Part 2 Trip to Oglesby 2/18/2023

[Joseph Fossil]

A few days ago I went on a fossil hunt with @Tales From the Shale and another friend to a rock formation of Pennsylvanian age, around 300 Million Years old, in Oglesby, Illinois. We also went to a second site in the Mazon Creek area in Braceville, Illinois. Today I decided to put some of the specimens I found under a dissecting scope to see them better and potentially get a proper ID for them.

 

Here is a little Crinoid specimen (I think it may be the top part)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a nodule I found at the Mazon Creek site. @Tales From the Shale Identified the specimen as possible fossilized plant seeds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Joseph Fossil]

Here is a pretty nicely preserved brachiopod (I'm not currently 100% sure on it's ID)

 

 

 

 

 

I think this might be a brachiopod too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found some pretty cool Bryozoans (the first bryozoan specimens I've found in Oglesby). Does anyone know what Bryozoan species these are?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Joseph Fossil]

This next specimen is a pretty impressive Ctenacanthiform tooth I found after cracking some large rocks open. Does anyone know what Ctenacanthiform species this is?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Possible shark spine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one I'm unsure what it exactly is?

 

 

 

I'm not 100% sure what this is either.

 

 

 

 

Small Peladotus tooth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A small but pretty impressive (and well preserved) Peripristis tooth. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deutscheben]

You are making some quality finds now, congratulations! I would be very happy with this selection from a day’s searching.
 

The first tooth looks to be Glikmanius occidentalis and a nice one, with a mostly complete central cusp. If you prep it you may find the lateral cusps from the other side preserved as well. 
 

The spine is a very interesting structure, I’m not sure if it is fish or not, but it could be.

The “Petalodus” tooth is not a tooth, as far as I can tell. I have one like it, and also thought it was possibly a tooth at first, but now I have no idea. Maybe some kind of invertebrate? I’d love to hear some other opinions.

 

Finally, I don’t see any reason to label that last one as Peripristis. It’s broken- I would say instead that it is more likely a lovely cross section of some kind of holocephalan crusher tooth.

 

A few of the other finds also look like fish material, but I don’t think further ID is possible from these images.