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deutscheben

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Your worm appears to be a Fan worm. Braceville is known for Fan worms.

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~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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I think the worm is a didigonster (sp?) worm. Or tummy tooth worm.

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Finding my way through life; one fossil at a time.

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Thanks Rob and Charlie. I know poorly preserved Mazon Creek fossils can be a real puzzle.

I had another multi-worm nodule split yesterday and I am pretty sure this one is fan worms, based on the thread-like elements at the top in the first picture, but I could certainly be wrong!

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post-17917-0-06625400-1470320262_thumb.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

A year later and I have a few more Mazon Creek finds to add to my collection. Nothing spectacular, but I am always happy to add new species to my list.

 

First is the bivalve Myalinella meeki.

 

598f666bd6c04_2017-08-1215_33_45.thumb.jpg.df461058546b59c15442872e2411c778.jpg

 

Next is a little shrimp of some sort- it's fairly faint, so I am not positive about the ID- any ideas

 

598f67d8b73d9_2017-08-1215_34_01.thumb.jpg.a6199a6eb20c686873733cad875bd081.jpg

 

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And lastly, another very faint shrimp. When dry, the only part clearly visible is the white calcite on the body and a distinct gut line, but getting it wet seems to make traces of limbs and antennae visible. Again, this one is too faint for me to make a definitive ID.

 

598f698cf195e_2017-08-1215_47_57.thumb.jpg.0143c5970386cfa4967dcc4f44c6d086.jpg

 

598f69b485ed5_2017-08-1215_47_41.thumb.jpg.0068f23c8c9b73957a3febbd6e7ef5ad.jpg

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Nice shrimp. I believe you have found Peachocaris. 

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~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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  • 1 year later...

I finally have some new material to post! This winter I have been freeze-thawing concretions from the Mazon River that I was given last year. A few have split, happily adding some new species to my collection. First is an Annularia radiata:

 

5c6a27a96eaef_2019-02-1721_33_49.thumb.jpg.e7822c5317db031e202f07f08077ec8d.jpg

 

And second, a really cool piece with a Macroneuropteris leaf and Pecopteris pinna overlapping, with some really eye-catching orange coloration:

 

5c6a27aef26d0_2019-02-1721_33_29.thumb.jpg.6f54286b0413c4e452561c0429e56e79.jpg

 

I have temporarily lost my freezer space, so my processing is reliant on the weather right now- hopefully I will have a few more split before spring and warmer weather comes along. (And then I'm planning to pick up a mini chest freezer for the garage, so I can get back to freeze-thawing year round)

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Very nice. Curiously, after freeze-thawing concentrations, do you have to do any additional prep to get the fossils to look like that?

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8 hours ago, Praefectus said:

Very nice. Curiously, after freeze-thawing concentrations, do you have to do any additional prep to get the fossils to look like that?

Not really- generally all that needs to be done is a light clean up with water and a gentle brush. That's one of the great things about Mazon Creek concretions. 

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5 hours ago, deutscheben said:

Not really- generally all that needs to be done is a light clean up with water and a gentle brush. That's one of the great things about Mazon Creek concretions. 

Wow. That is interesting. Thanks for sharing your Mazon Creek finds. I hope to go there for my first time sometime in late March.

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On 2/18/2019 at 12:47 PM, Praefectus said:

Wow. That is interesting. Thanks for sharing your Mazon Creek finds. I hope to go there for my first time sometime in late March.

Excellent! Good luck, I am hoping to get out there opening day myself (unfortunately they are predicting a high in the 20s for March 1 :doh!:).

 

Here is one more concretion that split- I posted it in the ID forum here and it was ID'ed as a partial Rhacophyllum,  likely R. molle. 

 

5c6d5c9ec1b9e_2019-02-2007_56_27.thumb.jpg.1617848ce69f41d5e5544dc9ebd382ad.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice finds.:)

I love the Mazon Creek fossils and am fortunate enough to have a few myself. 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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Thanks, @Tidgy's Dad

 

One more split to add to the collection from the Mazon River locale- and my first fauna find from this batch. I believe it is the shrimp Acanthotelson stimpsoni:

5c7c9ecdb5808_2019-03-0321_42_32.thumb.jpg.2014746e939a3397dc66a780f22a8cd1.jpg

 

I also posted a trip report for my visit to Mazonia-Braidwood last Friday on opening day- including finding my first ever Tully Monster!

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/93062-3119-mazoniapit-11-opening-day/

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I was able to get a few more freeze-thaw cycles in during the cold last week and had a decent double Annularia stellata split:

 

5c85c010cc29e_2019-03-1017_24_42.thumb.jpg.2d3f1fd5ad2c29e7c287fe176dbe7e0e.jpg

 

This Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri was preserved on the outside of the concretion- I tried freeze-thawing it to see if it would split to reveal another fossil as well, but it didn't this winter:

 

5c85c16b2718b_2019-03-1017_23_14.thumb.jpg.0bc8176982d35e52904db96ef8cbe760.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Check around the edge of that Neuropteris nodule with 10x or better magnification for any sign of a longitudinal crack that appears to run all the way around the concretion. If there's another specimen in there the crack should have appeared if the concretion went through at least 10 freeze/thaw cycles. Just remember that you may damage a really nice Neuropteris only to find a generic piece of wood inside. For some reason many Mazon Creek specimens formed very near one side of the concretion. The shape of the concretion loosely follows the outline of the specimen, so in this case I would say you've already found the good stuff. Judging by the color and texture of the nodule I speculate that it is from the Mazonia South unit around Monster Lake (Eagle, Wilderness, Ponderosa), in other words, the Essex Biota. The Braidwood Biota further north seems to have had finer sediment deposited on the sea floor and therefore preserves detail much better. Unfortunately, 99% of it is flora. Pits 4 and 5 are the best of both flora and fauna in one location and some of the plant specimen detail from pit 4 is out of this world. So good you would swear it died yesterday.

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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  • 5 months later...

After a year of saving and planning, my fossil space in the garage is finally coming together. That means I now have freezer space to start processing my buckets full of Mazon Creek concretions once again! :D 

 

I started with the last few concretions I had from the Mazon River itself. Most were blanks, although a few had some nondescript plant material, and one had a worn and incomplete clam. The final one was just not splitting with freeze and thaw, though. It was a nice symmetrical one with a good shape, so I tapped it a bit with my hammer and it finally split, revealing this interesting piece in it- I believe it is shark cartilage. A nice way to finish the bunch!

 

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Wow that is really interesting. How do you know it's shark cartilage? What are those bumps? They almost look like amphibian eggs to me, although they aren't uniform size. I've never heard of this before from Mazon Creek so I'm interested in knowing how you identified it. Super cool find!!!  Chris

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Nitecki's 1979 Mazon Creek Fossils and  ESCONI's The Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna both mention isolated shark cartilage being found in concretions there, although neither goes into detail or has pictures, unfortunately.

 

Sharks have skeletons made up of small pieces of calcified cartilage joined together, which gives it a 3-dimensional pebbly or mosaic appearance. If it were eggs, I think it would have been preserved as more of a flat discoloration on the rock. 

 

I would like to contact an expert to get confirmation, though. I also have another small piece from Indiana that was ID'ed here as shark cartilage:

I am hoping someone can evaluate both of them. (And I would also love to see some of the other examples of chondrichthyan cartilage preserved in siderite concretions that are out there!)

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It is similar to some of the images I saw when I Googled "fossil shark cartilage".

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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It has a similar pattern to modern shark cartilage, so I tend to agree with your ID

 

The only other thing that came to mind would be reptilian/tetrapod skin which have been found at Mazon before. Jaw dropping find either way!

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On 9/18/2019 at 3:14 PM, Mark Kmiecik said:

It is similar to some of the images I saw when I Googled "fossil shark cartilage".

 

2 hours ago, TheRocksWillShoutHisGlory said:

It has a similar pattern to modern shark cartilage, so I tend to agree with your ID

 

The only other thing that came to mind would be reptilian/tetrapod skin which have been found at Mazon before. Jaw dropping find either way!

Thanks! And thanks for the input both of you, it's good to know I'm not alone in seeing the resemblance. 

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I have also been processing a batch of concretions collected from the ESCONI Braceville spoil pile in September 2018. So far most of what I have found has been incomplete, including examples of all 3 of the most common types of fauna from this site- Essexella jellyfish, some bivalves in poor condition, and Mazopherusa prinosi fan worms. There were a couple specimens that did stand out though. 

 

The first is this intriguing red and grey bicolored Essexella with a lightning-like  vein of pyrite running through it. 

5d88215e8769f_2019-09-2219_32_04.thumb.jpg.bf72a5a3ed36f0b593aa9ba893ab45ce.jpg

 

The second is a nice red Mazopherusa, with the body and bristles pretty well-defined.  5d882164023e1_2019-09-2219_28_20.thumb.jpg.ef4ddca247605da62e5afa0663a42b13.jpg

 

Both are examples of what I have found to be typical for preservation from this site- very high in mineralization. 

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Very nice finds! I really like the Mazopherusa, I don't think I've found one that nice yet. And maybe the Essexella is actually a new species - a "lightning jelly"! Good way to market it online haha.

 

I have horrible luck with the bivalves, they all seem to crumble to pieces. I can't ever get one that just splits cleanly. I suppose it's probably because the fossil plane is not flat. I have several piles that I might try to superglue back together sometime.

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On 9/22/2019 at 10:02 PM, deutscheben said:

5d88215e8769f_2019-09-2219_32_04.thumb.jpg.bf72a5a3ed36f0b593aa9ba893ab45ce.jpg

I'm afraid this Essexella looks more like a poorly preserved fish scale to me. Can you see the outline? Here's one previously posted on TFF.

 

 

scale.jpg

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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