3/31-4/2: Three days exploring the Pennsylvanian of Illinois and Indiana

[deutscheben]

 

Last weekend, since the weather was supposed to be nice and my wife was out of town, I decided to get out and collect from three Pennsylvanian sites in Illinois and Indiana. On Friday, I took the day off work and headed down to the former Chieftain no.20 mine site south of Terre Haute, in what is now the Griffin Bike Park.

 

It was an overcast day with a slight drizzle and I had the park all to myself. I found a nice assortment of nodules, including a few split ones with ferns- the one on the left, although preserved in three pieces, is my biggest one yet from this site.

 

 

The best find didn't come until I cleaned them after I got home, though. What I thought was a slim fern pinnule turned out to be a millipede, my first! No Myriapoda have been reported from this site, and the preservation is not perfect, so I am not sure what the ID would be for this one.

 

 

The next day I met up with my dad and enjoyed an outrageously beautiful day at Mazonia-Braidwood in northern Illinois collecting Mazon Creek nodules. I was glad I brought sunscreen!  None of the split nodules I found had anything spectacular, just a few nice Essexella, but we found a good assortment of concretions and got to explore a portion of the park I had not been to before.

 

 

I was also able to educate some folks we met in the parking lot who were visiting from Missouri about what to look for when collecting fossils in the park and shared some of my extra split nodules to make sure they didn't go home empty-handed. It's always a pleasure seeing other fossil collectors in the park. 

 

 

 

 

[deutscheben]

Finally, on Sunday I drove up to a roadcut just south of the Illinois River that exposes the LaSalle limestone of the Bond Formation. Brachiopods and crinoid fragments are very common at the site, and I have also found horn corals, cephalopods, shark teeth and one partial trilobite. I had a very good day, here are some of my finds:

 

A nearly complete Cochliodus tooth.

 

 

An internal mold of a straight-shelled cephalopod and some brachiopods.

 

 

A few tiny shark teeth in need of some further prep.

 

 

A horn coral.

 

 

A partial spine? from a fish or shark.

 

 

What appears to be a partial miniature petalodont tooth and a chunk of a larger Petalodus tooth.

 

 

Some very interesting finds and I will have to do more prep and research to get IDs on some of these. Overall it was a wonderful way to spend a weekend, outdoors and exploring the rich Pennsylvanian strata of this area.

[ynot]

Nice finds, thanks for sharing!

Tony

[Fossildude19]

Great report and finds!  
That myriapod is quite stunning.  

 

Maybe @RCFossils or @fiddlehead will have some insight as far as ID is concerned.

 

Thanks for posting your trip.  
Regards,

 

[piranha]

Very Nice!  The millipede looks similar to Euphoberia sp.

 

 

 

[caldigger]

Sorry you didn't find anything.  Ya, whatever!  In just a couple of days, you found more than I do in a year...and some great specimens to boot!  Wow, congrats to you.

[matt2396]

Nice finds! I didn't realize there was still such a good selection at the Orlando Smith outcrop. I've been there three times and haven't found anything other than big brachiopods, some horn corals and a couple of bivalves. I'm curious, did you encounter those horrible little black flies that live there? It may be too early but man, they really make me want to "retire" that site.

[deutscheben]

On 4/9/2017 at 9:50 AM, ynot said:

Nice finds, thanks for sharing!

Tony

 

On 4/9/2017 at 10:07 AM, Fossildude19 said:

Great report and finds!  
That myriapod is quite stunning.  

 

Maybe @RCFossils or @fiddlehead will have some insight as far as ID is concerned.

 

Thanks for posting your trip.  
Regards,

 

 

21 hours ago, caldigger said:

Sorry you didn't find anything.  Ya, whatever!  In just a couple of days, you found more than I do in a year...and some great specimens to boot!  Wow, congrats to you.

 

21 hours ago, piranha said:

Very Nice!  The millipede looks similar to Euphoberia sp.

 

 

 

 

Thank you everyone! It really was a spectacular way to kick off the season, and hopefully there will be something interesting in the nodules as well. 

 

And thank you for the tentative ID, @piranha, I see there are a number of potential species. I will have to do some more research and see if there is enough there to narrow it down. 

 

 

10 hours ago, matt2396 said:

Nice finds! I didn't realize there was still such a good selection at the Orlando Smith outcrop. I've been there three times and haven't found anything other than big brachiopods, some horn corals and a couple of bivalves. I'm curious, did you encounter those horrible little black flies that live there? It may be too early but man, they really make me want to "retire" that site.

 

Thanks! This is my fourth time collecting from that outcrop since 2015 and I have been lucky enough to find something unusual each time- a trilobite pygidium the first time, and different shark teeth each subsequent time. I have also been lucky enough to not run into the swarms you mentioned, yikes! I have only visited in the fall and spring, though, perhaps they are seasonal? 

[matt2396]

1 hour ago, deutscheben said:

Thanks! This is my fourth time collecting from that outcrop since 2015 and I have been lucky enough to find something unusual each time- a trilobite pygidium the first time, and different shark teeth each subsequent time. I have also been lucky enough to not run into the swarms you mentioned, yikes! I have only visited in the fall and spring, though, perhaps they are seasonal? 

They must be most active in the summer, I was there in the middle of July and got eaten alive, but didn't get any bites when I was there in February........I think they are buffalo gnats(?) http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/pcblackflies_buffalognats.htm

[deutscheben]

After a few months of the freeze/thaw process, almost all of my nodules from Griffin Park have split, so I wanted to share what I have found. I'm still working on mastering Pennsylvanian plant IDs, but I have put my best guesses where I could figure one out. 

 

First is my biggest and most complete Annularia stellata. Unfortunately, as is often the case with fossils from this site, it was preserved along two different planes, leading to the diagonal gap in the middle of the whorl. 

 

Some of my favorite fossils from here are Asterophyllites equisetiformis, with each specimen exhibiting a slightly different form of preservation. Here are two nodules, one which split evenly in half in a normal manner for nodules, while the other one, on the right, split at multiple points along the stem, leading to cross-sections showing all of the leaves in each whorl. 

 

The next batch of small fossils also include what looks like an Asterophyllites (or other horsetail relative) stem, but stripped of all leaves. (Middle, bottom row) To the right of that is a section of Cyperites, then counter-clockwise, a very small Pecopteris fern with an attractive orange color, an even smaller frond tip, and finally a tiny and well-preserved segment of Cyperites.

[fossilized6s]

Not sure how i missed this. Awesome finds! 

[deutscheben]

I believe the next two are both coprolites.

 

This larger nodule has a few overlapping Pecopteris, and I like how clearly the veins show.

 

Finally, this piece looks to be a distinctly different species- perhaps Pecopteris fontaini? Although the ESCONI guidebook indicates they are only found in the Mazon Creek deposits. 

[deutscheben]

Thanks, @fossilized6s! 

[deutscheben]

These three pieces are mysteries to me- the top appears to be a small bit of bark, perhaps? The bottom right could be a part of a lycopsid, and the bottom left I have no idea- it is more like a blobby Mazon Creek fossil than what I typically find at this site. 

 

Lastly, I should mention that fossil collecting is no longer permitted at Griffin Bike Park, unfortunately, after a change in park rules. 

 

[abach292]

Wow incredible! I was just talking about Cheiftain mine. I hope to go there this spring. These look great.