A Mazon Creek Story 39 Years in the Making

[Nimravis]

As many of you know I recently bought a Mazon Creek collection from my friend of mine that I have known and collected with for the past 30+ years. Along with the fossils was a lot of his paperwork on the fossils- not where they were found, etc., but pictures and times that he loaned specimens to museums. One specimen was a winged insect that he had loaned to a person from Harvard (Museum of Comparative Zoology- MCZ). Bob did not have a picture of the fossil and kind of thought it was a dragonfly. This person had visited the Mazon Creek Open House that was held on October 27th, 1984, at Northeastern Illinois University, which was the home of the Mazon Creek Project. Bob had brought the fossil to show other collectors and probably to get an id. The person asked if she could borrow it for study at Harvard and he agreed and “loaned” it to her and later received a receipt for the fossil and personal letter from her. That was the last time he had ever heard anything about the fossil. This has always been a sore subject with Bob and he would mention it all of the time, and that is why I have always been turned off to loaning any specimens.
 

A couple months back I told Bob that I was going to reach out to Harvard and see if they could tell me anything about the fossil, since it was never returned. I sent a nice e-mail to them along with PDFs of the receipt and letter. About two weeks later, I received an email response from a Curatorial Associate at MCZ Harvard. She advised me that they looked at all of their Mazon creek fossils and could not find a particular fossil that I was describing with the information and # that I had for the specimen. Mind you, the receipt had a number assigned to it as well as what it was, as far as their identification (Spanidoera). She did send me an attachment, that contained all of their fossils from Mazon Creek. She further advised me, that after the person that borrowed it left Harvard, she went to another school to get her PhD and then advised me where she might be currently working. I thanked her for the information and that she advised me that they will continue to keep an eye out for the fossil. I then did some more searching, and I actually found the person that I had been looking for and an email address for her. I sent her an email and attached the same email that I sent to Harvard and I expounded by stating that I was Bob‘s friend and that he has talked about this for the past 25 years. She got back to me and stated that she was on vacation and when she arrives home, she would look through some of her old boxes from MCZ, but also stated that it could be in the MCZ Collection , but hard to locate. I thanked her and waited for a response. She got back to me on Wednesday and advised me that she was going to go through the boxes over the weekend. A couple of hours later I received a follow-up e-mail from her advising me that the had found the fossil and it matched up with the number that was assigned to it. I was so happy. I asked her to send me some pictures of it, which she did. She sent a very nice email, apologizing and say that she did not know why she did not return it after she left MCZ and thought maybe she was going to do a paper on it, or something else, but she did not remember. Either way, it was great that she went through her stuff and found this piece.

 

She mailed the fossil out to me on Friday and I received it this evening. I have not let Bob know, as I want to drive to his house and show it to him and then let him know what it is. She also included a nice letter that I will present to him. I advised her that I will send her a picture of Bob holding the fossil.
 

I know what many people are thinking, why did he not check on the fossil before? All I can say is that is how Bob is, he loaned it and just figured it was lost, although it always bothered him. In addition, he does not have a computer and since I had the receipt and letter, something that I did not know he had in the past, I decided to play detective. If I had known about the letter and receipt, I would have handled this decades ago.

 

Now for pictures of the fossil. This piece was not freeze/thawed by Bob, as most of his fossils were. Looking at it, I can tell that he found it opened in the field. One side has great detail, if he had found it when it first opened, it would have been outstanding. Still this is a great looking piece, and in my opinion, large for an insect.

 

If anyone has an ID, pass it on please. As stated above the woman who borrowed it listed it as “Spaniodera”. I am wondering if it is from the family Geraridae?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Nimravis

[Meganeura]

An incredible story for an incredible fossil!

[Nimravis]

4 minutes ago, Meganeura said:

An incredible story for an incredible fossil!

Thanks Daniel

[Tidgy's Dad]

I love this story.

And the specimen is incredibly beautiful.  

[stats]

Awesome story and even better fossil!  Thanks for sharing, Ralph!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Nimravis]

@Tidgy's Dad and @stats thanks for the nice comments.

[Doctor Mud]

What a story! What a fossil! 
love to see a photo of Bob reunited with the long lost fossil. 
 

I was wondering if this could be a Lepidopteran? Moth or butterfly? 
But I see they have a record going back to the start of the Jurassic. 
Did the scientist who borrowed it have an idea what she thought it might be?

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Doctor Mud

[Doctor Mud]

A protorthopteran seems like a good candidate too. 
 

look forward to seeing if any of the Mazon regulars have any ideas. 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

2 hours ago, Doctor Mud said:

What a story! What a fossil! 
love to see a photo of Bob reunited with the long lost fossil. 
 

I was wondering if this could be a Lepidopteran? Moth or butterfly? 
But I see they have a record going back to the start of the Jurassic. 
Did the scientist who borrowed it have an idea what she thought it might be?

 

Thanks for the comments, she had it listed as a Spaniodera.

[Bobby Rico]

Lovely story of ‘found, lost and found again “  , That is great things to do for your friend especially when they don’t have the technology to achieve this themselves. It is clear that loosing this specimen has played on this mind for a longtime, so to get this back will be a really moment for him. Thanks Ralph for the story and if it ok with Bob I would like to see the pictures of him holding it to. Cheers Bobby 

[Bobby Rico]

BTW that’s a huge insect. 

[Yoda]

@Nimravis

Fascinating story. 

And am also pleased you managed to get the nodule back. 

[Bobby Rico]

I was also thinking how irresponsible of the palaeontologists and a little unprofessional. It also has a negative knock on effect too, you said this is why you would not be happy loaning out fossil and I bet many a MC collector who has also heard Bob’s story will take heed but all is good now. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Bobby Rico

[Ludwigia]

Quite a story. I wouldn't blame the paleontologist other than to write it off as forgetfulness under stress. I have a piece of crocodile jaw still lying about in the drawers of a paleontologist who got it from the paleontologist I gave it to who originally wanted to write a paper about it but then passed it on to him for the same purpose. That was all 16 years ago. At least I recieved a cast of it in exchange.

[FossilNerd]

Detective Ralph to the rescue! 

 

Glad you were on the case and able to give your friend Bob closure to the “lost” fossil that had bothered him for so long. 
 

Well done! 

Edited May 16, 2023 by FossilNerd

[Nimravis]

2 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Quite a story. I wouldn't blame the paleontologist other than to write it off as forgetfulness under stress. I have a piece of crocodile jaw still lying about in the drawers of a paleontologist who got it from the paleontologist I gave it to who originally wanted to write a paper about it but then passed it on to him for the same purpose. That was all 16 years ago. At least I recieved a cast of it in exchange.

I agree- it would have been easier to say that she had mailed it back years ago and thought he received it, or that she does not recall it at all. But in this case she took the time to look for it, find it and mail it back and include a letter apologizing, I think that was great. 

[marguy]

What a moving story that will find a happy epilogue, congratulations and thank you for this investigation that you share here !

[t-tree]

A great result and a wonderful fossil.

 

John

[deutscheben]

Wonderful story and detective work. That is a fantastic insect fossil too, I can’t say much for ID though.

[Jeffrey P]

Thanks for sharing this great story. That is an awesome insect specimen!

[Mark Kmiecik]

Looks like a Gerarid and the size is right as well.

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Looks like a Gerarid and the size is right as well.

That is what I was thinking Mark.

[Nimravis]

@RCFossils Rob, what do think about this pieces ID?