4-15-23 ESCONI Danville Shale Pile Trip

[Nimravis]

Today, I along with about 25 other ESCONI (Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois) drove to a Danville Shale Pile that is about 4 hours from Chicago. I drove down last night and grabbed a hotel. I should do a separate post on that, but it might be to scary for our members.

 

The site, which is on Private Property, is Pennsylvanian in age and the fossils are about 1 1/2 million years younger than the Pennsylvanian fossils found at Mazon Creek. The fossils are from the Carbondale Formation- Herrin ( No. 6 ) coal, which contains a mixture of “Red Dog” Shale as well as gray and black shales. Also found at this locations are concretions, similar to Mazon Creek.

 

The day was beautiful, around 80 degrees F and the wind was blowing at about 13 mph. We collected from 10 am - 3 pm and then everyone brought up some of their finds to show and get ids. Information is being put together on this site to track the different species of fossils that are found.
 

This post will be picture heavy and I will start out with a lot of pictures of the site and participants. Though fossils are everyone’s main focus, I do like to take the readers on a photo tour of the sites I visit so you can enjoy the area from afar. 
 

 

The cars lined up, waiting for the site to be unlocked.

 

 

Getting ready to collect.

 

 

 

@stats getting his boots on.
 

Listening to pre-collect info on the site and safety precautions.

 

 

 

@stats and a friend, Jeremy.

 

@connorp in the Red shirt.

 

@deutscheben

 

@deutscheben and @bigred97

 

 

Yours truly on the left, then @connorp @bigred97 @deutscheben Jeremy and @stats.

 

 

Here is a new member to the Forum, Carolyn @CrustaceousBaki doing her thing. She found a beautiful example of a Trigonocarpus seed, the first found at this site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Nimravis]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Nimravis]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Nimravis]

A couple concretions-

 

 

 

 

This little one I whacked open,

 

And found a nice little cone bract.

 

 

More site scenes-

 

@stats making his way up with a few bags of concretions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Nimravis]

Some of my finds-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Nimravis]

 

 

 

Front and backside of the above piece of bark- a favorite of mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Nimravis]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An opened concretion.

 

 

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[Nimravis]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Nimravis]

Another concretion that I found opened.

 

 

 

Some large pieces of pyrite for my grandson. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but they are very pretty.

 

 

 

 

My favorite piece- a large cone.

 

 

 

At the end of the day- going over our finds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this post.

 

 

 

 

[stats]

Great post, Ralph!   The photos really capture the day.  Great weather, great company, and great fossils!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

Group selfie.

 

Here's the Crenulopteris subcrenulata in a concretion. 

 

I think this is some sort of insect egg case... thought it was a trilobite until it was cleaned.

 

I mostly collected concretions and will be freeze/thawing them.

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by stats

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple better pics of the cone that I found.

 

@stats

 

 

 

 

 

 

Better pics of one of the bark pieces that I found.

 

 

 

 

[Ludwigia]

6 hours ago, Nimravis said:

I hope you enjoyed this post.

 

Yes, I certainly did! It felt like I was there with you guys as I scrolled through. And it was nice to see some of our members in person! And who is this intrepid mountaneer?

 

[Nimravis]

2 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

 

Yes, I certainly did! It felt like I was there with you guys as I scrolled through. And it was nice to see some of our members in person! And who is this intrepid mountaneer?

 

Thanks- I do not know who that is, but that is the location where I found the small concretion that contained this small cone bract.

 

[grandpa]

And I spent the day on the computer preparing my tax return. 

[Nimravis]

2 hours ago, grandpa said:

And I spent the day on the computer preparing my tax return. 

Lol- glad I did mine earlier. I am glad the trip was yesterday, it is raining by me and the feels like temperature is 34° F and they are calling for snow tonight- what a difference a day makes.

[connorp]

8 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

 

Yes, I certainly did! It felt like I was there with you guys as I scrolled through. And it was nice to see some of our members in person! And who is this intrepid mountaneer?

 

The front is too sheer to climb, but the backside has a nicely graded path to the top.

[Jeffrey P]

Great report, site and group photos, and finds! Congrats. The cone I find especially noteworthy. Looks like you and others had a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing.

[FossilDAWG]

That insect egg case is from a praying mantis.

 

Looks like a fun day.   My legs are sore, though, just from thinking about climbing that hill.

 

Don

[Mark Kmiecik]

2 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Lol- glad I did mine earlier. I am glad the trip was yesterday, it is raining by me and the feels like temperature is 34° F and they are calling for snow tonight- what a difference a day makes.

 

Weather in Illinois -- if you don't like it just wait one day, it'll change.

 

Thanks for the virtual trip. I enjoyed it as always. I'm interested in what else the concretions that you found may have in store.

 

Is this fossil or extant? 

 

16 hours ago, stats said:

 

[Nimravis]

2 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

 

Weather in Illinois -- if you don't like it just wait one day, it'll change.

 

Thanks for the virtual trip. I enjoyed it as always. I'm interested in what else the concretions that you found may have in store.

 

Is this fossil or extant? 

 

 

Thanks Mark- 

 

Rich @stats collected a lot of concretions and will hopefully find some nice pieces.

[stats]

5 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

 

Weather in Illinois -- if you don't like it just wait one day, it'll change.

 

Thanks for the virtual trip. I enjoyed it as always. I'm interested in what else the concretions that you found may have in store.

 

Is this fossil or extant? 

 

 

It's not a fossil.. At first, I thought it was a trilobite.  That would have been an exceptional find.  It was in a clump of shale that was transforming into clay.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[stats]

2 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Thanks Mark- 

 

Rich @stats collected a lot of concretions and will hopefully find some nice pieces.

I have a full 5 gallon bucket of concretions.  That's the most I've gotten from there.   I've had more than a few open up the last 2 years.  Mostly plant material, but a few bivalves have been found.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[deutscheben]

Thanks for the excellent and detailed report, @Nimravis! It really was a perfect day weather-wise, and there were plenty of “wow” finds and good company as usual.
 

Your cone and @CrustaceousBaki’s seed were both highlights, and another person found a gigantic fern frond that I didn’t get a picture of. 
 

I had a few nifty finds for the day:

 

A couple of Annularia whorls.

A few pretty little Dunbarella.

And finally an interesting piece showing some outer bark as well as inner bark or pith of some kind of plant, with very appealing color contrast too. 

[Nimravis]

@deutscheben Thanks for the comments and it was a great time. Those are cool finds that you have and I also did not get a picture of that huge fern frond- hopefully someone has a pic and cans post it, maybe @stats has a pic.

[Wrangellian]

Great stuff. You folks have had some nice weather lately, though I hear it will change if it hasn't already. Here it has been dreary and wet for what seems like ever and not good for fossiling.