Fossil hunting trip in Utica, Illinois October/29/2022

[Joseph Fossil]

On Saturday, I went on a fossil hunting trip with @Tales From the Shale in the area of Utica, LaSalle County, Illinois. After some time driving and looking for roadcuts, we discovered an abandoned clay bed/outcrop not too far away from the town itself. There, we discovered an absolutely massive amount of shark spines and teeth! I would like to know if anyone could properly ID some of the specimens we found!!

 

 

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This is one of the best shark spines I found at the site!!! It does look somewhat like the spine of Listracanthus, but I'm not 100% sure!!

 

 

 

Possible Crusher plate tooth or maybe the bottom part of a large cladodont?

 

 

 

Likely fish teeth or denticles, but I'm don't yet know what species/genus this could belong to?

 

 

I really don't know what this could be? Maybe some sort of mineral or a fish head?

 

 

 

Truly beautiful chondricthyian tooth in a clay matrix!!! However, I still don't know what specific group it could belong to? Maybe it could be a large crusher plate?

[Nimravis]

@connorp and @deutscheben

[connorp]

I really can’t tell what anything here is from the photos. Not sure I see any fossils except maybe the last item. If this is actually clay, I wouldn’t expect to find fish fossils.

[Oxytropidoceras]

You should try to disaggregate and sieve throught 200 mesh screen some of that clay to see what sort of microfossils are in it.

 

Yorus,

 

Paul H.

[Joseph Fossil]

9 minutes ago, connorp said:

I really can’t tell what anything here is from the photos. Not sure I see any fossils except maybe the last item. If this is actually clay, I wouldn’t expect to find fish fossils.

 

@connorp Good point! I'll try to put the specimens under a dissecting or microscope soon to get better a better look! I also don't think it's actually clay. It looks/feels like some mix of clay and shale. These are also just the first specimens of a bucket full collected that day, which I'm planning to post soon. However, For the first specimen the only thing I could find that matches the striations is the shark spines of a listracanthus or something cladodus like.

[connorp]

14 hours ago, Joseph Fossil said:

 

@connorp Good point! I'll try to put the specimens under a dissecting or microscope soon to get better a better look! I also don't think it's actually clay. It looks/feels like some mix of clay and shale. These are also just the first specimens of a bucket full collected that day, which I'm planning to post soon. However, For the first specimen the only thing I could find that matches the striations is the shark spines of a listracanthus or something cladodus like.

It kind of looks like smeared mud, hard to tell from the photos though.

[Joseph Fossil]

9 minutes ago, connorp said:

It kind of looks like smeared mud, hard to tell from the photos though.

Here are some better photos of the green spine specimen.

 

 

 

The striations in the second image seem especially prominent in the second image and seem also to more clear by the black parts of the specimen (maybe the full spine is just underneath the clay like shale).

[Joseph Fossil]

The next fossils was collected at a second site not too far away from the first site in Utica and is around and the slab it is one is around 5 inches long. has some possible Trilobites and Brachiopods I would like an ID for!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Joseph Fossil]

These next ones were also collected at the first site but are significantly more shale like. The rocks here are around 2-3 inches in length, but the pieces seen in the dissecting scope are at least around 0.5 inches each. I also drew arrows to possible shark spine or teeth specimens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FossilDAWG]

I would like to hear @jdp's opinion about the "fishy bits".

 

Don

[Joseph Fossil]

 

 

 

 

[deutscheben]

Other than the hash plate, which definitely does have trilobites, brachiopods, gastropods and a bryozoan on it, I don't see clear fossils on any of these specimens. There are bits that could be fossils, but nothing I would be confident about without seeing it in hand. 

[Joseph Fossil]

@deutscheben You make some really good points! I agree the specimens are not too ideal in terms of preservation, but at least the first specimens and the really dark ones from the clay shale pit I couldn’t find anything else that could explain it other than either than parts of a chondrichthyan spine or part of a tooth. I wasn't even the one who initially identified it as something like a Listracanthus spine - It was @Tales From the Shale and usually, he's extremely accurate with his IDs.  I probably would not have glossed the specimen over had it not been for his help with the ID.

[Joseph Fossil]

@FossilDAWG I think it's a good idea to get @jdp opinion on this matter too!  

[Joseph Fossil]

@FossilDAWG @deutscheben @connorp There is something else about the first site that lends me to believe the specimens are indeed Pennsylvanian era chondrichthyan spines and teeth! Around the pit (which I'm still keeping it's location classified so it isn't throughly looted), there were lots and lots of nodules - the same kind you would find at Mazon Creek. Not only that, these were hand sized nodules (something that's uncommon today at the amazing but sadly almost picked clean Mazon Creek) just scattered all over the floor in what looked like the dried up parts of a lake shore. If whoever was digging there previous for clay uncovered these nodules in such large quantities, it's possible they also uncovered a descent amount of chondrichthyan spines and teeth and left them there.

[Joseph Fossil]

@deutscheben Do you have any idea what the trilobite and brachiopod genera could be from the second site rock slab?

[Joseph Fossil]

The possible spines do somewhat resemble the ones in these research articles.

 

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1249&context=tnas

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271898780_Acanthorhachis_a_new_genus_of_shark_from_the_Carboniferous_Westphalian_of_Yorkshire_England

 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26434035?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents

 

The possible spine specimens do have a striking resemblance to this Listracanthus spine.

 

 

 

[Joseph Fossil]

 

 

Does anyone have an ID for what these tiny black rods are? I'm not sure they're fossils and I found it after splitting open one of the shale rocks! 

[Joseph Fossil]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[connorp]

Was the limestone slab collected in situ? It looks Ordovician.

[Nimravis]

16 minutes ago, connorp said:

Was the limestone slab collected in situ? It looks Ordovician.

I agree.

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Joseph Fossil said:

Around the pit (which I'm still keeping it's location classified so it isn't throughly looted), there were lots and lots of nodules - the same kind you would find at Mazon Creek. Not only that, these were hand sized nodules (something that's uncommon today at the amazing but sadly almost picked clean Mazon Creek) just scattered all over the floor in what looked like the dried up parts of a lake shore.

Without telling the location, do you have pictures of what you described above? It would be great to see that. Thanks 

[Joseph Fossil]

40 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

Without telling the location, do you have pictures of what you described above? It would be great to see that. Thanks 

 

Sure! I don't have a photo of the section with the nodules, but I did get a descent picture of the area.

 

[connorp]

Clay pits in that area often cut into the Francis Creek Shale, although the nodules never have fossils.

I do hope you had permission to visit that site.

[Joseph Fossil]

@connorp Yes, We did had permission to visit the site! I'll try to post some photos of the nodules collected there soon. There was another thing I noticed about the nodules there - unlike the very tough ones at Mazon Creek, these ones were mostly very very brittle and a descent portion were already split open naturally.