Sometimes You Have To Whack It !!

[stats]

On 9/25/2018 at 7:19 PM, Nimravis said:

Here are my finds from Pit 4 (Braidwood Biota), and some of my favorites.

 

A large Annularia stellata-

 

 

Larger concretions with Lycopod Leaves-

 

 

 

Poorly preserved Triple Annularia-

 

 

Neuropteris-

 

 

 

 

Nice!  Love the Neuropteris!  Those Annularia should clean up well!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[stats]

On 9/27/2018 at 10:09 PM, Nimravis said:

I have not had a chance to crack anything open for the last couple days, but I was checking through containers today and I came across the fossil that hooked me into Mazon Creek Collecting.

 

I found this fern fossil, split opened, in a mound on the road to Tipple Hii- Pit 11. I found it within the first half hour of collecting on my first visit to the Pit, I never found another fossil in that same mound ever again.

 

Very nice!  Stunning even!  Amazing how the first is the only... there has to be more out there!

 

Cheers,

Rich

[Nimravis]

12 minutes ago, stats said:

Very nice!  Stunning even!  Amazing how the first is the only... there has to be more out there!

 

Cheers,

Rich

Thanks Rich. I found it along W5000N or N5000W , I always for get that road destination- never found anything else from the hill it came out of.

[stats]

25 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

Thanks Rich. I found it along W5000N or N5000W , I always for get that road destination- never found anything else from the hill it came out of.

 

I think it's W 5000N, but usually just refer to it as the entrance to the South Unit.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Nimravis]

Today I spent about 3 hours outside in the 58 degree weather cracking open concretions from Pit 4. The cold weather is coming in too quick for me and I wish I was back in Georgia on vacation where it was 88 degrees.

 

I had a lot of luck today and found many nice pieces of Flora and 1 insect that I believe is the Monuran, "Dasyleptus". 

 

I have said in the past that I always picked up larger concretions when I collected at Shadow Lakes, well, I picked up ever concretion that I saw. Here are some larger concretions that I opened today, many had some nice shapes, but were void of fossils.

 

 

When I came across this concretion in the bucket, I decided to put it off to the side and save it for Freeze / Thaw- I have a feeling about this one.

 

 

In earlier posts, I showed concretions that had suggestive shapes, her is a shape that I come across frequently- "Submarine", all of these contained Pecopteris ferns.

 

 

As I go through the concretions, I do not keep everything that you see posted, I put a many of the fossils shown and many more that I do not take pictures of off to the side. I will bring these to the ESCONI trips that go to the Braceville Shaft Mine. Their most recent trip to that location I brought 3 buckets full of open concretions to dump out so other participants can go through them, I currently have another 5 gallon bucket full.

 

Here are a couple of my favorite finds from today.

 

Alethopteris-

 

 

 

Neuropteris-

 

 

 

Pecopteris-

 

 

 

I used to avoid picking up concretions from Shadow Lakes that had the texture of this next concretion, that was until I opened one years ago and it contained my on Eurypterid Adelophthalmus mazonensis. I first thought that this was a millipede, but I believe it is the Monuran - Dasyleptus .  @RCFossils what do you think?

 

 

 

Now on to some of my other finds-

 

Neuropteris

 

 

Macroneuropteris not in the best state of preservation, but might clean up well.

 

 

Annularia-

 

 

 

Sphenophyllum majus-

 

 

 

 

 

Asterophyllites equisetiformis-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Lepidostrobophyllum majus-

 

 

 

Pecopteris-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Bark-

 

 

 

Coprolite-

 

 

Now here is an odd one and this has never happened before, I found an Essexella asheraeJellyfish in the middle of this bucket. I know that Pit 4 was on the fringe of the Essex Biota where the Jellyfish are found, but I have never found one from this location, so I am guessing that this concretion happened to fall into the bucket when it was at my house, but since I opened it today, I will post it.

 

 

 

[stats]

10 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Today I spent about 3 hours outside in the 58 degree weather cracking open concretions from Pit 4. The cold weather is coming in too quick for me and I wish I was back in Georgia on vacation where it was 88 degrees.

 

I had a lot of luck today and found many nice pieces of Flora and 1 insect that I believe is the Monuran, "Dasyleptus".

 

Wow, great day!   Next week is back to the 70s and 80s.  I hope the warmth stays for a while!

 

Quote

...

 

As I go through the concretions, I do not keep everything that you see posted, I put a many of the fossils shown and many more that I do not take pictures of off to the side. I will bring these to the ESCONI trips that go to the Braceville Shaft Mine. Their most recent trip to that location I brought 3 buckets full of open concretions to dump out so other participants can go through them, I currently have another 5 gallon bucket full.

 

 

Thanks for thinking of us.  I have a bucket in the works for the next field trip.  It's an easy way to pass things on to kids and beginners. 

 

Quote

 

 

Neuropteris-

 

 

I always like Neuropteris.

 

Quote

 

I used to avoid picking up concretions from Shadow Lakes that had the texture of this next concretion, that was until I opened one years ago and it contained my on Eurypterid Adelophthalmus mazonensis. I first thought that this was a millipede, but I believe it is the Monuran - Dasyleptus .  @RCFossils what do you think?

 

 

Wow, great day!   Next week is back to the 70s and 80s.  I hope the warmth stays for a while!

 

The key might be the single spike you have coming off the tail.  I think this is difference between Dasyleptis and various syncarid shrimps.  Here is the Dasyleptis that opened for me this past Spring.  It came from Pit 2.  I have a couple, but this is the best example.  Notice the segmentation and single tail spike, it is similar to yours.  Just different preservation? 

 

 

Funny how you mention concretion shapes and texture.  I agree that it does seem that similar concretions tend to yield the same types of fossils, even outside the obvious fern spike shapes.  That is why I asked you to show the back of the sweet shark egg case you found a few weeks ago.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Nimravis]

Thanks for the comments Rich @stats , the spike is why I was thinking Monuran. I agree about Neuropteris , even though I mentioned that Alethopteris is a favorite, which it is, I love them all.

[RCFossils]

I think your latest specimen is the syncarid shrimp Acanthotelson. The tail is not right for a Dasyleptus.

Still a nice find!

[Wrangellian]

On 9/12/2018 at 8:32 PM, stats said:

 

I have similar luck with Braceville worms.  They blow up when you freeze thaw them because the worm seems to be folded over few times in the concretion.  It would be interesting to see what you get if you freeze a few of these already opened worms.  I bet you might see things like this:

 

Cheers,

Rich

Would you not lose some detail from the already-exposed surfaces of the worm (or whathaveyou) if you froze them again?

Do any of these pieces fit back together without covering up some part of the worm?

[stats]

52 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

Would you not lose some detail from the already-exposed surfaces of the worm (or whathaveyou) if you froze them again?

Do any of these pieces fit back together without covering up some part of the worm?

All those pieces fit back together.  I keep them apart, because gluing them together would obscure some of the worm.  I could (and sometimes do) keep freezing, but i don't think there is any more of the worm to see.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Nimravis]

I was at it again today, cracking open concretions from Pit 4 (Shadow Lakes). In one of the 2 buckets that I was going through today, I found a bunch of larger concretions and the vast majority were void of fossils- here are some pics of these concretions.

 

 

 

Here is my favorite find of the day, a beautiful 3D Alethopteris serli.

 

 

 

Here are some of my other finds, I was running out of time and just took random pics of some of my finds.

 

Annularia-

 

 

 

Lycopod Leaves- As with everyday, I find a lot of these, I just wanted to show an example.

 

 

 

Neuropteris- Here is a poorly preserved example and maybe cleaning it up will help.

 

 

 

Sphenophyllum-Not a great example, but I rarely come across them.

 

 

 

This next piece I am not completely sure on the ID. It appears to possibly be a large piece of coprolite with possible ostracods. If anyone has an idea, let me know.

 

 

 

 

Kim @KimTexan I thought of you when I cracked this large concretion open. It reminded me of the Dallas Cowboys star- I will keep it off to the side and get it out to you later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Pecopteris-

 

 

 

Here was a nice shaped concretion, but had a bad texture to it. When I split it open, nothing was inside, so I struck it again to reveal another layer where the poorly preserved fossil resided.

 

 

 

Bark-

 

 

 

 

Coprolite-

 

 

 

Myalinella meeki Bivalve-

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Not much time to open any concretions, but here are some of my finds-

 

Bark-

 

A nice 3D piece of bark or if you prefer a stem.

 

 

A nice crystal filled stem, I took 2 pics to show how light reflects off of the stem.

 

 

 

 

Pecopteris-

 

 

 

Neuropteris-

 

 

Alethopteris-

 

 

Coprolite-

 

 

Polychaete Worm-

 

[Wrangellian]

On 9/30/2018 at 7:14 PM, stats said:

All those pieces fit back together.  I keep them apart, because gluing them together would obscure some of the worm.  I could (and sometimes do) keep freezing, but i don't think there is any more of the worm to see.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

You mean not one of those pieces could be reattached to another without covering up part of a worm? Not even these ones? (or do they fit face-to-face rather than edge-to-edge?)

 

[stats]

On 10/2/2018 at 5:20 PM, Wrangellian said:

You mean not one of those pieces could be reattached to another without covering up part of a worm? Not even these ones? (or do they fit face-to-face rather than edge-to-edge?)

 

 

Sorry, for the delay.  I wanted to take some different pictures of other views.  So, yes.  I can put those pieces together... and probably will now that you mentioned it.  This concretion has 3 layers.  Here is the full concretion back together.  BTW, these can be fun and frustrating 3d jigsaw puzzles!

 

Top layer removed and set next to it.

 

Middle layer removed.

 

So, you can see the different layers.  There are places "inside" the concretion where the worm switches planes.  Some other small chips fill in the gaps.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[KimTexan]

On 10/1/2018 at 12:34 AM, Nimravis said:

 

Kim @KimTexan I thought of you when I cracked this large concretion open. It reminded me of the Dallas Cowboys star- I will keep it off to the side and get it out to you later.

 

 

 

That is a big one. I wonder what it orginally formed around.

Thanks for thinking of me Ralph.

 

[Wrangellian]

7 hours ago, stats said:

Sorry, for the delay.  I wanted to take some different pictures of other views.  So, yes.  I can put those pieces together... and probably will now that you mentioned it.  This concretion has 3 layers.  Here is the full concretion back together.  BTW, these can be fun and frustrating 3d jigsaw puzzles!

 

Top layer removed and set next to it.

 

Middle layer removed.

 

So, you can see the different layers.  There are places "inside" the concretion where the worm switches planes.  Some other small chips fill in the gaps.

Cheers,

Rich

 

Interesting... That organization does help to picture it. Seem to be at least 2 worms in there, then?

[Raggedy Man]

On 5/13/2018 at 9:47 PM, Peat Burns said:

Mazon creek nodules remind me of the old tootsie roll tootsie pop commercial about how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center.  Like the owl who only got in 3 licks before biting into the tootsie pop, my patience runs out after about the 3rd freeze-thaw cycle and then out comes the hammer!

I have one concretion thats survived 123 cycles. I put it in my %+\÷.!*×_  bucket. The ones from pit 4 are ridiculously hard and stubborn. Was one of my favorite sites to hunt. Too bad the campsite closed and we're no longer able to hunt it.

[Nimravis]

Work has had me tied up, so I have not been able to “Whack” any concretions in the last couple of days, hope things change, because it is starting to get colder and it really hurts when you hit your thumb in the cold- heck it hurts when I hit it when it is hot out.

[stats]

16 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Interesting... That organization does help to picture it. Seem to be at least 2 worms in there, then?

Quite possibly.  It could also be the same one on multiple planes.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Nimravis]

Between some rain showers today I was able to open a bunch of concretions fro Pit 4 (Shadow Lakes- Braidwood Biota) and Braceville Shaft Mine (Essex Biota). Here are some pics of my finds, 95% of them will go into buckets for the May ESCONI trip to Braceville. 

 

I did find one thing that looks familiar, but for the life of me my mind is not coming up with an ID, so I am asking @RCFossils , @stats and @Rob Russell or anyone else that I forgot for their ID. This piece came out of a bucket of concretions from 1990 that I collected from Braceville.

 

 

Here are some finds from my September trip to Braceville.

 

Alethopteris-

 

 

Essexella asherae Jellyfish-

 

 

Coprolite-

 

 

Shrimp Portion-

 

 

Here are some misc. finds from Pit 4, most of these were from the bottom of a bucket and they are ends, etc.

 

Pecopteris-

 

 

Annularia-

 

 

Calamites Bark with Internode-

 

 

Bark-

 

 

Macroneuropteris-

 

 

Myalinella Bivalve-

 

 

 

[RCFossils]

That first piece Is a very interesting specimen.

i am pretty sure it is a sea cucumber although I have never seen one preserved quite like that.

Here is a specimen in my collection that shows a very similar body plan.

If you have a microscope, check and see if there are any fish hook like structures preserved (Sigmoid Hooks).

[Nimravis]

10 minutes ago, RCFossils said:

That first piece Is a very interesting specimen.

i am pretty sure it is a sea cucumber although I have never seen one preserved quite like that.

Here is a specimen in my collection that shows a very similar body plan.

If you have a microscope, check and see if there are any fish hook like structures preserved (Sigmoid Hooks).

Thanks, I will do that. It is not like any other Sea Cucumber I have found before, but that bulbous portion looks familiar to something I have seen before, but I cannot put my finger on it.