Sometimes You Have To Whack It !!

[Mark Kmiecik]

Yes, that's the way Walter Lietz did it. That's where I caught the habit too.

 

I also Elmer's Glued a lot of mine, but to heavier board stock labeled with catalog number and genus, plus species if identifiable. The rest I also keep rubber-banded with either tissue, paper towel or very thin foam packing material in between the halves to prevent abrasion. The thin foam packing is what I prefer but I haven't changed it all over from the paper yet. The rubber bands I hate as they deteriorate in about two years and literally crumble. So every time you look at a few you have to replace the rubber bands. I'm trying to think of something else that would do the job as cheaply and well and where one or two sizes at most would fit all sizes of specimens just as a rubber band stretches easily to fit larger specimens, but can't think of anything. If anyone knows a brand or type of rubber band that lasts for 20 years before it crumbles, I, Ralph and many others would love to know.

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

rubber band that lasts for 20 years before it crumbles,

It seems like the newer rubber bands don’t even last a year. I also put a barrier between most of my favorites that are rubber banded, I use regular Kleenex with out lotion- seems to work fine for me.

[stats]

20 hours ago, Nimravis said:

It seems like the newer rubber bands don’t even last a year. I also put a barrier between most of my favorites that are rubber banded, I use regular Kleenex with out lotion- seems to work fine for me.

I use unbleached paper.  I have a large roll of brown paper.  One roll lasts forever.  Rubber bands don't last long, but I still use them.  I have seen people use masking tape, but that looks messy.

 

Cheers,

Rich

[bigred97]

Interesting. It never occurred to me that you could save space by keeping the 2 halves together with a protective layer between them. Up until now I have just kept them separate and never put them back together for fear that would damage them. But Kleenex or unbleached paper do seem like good ideas.

 

I'm interested in finding a blueprint flat file to keep my MC fossils in. I've been watching on Craigslist in my area (Milwaukee) but the only listings so far are in Chicago. I think a flat file would be ideal due to their efficient use of space.

[Nimravis]

13 minutes ago, bigred97 said:

Interesting. It never occurred to me that you could save space by keeping the 2 halves together with a protective layer between them. Up until now I have just kept them separate and never put them back together for fear that would damage them. But Kleenex or unbleached paper do seem like good ideas.

 

I'm interested in finding a blueprint flat file to keep my MC fossils in. I've been watching on Craigslist in my area (Milwaukee) but the only listings so far are in Chicago. I think a flat file would be ideal due to their efficient use of space.

I totally agree with you, I have a friend who does the same thing.

[Mark Kmiecik]

I believe I may be going into withdrawal. Looking for a fix. 

[Nimravis]

16 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

I believe I may be going into withdrawal. Looking for a fix. 

I know, I just told Doren that I have to get back to those buckets. I just got back last night from 3 days of Ordovician Collecting in Kentucky and Indiana, will try to get a report out on that in a day or two.

[Nimravis]

Well with @RCFossils posting some of his fossils, it reminded me that I have to get back to whacking some concretions. I still have 27 buckets left to go through that contain a few thousand concretions. When i was moving some buckets around I saw a bucket that I have not looked into for about 19 years, it does not say where they are from, but by looking at some of the concretions I would bet that they are from Shadow Lakes (Pit 4). It is nice to find a bucket that has concretions that I washed once I brought them home. This bucket contains all complete concretions and some are very nice and should contain some nice fossils. I will not whack these ones, I will freeze them and see what comes out. 

 

Here are some pictures of those concretions, these make all MC collectors happy when the concretion has a nice shape.

 

 

Here is a pic of the other concretions that are in this bucket.

 

 

I decided to break open some concretions today and took them from this bucket that contained smaller concretions. I only broke open about 40 concretions, but wanted to get back into it, here are a couple of my finds from today.

 

 

My favorite Flora from Mazon Creek are Annularia and Alethopteris, here is a pretty 3 whorl Annularia.

 

 

Neuropteris-

 

 

A double Myalinella meeki-

 

 

Bark and Stem-

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I'm talking old news, but I liked some of the worm pieces you discovered a few months back. 

But best of all were the posts about Walter and Rita. 

[Nimravis]

8 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

I'm talking old news, but I liked some of the worm pieces you discovered a few months back. 

But best of all were the posts about Walter and Rita. 

Thanks Adam- they were great people 

[stats]

Great to see you back at it!  And, some real nice shapes to freeze/thaw...  Good Luck!  The new specimens are exciting as usual.  I'm going to post a few recent openings in my river post as I have been neglecting lately too!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Nimravis]

31 minutes ago, stats said:

Great to see you back at it!  And, some real nice shapes to freeze/thaw...  Good Luck!  The new specimens are exciting as usual.  I'm going to post a few recent openings in my river post as I have been neglecting lately too!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

Thanks Rich, I have been putting off opening concretions and need to get in gear. Can’t wait to see your finds.

[Monica]

Beautiful Annularia, Ralph (I think that's my favourite flora from Mazon Creek, too ).  Good luck with freezing/thawing the larger concretions 

[deutscheben]

Those first concretions are enormous! They are on a completely different scale from what I find at Pit 11 or Braceville. I'm glad to see you are back to whacking again. Like @stats I also have to update my collection thread with my latest concretions to split- mostly more Mazopherusa and Essexella from the ESCONI trip last fall. 

[bigred97]

I can't tell you how excited I was to see new posts in this topic! Wonderful as always, and can't wait to see the results of freeze-thaw on the bigger ones! Chris

[Nimravis]

6 hours ago, deutscheben said:

Those first concretions are enormous!

Those were the average size of complete concretions from Pit 4 and yes there were others found that were much bigger, many yielded nothing.

[Mark Kmiecik]

You didn't warn me. I had no popcorn ready. I'm glad to see more of your finds -- this has been a truly wonderful thread and I've looked at it from the beginning all the way through several times. I like the third Neuropteris -- I think it may be ovata. The three-whorl Annularia shows well. I can't wait to see what's in the concretion with the "elbow" at the upper left in the first bucket. Are you cracking them outside, or have you moved the show indoors?

 

Carry on with the awesomeness.

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

can't wait to see what's in the concretion with the "elbow" at the upper left in the first bucket. Are you cracking them outside, or have you moved the show indoors?

I will put that concretion in the freezer tonight and see what happens. Always outside, make too much of a mess. I will probably only be able to open on Saturday’s and Sunday’s.

[Nimravis]

I have the grandson for a few days and after we got back from rock climbing I spent about 40 minutes outside cracking open some concretions from the area across the street from Shadow Lakes (Pit 4), I designate this location as "Across From Pit 4".

 

Nothing special was found today, but here are a few pics- None of these fossils have been cleaned up.

 

Worms- Possibly "Plain Worms". One cracked ope fairly well, but the others cracked correctly, but the worm only showed up partially.

 

 

Cyclus americanus- a poor representation.

 

 

 

Myalinella meeki-

 

 

 

 

Myalinella meeki with Microconchids-

 

 

 

Coprolite-

 

 

 

A very poorly preserved Pecopteris.

 

 

 

A very preserved Annularia-

 

 

 

Subsurface of the non-vascular plant Taeniophyllum latifolium.

 

 

Misc. plant material.

 

 

 

Hopefully tomorrow I can get to a few more.

 

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

High percentage of fauna for that location? Nice finds.

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

High percentage of fauna for that location? Nice finds.

That’s how it is with some of the concretions from that location, but literally right across the street it is a different story.

[Mark Kmiecik]

Just now, Nimravis said:

That’s how it is with some of the concretions from that location, but literally right across the street it is a different story.

Yeah, I've hunted Shadow Lakes quite a bit and out of maybe five or six hundred concretions came up with one shark egg case and one clam for fauna. It's a radical variation in distribution percentages for such a small area.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Love it. 

It's good to be back, it's good to have this thread back and I love the worms. 

[Nimravis]

49 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Love it. 

It's good to be back, it's good to have this thread back and I love the worms. 

Thanks Adam, I will try my best at Whacking some concretions- today I had to take the grandson home for his drum lesson (100 miles round trip) and then I did some climbing and by the time I got back, the sun was setting.

[Nimravis]

Right after I finished climbing today, I figured that I would try to open some concretions while there was a slight drizzle and before it is supposed to snow. I was through a number of concretions an did not have much at finding any fossils, let alone anything that was real nice. Here are few of the finds from today. 

 

Here is a blurry picture of an opened Essexella asherae that was in the bucket.

 

 

This happened a lot today, I would whack open a nicely shaped concretion and it was void of anything except pyrite.

 

 

 

I did not find many Myalinella meeki clams today, but here are the ones that I did.

 

 

Here is a possible worm, I will have to take a look at it later, but this will go into the bucket for the March ESCONI trip to the Braceville Shaft Mine.

 

 

I always do like to find subsurface bark, sometimes it is very pretty, especially when you get pieces with the checker board pattern.

 

 

Here is a random piece of plant material.

 

 

And lastly a poorly preserved Pecopteris?