RCFossils Posted September 17, 2022 Share Posted September 17, 2022 In a nod to Ralph’s entertaining post, I thought that I would start a thread that I can continue to add on to over the upcoming months. With the Pit Eleven collecting season coming to a close, I decided to venture out one more time before the season ends on September 30th. Pit Eleven is a difficult site to collect due to the heavy overgrowth (lots of thorny plants), uneven terrain and did I mention the bugs. Late Summer/early Fall is especially tricky because unlike the Spring, the vegetation is in full growth obscuring many of the areas that can produce early in the year. The one upside is that the lake water level is a bit lower so I decided to explore a few more out of the way areas that I do not search very often. It paid off in a big way. In just a few hours, I was able to collect 514 concretions! Many have nice shapes and I might even have a Tully or two. While it is likely that at least half of them will be “duds” I have a decent chance of having something rarer pop open. Since we will be heading into the Winter months soon, I thought it might be fun and informative to share the results of my freeze/thaw cycles with the forum. I will try to update this post with each cycle (probably around once a week) posting pictures of any interesting finds. I will also keep a record of all plants and animals found in the 514 concretions. In my experience, most of the better quality fossils will usually split open within the first 20 cycles. I am currently soaking the concretions for a few days and will buy them in my chest freezer early next week. I did find a few concretions that had already split open that I am not including in this count. Two were the common Essexella, one Aviculopecten, one coprolite and a few small plant fragments. I also found an interesting artifact. A section of rail line (approximately 30”) from the old mine carts. Here are a few pictures of the concretions. Enjoy! 15 Link to post Share on other sites
EPIKLULSXDDDDD Posted September 17, 2022 Share Posted September 17, 2022 Looking forward to updates! Good luck on finding that tully. I just had an interesting thought: if you find one good enough for fossil of the month, do you submit it as an invert or vertebrate fossil? Link to post Share on other sites
RCFossils Posted September 18, 2022 Author Share Posted September 18, 2022 11 minutes ago, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said: Looking forward to updates! Good luck on finding that tully. I just had an interesting thought: if you find one good enough for fossil of the month, do you submit it as an invert or vertebrate fossil? I am still a strong believer that is an invertebrate. The body plan is just too radically different for it to be an agnathan. Also every other fish found in the deposit is relatively small (usually a few inches). Larger fish are present but usually just bits and pieces are found. Tullies are generally fairly complete.leading me to believe that their body was different then that of a fish. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Meganeura Posted September 18, 2022 Share Posted September 18, 2022 Ooooooh another one of these? @Nimravis you've got competition now I'm getting my popcorn. Following for sure though, I love these types of posts! Link to post Share on other sites
Mark Kmiecik Posted September 18, 2022 Share Posted September 18, 2022 Sounds like fun. Hurry, hurry, hurry. But take your time and make sure you soak them long enough! 1 Link to post Share on other sites
stats Posted September 18, 2022 Share Posted September 18, 2022 Awesome idea, Rob! I'm excited to see what comes from the islands! Cheers, Rich Link to post Share on other sites
Nimravis Posted September 18, 2022 Share Posted September 18, 2022 This is great Rob, can’t wait to see what pops. Hopefully you will have some great finds. On a side note, I will be picking up some concretions next week that were recently freeze / thawed by my friend that I recently bought the collection from. He stated that a complete Tully popped and he believes that there are one or two insects. These are all from Pit 11 and collected in the 80’s and 90’s. I will post them on my thread once I get them. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
RuMert Posted September 18, 2022 Share Posted September 18, 2022 A promising thread! Looking forward Link to post Share on other sites
deutscheben Posted September 18, 2022 Share Posted September 18, 2022 Very excited to see your results, that’s a nice haul! Link to post Share on other sites
RCFossils Posted September 23, 2022 Author Share Posted September 23, 2022 Just a quick update. I made another trip to Pit Eleven yesterday searching some more areas. It paid off big time. I managed to collect an additional 816 concretions bringing the total to 1330! The first batch has been soaking and will go into the freezer today. I will freeze for 3-4 days and see if anything splits open. 8 Link to post Share on other sites
Nimravis Posted September 24, 2022 Share Posted September 24, 2022 You have some nice looking concretions Rob, can’t wait to see what pops out. Link to post Share on other sites
Nimravis Posted November 11, 2022 Share Posted November 11, 2022 Rob- I was wondering how your freeze/thaw is going. I have been freeze/thawing these concretions from Pit 11 since 7-12-2022. I have gone through a number of cycles and no luck so far. I am betting that all of the concretions contain Tully Monsters, I received them in the collection that I purchased. The small one has and exposed transverse bar at the top of the concretion, but do not have the other portion and the middle section is still covered. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
stats Posted November 11, 2022 Share Posted November 11, 2022 Some of those have the characteristic bend on the end. Cheers, Rich 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Mark Kmiecik Posted November 11, 2022 Share Posted November 11, 2022 How long have you soaked them before freezing? I would go 2-1/2 to 3 weeks on concretions of this size with the matrix density common to Pit 11. Link to post Share on other sites
Nimravis Posted November 12, 2022 Share Posted November 12, 2022 16 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said: How long have you soaked them before freezing? I would go 2-1/2 to 3 weeks on concretions of this size with the matrix density common to Pit 11. I will try that Mark- Thanks Link to post Share on other sites
RCFossils Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 I apologize in advance for not updating this post. I had grand plans to update regularly as things popped open however due to my schedule and family commitments, it did not pan out. I guess to start, things had been pretty disappointing. Out of the 1300 plus concretions, I would estimate around 20 plus percent turned out to be shale instead of siderite. These concretions, while having excellent shapes, disintegrated without anything other than a few plant fragments being preserved. To date, I have performed around 15 freeze/thaw cycles. The majority of the fauna which I was finding was generally poorly preserved. There have been some nice plants that have split which has kept things interesting. I probably still have about half of the concretions left and will continue to freeze thaw. The majority of the fauna that has split open has been the extremely common Jellyfish/anemone Essexella asherae. I would estimate that I have opened over 50 in this group. Other fauna that I have so far opened are as follows. 2 Octomedusa pieckorum jellyfish (1very nice example with excellent tentacles. Several bivalve’s (Mazonomya mazonensis, Myalinella meeki and Aviculopecten mazonensis). Polychaete worm Didontogaster cordylina Sea cucumber Achistrum sp (none complete). Arrow worm Paucijaculum samamithion Spoon worm Coprinoscolex ellogimus Cyclus americanus Shrimp Palaeocaris typus Several shrimp molts Coprolites (some containing bone bits) One surprise that I will save until the end. Here are some examples of Essexella. 6 Link to post Share on other sites
RCFossils Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 Here is a very nice Octomedusa jellyfish. 7 Link to post Share on other sites
RCFossils Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 This is a great association of a Essexella and a rare arrow worm Paucijaculum. 10 Link to post Share on other sites
RCFossils Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 A small Palaeocaris shrimp. 6 Link to post Share on other sites
RCFossils Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 A few of the plants. 9 Link to post Share on other sites
RCFossils Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 On Tuesday, I had a very lucky break. I was going through my buckets and found an Aistopod! To those not familiar with Mazon Creek fauna, this might appear to be a section of a stem. It is actually a legless amphibian named Phlegethontia longissima. If you look carefully, the white line are the vertebrae. The soft tissue of the body is also preserved. Unfortunately, it is just a section of the body but it is still a very rare find. I was fortunate to have found a more complete example several years ago. It is estimated that only one in a million Mazon Creek concretions will contain an amphibian so i feel very fortunate to have found 2. 3 12 3 Link to post Share on other sites
jdp Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET Link to post Share on other sites
deutscheben Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 Now there is a surprise worth waiting for! Congratulations. Link to post Share on other sites
stats Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 (edited) Wow, congrats! I wonder how many get thrown away as plant stems... Cheers, Rich Edited February 3 by stats Link to post Share on other sites
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