, not just the fossils. 

Congratulations and I'm so happy you have these. 

[Ludwigia]

Wowie zowie! I'll bet you're in 7th heaven right now and shall be remaining there for some time to come! You don't get to see such an amount of extremely well preserved Mazon Creek fossils like these every day!

[Troodon]

"Tully" outstanding.  Beautiful pieces and in another great home.   My favorite is the shark but they are all special with a super story to go with it.  Congratulations you did well.

[IsaacTheFossilMan]

10 minutes ago, Troodon said:

"Tully" outstanding.  Beautiful pieces and in another great home.   My favorite is the shark but they are all special with a super story to go with it.  Congratulations you did well.

 

That shark is beautiful, but I LOVE the Acanthodes and the Esconichthys apopyris. Superb!

[RCFossils]

Excellent collection 

Material of this quality is getting harder and harder to find.

Congratulations!

[Nimravis]

16 minutes ago, RCFossils said:

Excellent collection 

Material of this quality is getting harder and harder to find.

Congratulations!

I agree Rob. I will post more as I go along. This is the results of every weekend collecting at Pit 11, which also included the South Wilmington Sportsman Club, which he belonged to for years.

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Ludwigia said:

Wowie zowie! I'll bet you're in 7th heaven right now and shall be remaining there for some time to come! You don't get to see such an amount of extremely well preserved Mazon Creek fossils like these every day!

I wish I was collecting back in the 70’s and early 80’s, the area was a great place to walk and collect.

[Nimravis]

39 minutes ago, Troodon said:

"Tully" outstanding.  Beautiful pieces and in another great home.   My favorite is the shark but they are all special with a super story to go with it.  Congratulations you did well.

That is my favorite too Frank, I always admired it and sometimes he would bring it to the Mazon Creek Open House to show collectors.

[mr.cheese]

I have to say that is amazing chap, very well done you. I look forward to seeing what else you have got there. Mind blowing what can be preserved sometimes!

 

Was that butterfly wings I saw there?

[stats]

Wow!  Speechless!  Those specimens are breathtaking!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Absolutely gorgeous!!!! I can hardly wait to see the rest, especially the flora. Nice acquisition.

[deutscheben]

My goodness, that is a museum-quality collection Ralph! Those pieces are incredibly stunning and I can only imagine there are going to be so many more interesting finds in the remainder. Congratulations.

[Top Trilo]

That's all I can say.

[Mart1980]

absolutely fantastic, very cool 

[Nanosaurus]

What an amazing collection!!! Well done.

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple more pieces, all found at Pit 11, with the exception of the Chiton, which was found at Pit 14.

 

Paleolimulus Horseshoe Crab

 

 

Euproops danae Horseshoe Crab

 

 

Mazonova helmichnus Amphibian eggs

 

 

Kellibrooksia macrogaster Shrimp

 

 

Rhaphidiophrus hystrix “Oliver Hardy Worm”

 

 

Glaphurochiton concinnus “Chiton”

 

 

Didontogaster cordylina “Tummy Tooth Worm”

 

 

Esconichthys apopyris

 

 

 

Millipede-

 

 

Rutellifrons wolfforum (?) Shovel Nose Worm

 

 

 

Achistrum sp. Sea Cucumber with mouth

 

 

 

A couple more nice Tully Monsters.

 

 

 

 

I will post some more later.

 

 

 

 

[Meganeura]

2 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

This post is gonna turn into another "Sometimes you have to whack it" in terms of length - and I'm very much excited by that. Also - this Tully Monster is SO cool, I love how you can see all of it due to it having folded on itself. Those worms are so cool too!

[Nimravis]

2 minutes ago, Meganeura said:

This post is gonna turn into another "Sometimes you have to whack it" in terms of length - and I'm very much excited by that. Also - this Tully Monster is SO cool, I love how you can see all of it due to it having folded on itself. Those worms are so cool too!

I agree Daniel, it looks like it is all there. Lol about what you said, I almost called this thread- “Sometimes You Have To Un-Rubber Band It”.