Sometimes You Have To Whack It !!

[Nimravis]

Today I went through 1 bucket, which contained about 300 concretions that I collected during the month of August, 1999 from the area that I designate as "Across from Pit 4". This site has yielded a number of large fish scales and today I found a nice small one and it turned out to be my favorite find of the day.

 

 

[Nimravis]

One of the problems of opening concretions with a hammer is that sometimes they do not crack properly., such was the case with this beautiful Annularia. I really love to find Annularia's and it really ticks me off when this happens. This would have been a very nice fossil if I opened it using the freeze / thaw method, but I have so many concretions and I am only putting certain ones off to the side to  F / T.

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple other pieces of flora that were found today.

 

[Nimravis]

I also found 4 concretions that contained the bivalve, Myalinella meeki with Microconchids.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Here are a few other Myalinella meeki bivalves that I cracked open today.

 

 

 

Here are a couple of concretions that are like "hash plates" containing crushed bivalves.

 

 

 

Today I took a pic of this small piece of plant material. I find these quite often, but never keep them, as was the case today. While looking at things on the Forum tonight I saw that Jack Wittry (Fiddlehead) provided an ID on these- it is the subsurface of the non vascular plant Taeniophyllum latifolium. I might have to save a piece the next time I find one.

 

[Wrangellian]

I like that shrimp too... nicely detailed.

Interesting how 3D that Essexella on the right looks..

[stats]

5 hours ago, Nimravis said:

One of the problems of opening concretions with a hammer is that sometimes they do not crack properly., such was the case with this beautiful Annularia. I really love to find Annularia's and it really ticks me off when this happens. This would have been a very nice fossil if I opened it using the freeze / thaw method, but I have so many concretions and I am only putting certain ones off to the side to  F / T.

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple other pieces of flora that were found today.

 

Nice!  I agree about the Annularias.  They seem to break in very disappointing ways.  I have a few from freeze thaw that I had to piece back together.  Of course, that might be a Pit 2 preservation thing.

 

Cheers,
Rich

 

[Bobby Rico]

This thread is such an enjoyable constant . If you have not check it for a day or two theres always plenty of whacking been carried out to catch up and admire. It has made me won’t to add to my couple of pieces form Mazon Creek. Good work 

[Monica]

On 10/12/2018 at 7:32 PM, Nimravis said:

Myalinella meeki-

 

 

Hey Ralph!

I thought that this particular bivalve looked pretty interesting since it appears as though it was preserved with something coming out of its body - is it possible that the extension coming out of the top is the foot or the siphon(s) of the critter?!  Or is the "extension" just part of the way the specimen was preserved?

Thanks,

Monica

[Nimravis]

19 minutes ago, Monica said:

 

Hey Ralph!

I thought that this particular bivalve looked pretty interesting since it appears as though it was preserved with something coming out of its body - is it possible that the extension coming out of the top is the foot or the siphon(s) of the critter?!  Or is the "extension" just part of the way the specimen was preserved?

Thanks,

Monica

Monica, it is just the way I cracked of the concretion, ever once in a while the bivalve is oriented in a different way than I think it is and it comes out this way. 

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said:

This thread is such an enjoyable constant . If you have not check it for a day or two theres always plenty of whacking been carried out to catch up and admire. It has made me won’t to add to my couple of pieces form Mazon Creek. Good work 

Thanks Bobby, there have been a couple times that I thought about discontinuing this thread, but I decided that I have to see it to the end. I am trying to give a real perspective of how it is to be a Mazon Creek collector and that it is like the lottery when you find something real nice. The majority of the fossils that are found are so-so fossils,  but still very special since they have been sitting inside their own little 300 Million year old time capsule waiting for me to let them out. I am glad that you are enjoying it and hopefully over the winter some of the concretions that I will be freezing might pop and reveal something spectacular.

[BLT]

3 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

This thread is such an enjoyable constant . If you have not check it for a day or two theres always plenty of whacking been carried out to catch up and admire. 

I agree! This is one of my favorite threads on the forum. I always look forward to seeing new content.  

 

[Rob Russell]

That fish scale is remarkable.  Killer find, Ralph. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 9/26/2018 at 1:06 AM, Nimravis said:

Here are my finds from Pit 11 (Essex Biota)-

 

Achistrum sp. (Sea Cucumber) with mouth-

 

I love the mouth on this sea cucumber! 

Some great finds in this batch, methinks. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 9/28/2018 at 4:09 AM, 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.

 

Beautiful colouring and an unusual piece. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Some pretty good finds over these last couple of weeks, Ralph. 

Love the shrimp on the last page and i'm rather fond of the Taeniopohyllum (that you've been chucking away !) as well. 

The fish scale is beautiful. 

[Nimravis]

34 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Some pretty good finds over these last couple of weeks, Ralph. 

Love the shrimp on the last page and i'm rather fond of the Taeniopohyllum (that you've been chucking away !) as well. 

The fish scale is beautiful. 

Thanks Adam- every once in a while a nice piece emerges.

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Rob Russell said:

That fish scale is remarkable.  Killer find, Ralph. 

Thanks Rob, I have never found one like that.

[Nimravis]

2 hours ago, BLT said:

I agree! This is one of my favorite threads on the forum. I always look forward to seeing new content.  

 

Thanks Tracey, I am glad that you enjoy it.

[KimTexan]

The detail on this one is stunning. I like the 3 demention all quality and the coloration too. Too bad it didn’t all split in one plane. It’s still lovely.

 

On 10/10/2018 at 7:16 PM, Nimravis said:

I believe that this is a nice Mariopteris.

 

 

That is a nice one. I even like that curving bulge of matrix and the little white stuff on the bottom left. They seem to add to the aesthetics of the piece to make it look like a unique work of art.

On 10/10/2018 at 7:16 PM, Nimravis said:

A couple nice Macroneuropteris.

 

 

[Nimravis]

Today I started to go through a bucket of concretions that I collected from "Across from Pit 4" during July of 1999, I never do a post in the middle of my "Whacking" open concretions, but I had to take a pause.

 

 

 

13 hours ago, stats said:

One of the problems of opening concretions with a hammer is that sometimes they do not crack properly., such was the case with this beautiful Annularia. I really love to find Annularia's and it really ticks me off when this happens.

 

As I made this comment yesterday, I think I have another situation today, but instead of trying to continue with a hammer, I am going with a daily Freeze / Thaw and see what happens.

 

Now on to the concretion in question, I think that it contains another fish, what do you think? I also put all of the other pieces off to the side and I can reconstruct if it breaks nicely. I really this that the majority of the fish, if that is what it is, is still in the concretion- fingers crossed. 

 

[Miocene_Mason]

Yay fishy! Hope it comes out nice!

[stats]

48 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

Today I started to go through a bucket of concretions that I collected from "Across from Pit 4" during July of 1999, I never do a post in the middle of my "Whacking" open concretions, but I had to take a pause.

 

 

 

 

As I made this comment yesterday, I think I have another situation today, but instead of trying to continue with a hammer, I am going with a daily Freeze / Thaw and see what happens.

 

Now on to the concretion in question, I think that it contains another fish, what do you think? I also put all of the other pieces off to the side and I can reconstruct if it breaks nicely. I really this that the majority of the fish, if that is what it is, is still in the concretion- fingers crossed. 

 

Looks good!  Good luck, go slow!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[jdp]

Oh nice! The lungfish scale is very nice. Here's hoping that paleoniscoid comes out well!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Looks decidedly fishy to me. 

[Nimravis]

Well after about 3 1/2 hours of hammer swings, I am left with about 1/3 of a bucket of what I started with today.

 

Besides the possible fish that I posted today, here is my next favorite find, a nice piece of bark.

 

 

Here are some other finds- 

 

Myalinella meeki Bivalves-

 

 

2 poorly preserved worms-

 

 

Poorly preserved Neuropteris-

 

 

This one has crystals on it.

 

 

Bark-

 

 

I believe that this piece has a seed.

 

 

Coprolite-

 

 

Besides these, I also found other items that I put off to the side for the ESCONI Braceville trip, I am filling a 3rd bucket now.

 

 

Lastly, I put these 2 groups of concretions from the bucket and am currently freezing them now, I will up date as they open, if the do.