Mazon Creek Hunt 6/7/14...and The Results.

[Stocksdale]

I should add that the "hot water" I refer to is simply water from the sink faucet.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Stocksdale

[Auspex]

I should add that the "hot water" I refer to is simply water from the sink faucet.

I made my comment more for the myriad anonymous readers; popular intuition has folks heating concretions in a fire and tonging them directly into cold water...I never pass a chance to advise otherwise.

[fossilized6s]

This guy popped today. Well more then popped, he crumbled bad. So i did some emergency glue repair. This is the best i could get him.

Does anyone have an ID for this guy?

These Mazon fossil amaze me on how three dimensional they are.

[Stocksdale]

It's an Alethopteris. Alethopteris serli, I think.

[PFOOLEY]

Charlie, these are awesome. You did your dirty work...and here are your riches. In the words of a gifted fossiker..."to the motivated, go the spoils". Nice work.

Edited June 24, 2014 by PFOOLEY

[fossilized6s]

It's an Alethopteris. Alethopteris serli, I think.

thank you sir. I'll have to look that up and confirm. I have both of Jack's books, i just couldn't find a match.

Charlie, these are awesome. You did your dirty work...and here are your riches. In the words of a gifted fossiker..."to the motivated, go the spoils". Nice work.

Thank you sir. If you ever want to come up here, id be happy to hunt with you! Or we can trade for some sweet sweet micro matrix!

[Stocksdale]

These Mazon fossil amaze me on how three dimensional they are.

Alethopteris are particularly dimensional and rigid looking. The first one I found was just a fragment of one and I thought it must be part of an arthropod because of how rigid it looked. That was back in the days when I was pretty clueless about these things. Way back about 6 months ago

Edited June 24, 2014 by Stocksdale

[siteseer]

Ken,

Those pits remind me of some of the old Sharktooth Hill Bonebed sites. People who collect on the Ernst property now (where the overburden has been removed for you) have no idea that in the old days you spent a day digging just overburden and then the next day was when you got your reward after more digging. Only hard work makes a hole that wide and that deep, watching out for ticks on top of it. Spring is the worst for ticks and they are all over California too except in the desert, it seems.

Yes, it's great when you are just starting out and you meet people who have been doing it for years - some even before you were born. They always have great stories to tell you; specimens and publications to show you. Some of the people I learned a lot from are gone now. I wish they had lived long enough to get on this forum.

Jess

I grew up in Chicago and was blissfully unaware of Mazon Creek fossils while I lived here. On a return trip to the Windy City my wife and I took our nieces out to the Field Museum of Natural History and came across the exhibit they have there detailing the formation and showing some examples of the biota that could be found there. After some Internet research I learned about Mazonia but my trips there were less than successful. It turns out the best places to find nodules at the Mazonia Braidwood State Fish & Wildlife Area are off the trails in the underbrush where nobody has been but the ticks. Since no digging is allowed in the Braidwood "park" you have to look for places where the nodules are eroding out of the clay/slate matrix (usually on slopes and uneven terrain). With a little more knowledge I did manage to find more nodules there but many were weathered and split apart--great if they expose fossils but many nodules were in poor shape.

Rob Russell and the other TFF members (and ESCONI members) who have provided the insight into where to go and how to dig into the overburden ridge piles to uncover whole nodules that haven't already been weathered has been an immeasurable boon to my goal of a nice (self-collected) fern fossil as well as anything else that turns up. Fossil hunting is much more fun when you are in the zone where hard work can pay off with results. It's also much more fun when you share the experience with other like-minded fossil hunters as it is good to see what they find. On my return visit Andrew found a really nice Annularia nodule (half) that had weathered and popped open. He rinsed it off and you could plainly see a nice row of leaf whorls. He wondered if it would be possible to find the other half and after a little more digging and against all odds he did pull the matching half from the clay of the hole he was excavating. It's stories like that that will remain long after the soreness from the dig has been forgotten.

Cheers.

-Ken

[fossilized6s]

Alethopteris are particularly dimensional and rigid looking. The first one I found was just a fragment of one and I thought it must be part of an arthropod because of how rigid it looked. That was back in the days when I was pretty clueless about these things. Way back about 6 months ago

I believe it is a Alethopteris serli. The thing that was throwing me off was the end pinnule is 1 1/2" long (unusually long) and the whole piece is only 3" all together.

Thanks for the help. Now i just have to figure out how to label these guys....

[Stocksdale]

I think the end pinnules are occassionally quite a bit larger on the seed ferns. It's a really nice one. And quite a few other really nice ones popping already! I think you guys found the prime spot for digging

[digit]

Charlie, these are awesome. You did your dirty work...and here are your riches. In the words of a gifted fossiker..."to the motivated, go the spoils". Nice work.

Then if the corollary is also true: "to the spoiled, go motivation," then I'm due for some motivation real soon as my wife is always telling me I'm spoiled (she's spot on BTW).

Charlie has taken an early lead and left the rest of us in the dust (not that fossil hunters mind being in the dust). Hoping to get off the starting blocks soon and start posting some popped nods of my own.

Cheers.

-Ken

[digit]

Yes, it's great when you are just starting out and you meet people who have been doing it for years - some even before you were born. They always have great stories to tell you; specimens and publications to show you. Some of the people I learned a lot from are gone now. I wish they had lived long enough to get on this forum.

IMHO, fossicking for fossils is a fun pastime/hobby for a couple reasons.

First, there is the "thrill of the hunt" the random probability of finding something interesting. I remember fishing as a kid and grousing when they were not biting. Someone pulled out the old chestnut of, "that's why they call it 'fishing' and not 'catching'." I truly believe if fishermen went out and caught their limit within the first 10 minutes every single time that they would soon get bored of casting a line into the water. Never catching a single thing can be off-putting as well like wasting your time in a man-made lake that hasn't been stocked with fish. The sweet spot lies somewhere in the middle where chances are good that some dedicated effort and learned technique can pay-off with a bounty of booty.

Second, given that there is a good amount of skill at both locating fossil sites, and areas within those sites that are the most promising, learning from your "elders" is enjoyable in and of itself. I love to learn and continuously seek out means to do so. I believe there is no better way to learn than the mentoring system. Being able to locate someone with more knowledge in some facet of any activity you are interested in is a rare find indeed. It it always good fun to progress from a complete newbie on a subject to having (at least relative) mastery of it. Passing through the stages and passing many mile posts along the way are a good measure of your progress.

For example, my shark tooth hunting in South Florida has (and continues) to evolve. At first I heard a rumor that shark teeth (yes, actual shark teeth--wow--fossilized no less--how cool is that?) could be found in the surf at Caspersen Beach in Venice. After a morning of walking the surfline and not finding much but shell hash I noticed people digging and sifting (mainly with the famous "Florida snow shovels"). Not knowing where to purchase one of these sand flea rakes I did the best I could and bought a spaghetti strainer and gave that a try. It got rid of the sand a little better and we did find some well worn surf-tumbled black teeth--and so ends the first (short) chapter in this pastime. A few more trips to the beach over the years netted a few more teeth (many so worn down as to be little different from rocks hinting at shark teeth). It wasn't till I learned about the Peace River and gravel sifting there that things really left the launch pad and continued on their current ballistic trajectory. Mark Renz is the man I credit/blame for motivating me on this passion/addiction. A couple of trips out with him learning the sifting technique and pouring through his books for identifications set the hook. You can't do Google searches for fossils for very long without stumbling headlong into this forum. That unlocked a bounty of photos, information and, of course, its most valuable asset--expert members. Before long I was lurking on TFF reading all I could on the fossils found in Florida. My next step was to dip a toe into the water and post some photos of a few mystery teeth that I had managed to pull from the Peace River. By this time I had constructed my own sifters and probes (after a couple of generations of improvements based on sifters I'd seen others use on the river) and was using this gear to find teeth that were river worn at times but in much better shape than those tumbling in the surf at the beach. After finding several meg frags we found our first complete meg (a small but complete 2") and then our first complete larger 3.25" meg. I've found frags of 5-6" teeth in the river but so far the long-shot of a complete one in this size range has eluded me--which is fine (for now). Contacting Jeff (jcbshark) on the forum has opened up new areas of exploration (creek hunting) as well as the social aspect of digging with like-minded individuals. I had know about micro fossils from the rivers/creeks here in Florida (Mark Renz has some interesting photos in one of his books) but I had never developed the desire to explore what was at the other end of the size spectrum till recently. After seeing all of the great micro-matrix finds on the forum motivated me to collect some fine gravel of my own (on my last trip to the river this season). I'm now enjoying a different style of shark tooth hunting that doesn't involve standing in a river and emptying sand and gravel from your shoes at the end of the day.

Without stages of development in a hobby it would soon get monotonous and boring. Though some part of that progress is inevitably made on your own, I believe that learning from those who are a few stages ahead of you is a great way of rapidly progressing through the levels of any pastime activity like fossil hunting. For the mentoring system to work properly though, you do need to pay it forward and pass along knowledge to those following in your wake. Remember, knowledge does not diminish when shared with others.

Thanks for reading through my morning's philosophical rant, and now I've got some micro-matrix to sort through....

Cheers.

-Ken

[fossilized6s]

Well my girlfriend and i are heading back out there this Saturday if anyone would like to join us. Now that my feet are wet I'm hooked. MUST GET MORE....lol

[digit]

Slippery slope....Probably a good thing I'm 1300 miles away or my backyard would be nothing but rows of 5 gallon buckets full of nodules.

Only had one nodule split so far (many have peeled some layers). The one that split looks to have some sort of bark imprint on it. I'll try it out and try to get some photos.

Update: Took a photo this morning of the sole nodule to have split. The original nodule looks to have been longer as it was broken top and bottom. I could see a definite seam running through it so I guessed that only one freeze-thaw cycle would be necessary to pop this one open. Looks rather "bark" like in its rough striated texture but I'm not sure what exactly it is. Seems odd that a thin, flat piece of bark would end up inside a nodule--but what do I know being a noob about nodules. Guess it's time to order up the Mazon Creek Fossil Florida book and get myself educated.

Cheers.

-Ken

Edited June 26, 2014 by digit

[Stocksdale]

Nice bark.

It may be Psaronius, tree fern that produces the Pecopteris leaves.

More specifically, it may be the surface of the Psaronius "False Trunk", a root mantle made of a hundreds of adventitious roots.

Probably need a closer view to tell for sure.

Edited June 26, 2014 by Stocksdale

[fossilized6s]

Nice bark Ken. Too bad there's not more detail. I have and had about a dozen of the bark filled nods. Most of them are going to be yard art because their lack of detail and chunky ugly nature....lol Live and learn, right?!

Yes, do yourself a favor and pick up both of Jack's books (fiddlehead) of Mazon Creek fossil fauna and fossil flora. They won't break the bank and they're jam-packed with pics and info. (Especially if you plan on to keep coming back up here.) I can't wait to see more sir!

[CH4ShotCaller]

All this talk and pics of Mazon Creek concretions is making me drool. I'm goona start researching. I see a trip some day in my future. Well, distant future according to my boss.

[digit]

Yes, do yourself a favor and pick up both of Jack's books (fiddlehead) of Mazon Creek fossil fauna and fossil flora. They won't break the bank and they're jam-packed with pics and info. (Especially if you plan on to keep coming back up here.) I can't wait to see more sir!

Favor done--just waiting for the books to arrive so they can be digested.

-Ken

[digit]

All this talk and pics of Mazon Creek concretions is making me drool. I'm goona start researching. I see a trip some day in my future. Well, distant future according to my boss.

When drooling at that rate remember it is important to keep hydrated.

These nodules would be a little different from your usual crab nodules as you have to wait patiently for them to pop on their own rather than going in after the hidden fossil with your prepping tools. When you can convince your boss that you deserve a trip to the greater Chicagoland area see if you can fly Southwest so you can check 2 bags for free (up to 50 pounds a piece). With a change of clothes and some work gloves that should still leave you a solid 96.5 pounds free for transporting home some booty.

Seriously though, if/when you are thinking about experiencing fossil fossicking Mazon Creek style, let your intentions be known on the forum and the TFF members from the surrounding area will surely make sure your time is well spent for your visit.

Cheers.

-Ken

[CH4ShotCaller]

When drooling at that rate remember it is important to keep hydrated.

These nodules would be a little different from your usual crab nodules as you have to wait patiently for them to pop on their own rather than going in after the hidden fossil with your prepping tools. When you can convince your boss that you deserve a trip to the greater Chicagoland area see if you can fly Southwest so you can check 2 bags for free (up to 50 pounds a piece). With a change of clothes and some work gloves that should still leave you a solid 96.5 pounds free for transporting home some booty.

Seriously though, if/when you are thinking about experiencing fossil fossicking Mazon Creek style, let your intentions be known on the forum and the TFF members from the surrounding area will surely make sure your time is well spent for your visit.

Cheers.

-Ken

Sweeeet! Lunch will be on me!

[fossilized6s]

Sweeeet! Lunch will be on me!

Lunch? We don't stop digging for lunch. Haha

I had a few more pop. Nothing too interesting, but still cool. Im getting a lot better on recognizing which nods have fossil remains a which don't. But you never really know.

[digit]

Lunch? We don't stop digging for lunch. Haha

Seriously--we had some coffee cake when the group met up before going to the dig site and then other than (not nearly enough) water I only stopped digging for a minute or two to cram a few delicious frosted cupcakes that Charlie brought into my maw before picking up the shovel again. As my hands were dirty from digging, cupcakes were perfect in that I could just cram an entire one into my mouth by only touching the paper cup. If only the frosting was caffeine laced, I'd still be there digging.

I had a few more pop. Nothing too interesting, but still cool. Im getting a lot better on recognizing which nods have fossil remains a which don't. But you never really know.

IMG_20140626_234551.jpgIMG_20140626_234632.jpgIMG_20140626_234717.jpg

Alright Charlie, nobody likes a show-off (actually, we ALL like a show-off--and in particular what you are showing off).

I have a low bar for Mazon Creek fossils. Having tried it a few times (surface hunting) before this and mostly coming up skunked with only a few blobs (Essexella jellies), a barely discernible Annularia with a few whorls and a tiny faint fern frond frag, my goal was (1) an identifiable fossil, and (2) a nice looking fern frond. I've seen some really beautiful fern frond fossils over the years and thought a nice fern nodule would be a good souvenir for remembering my time hunting in the Mazon Creek area.

Given what Charlie has already managed to get to pop I'm even more hopeful that I too will soon be able to decorate this topic with some nice Mazon Creek eye candy.

My current method I'm trying out for my freeze-thaw process is as follows:

Instead of repeatedly freezing and thawing the same batch of nodules in my plastic shoe box container on a cleared-off shelf in my freezer, I now rotate the nodules. That is to say I have two 5-gallon buckets in my garage filled with nodules soaking in water. Every day or two (when I remember) I thaw the container of rocks by taking the container out of the freezer and letting them warm up a bit before filling the container with water again. At one time I had decided to freeze the nodules in a complete block of ice (topping off the container with water before freezing the nods) but it seemed to me that the frozen water around the nodules would likely freeze first possibly impeding the expansion of the water soaked into the nodule which might cause less nodule popping. This is of course purely theoretical and based on no experimental data at all. It does, however, at least make the thawing process much quicker without all the extraneous ice to have to melt.

After sorting through the nodules and removing any "onion skin" layers that have split and peeled-off the concretions, I don't return the batch of unopened nodules to the freezer again for another round of freezing. Instead, these nodules get placed into the "outbox" bucket and a new batch is selected from the "inbox" bucket next to it. My plan is to cycle through all of my nodules (one shoebox batch at a time) until there is nothing left in my "inbox" bucket--at that point I reverse the order of the buckets and, like the changing of the tides, begin to transfer all of the nodules back into the other bucket (by way of the freezer).

My rational for doing this is that I used to let my nodules soak for a day or two between freeze phases and this took extra time and also probably didn't allow the nodules to soak-up enough additional moisture to penetrate very far. By cycling through the nodules where they only get one freeze-thaw cycle and then spend an extended time soaking in a bucket in my garage, I'm hoping I can manage to get my nodules properly hydrated enough to actually pop on the fossil plane rather than shed like a dried onion.

I've gone through half a dozen or so batches already and I have to keep track of which bucket I'm taking nodules from and which one I'm returning nodules to as they are both partially filled now. Haven't made it through a complete cycle yet and have very little to show so far from my efforts but I'm hopeful this new system (buckets 2.0) will soon reap some benefits.

Cheers.

-Ken

P.S.: Charlie, can you mail me down your four-leaf clover after the last of your nodules have popped?

[fossilized6s]

Ken, i almost didn't post those latest finds just because i feel like im showing off. Haha Hurry up and post some of your finds so i don't feel like a lone wolf here. I wish others would post theirs also (you know who you are). lol

The peeling is normal. But I've noticed when they peel if a bit of that layer stays on it and won't break off, there's a fossil inside holding it in place. So keep that in mind. And if you peel enough layers off they will get down to a bumpy surface and will not peel anymore, and hopefully crack open after one or two freeze/thaw cycles. I'll take pics of what i mean after work for ya.

GL and i think your method should work.

[CH4ShotCaller]

[old bones]

Charlie, I just love that reddish fern! You are having so much luck with your nodules. Can't wait to see what else you find!