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Sometimes You Have To Whack It !!


Nimravis

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On 5/13/2018 at 8:59 PM, Nimravis said:

I have a lot of unopened Mazon Creek concretions and though I do put some out in the winter for the Freeze / Thaw process, the vast majority, especially the larger ones do not open. So to dwindle my concretions, I have no problem whacking them with a hammer, and that is what I was doing today. As we all know, this is not the best way to do it since it can damage a nice specimen, but I take my chances. 

 

I always picked up any concretion that looked promising and never passed up larger ones. This all depends on the are that you are collecting, concretions from Pit 11 are never super large, but Pit 4 always produced larger ones - see below. Though these are large, they are by no means my largest.

 

IMG_4230.jpg.bf384e8dc049e902db8e1bc080b48e49.jpg

 

The vast majority of the time there is nothing inside, like the one below.

 

 

 

Other ones produce something nice, like this Alethopteris that I cracked open today.

 

IMG_4243.jpg.310418d67d4d78a2867d5936ec9575bb.jpgIMG_4244.jpg.1d06307b36bc1807c2a6251e71a63dc3.jpg

 

Cleaned up_

 

IMG_4246.thumb.jpg.e3811b004f15d136aae8e09e83ec87b4.jpg

 

 

A couple of my other finds from today, nothing spectacular, but is nice to get rid of the dud ones.

 

Neuropteris

 

IMG_4233.jpg.97acdfb41338662abeff66f0f2534faf.jpg

 

Annularia

 

IMG_4237.jpg.20880138b04b68f3173662e0c8f9ede7.jpgIMG_4234.jpg.4144aba172700d59e17d744f08065fb0.jpg

 

Asterophyllites

 

IMG_4242.jpg.5c2fcf390a661a1a0be9a7d7d9a131a6.jpg

I like these. Thanks for sharing. I’m not sure I have ever seen any of the last one above.

 

I never posted a trip report on my Oklahoma fossils or my kayak trip report. Need to do something with that.

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On 5/13/2018 at 9:27 PM, Raggedy Man said:

Come on up! Im sure we can get a group together in the fall. Bring a small leaf rake! Lol

That sounds like fun!! I’d like to be in on a group hunt at one of those sites.

I think I’ll be driving through in August 2019 too, maybe not the best time to come, but I’ll be attending an international camporee for my daughter’s scout type club in Oshkosh then. I’m hoping I can get her to humor me with a few fossil hunting stops along the way there.

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On 5/14/2018 at 4:57 AM, Wrangellian said:

I thought it might work if you had a good idea of where the fossil was, but if not, I guess not.

How do you know where to hammer them, just randomly?

@Nimravis I wonder, have you ever tried to enveloped them in some type of a cushioning/stabilizing material, then put in a vice?

Does it help reduce the shattering or does it prevent it from cracking along the fossil plane? We have this stuff we get with shipments at work that is a really dense soft cushiony foam I’m thinking of that would be a good cushion for such an experiment.

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On 5/19/2018 at 6:08 PM, Nimravis said:

Cracking open concretions today I found a possible Euproops danae Horseshoe crab, a nice Pecopteris fern, a piece of bark, a Mazonomya Clam and a Myalina clam. 

 

IMG_4323.thumb.jpg.7f765ceb1ff98133e51cb99c7bdc6201.jpgIMG_4329.thumb.jpg.b9fa88625883d9879eec35d215de4ab5.jpgIMG_4330.thumb.jpg.fbf585e285205313e74171d429b520ad.jpg

All very nice and just cool. I especially like the fern, but the horseshoe crab would be very cool.

So do you ever take your rock saw and try to cut the rest of the nodule off? Or maybe a rotery Dremel with a diamond blade. My new blades are cutting through the Britton concretion matrix like butter.

It’s like the fossil trip that never ends. You just keep finding more cool fossils without having to go anywhere.

More than half the fun of fossil hunting is the adventure of the trip and getting outdoors though.

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On 5/23/2018 at 3:39 PM, Nimravis said:

 

Sea Cucumber

IMG_4481.jpg.3f537026b331e4fc5ea3c99487b2b667.jpgIMG_4486.jpg.fa21fa8505ea982b7d9ae4ef883dc49d.jpg

I believe Spiropteris

IMG_4480.jpg.665094de05740032ab9059744f8b87d8.jpgIMG_4497.thumb.jpg.da70f55563291fd5df2462c8070f7ca9.jpg

 

 

Alethopteris

IMG_4482.jpg.674d85ee949f966e4dc054a88f6d17b3.jpg

 

Neuropteris

IMG_4475.jpg.2aa51c4e181d5b64d0733639e335b2c3.jpg

 

A poor Annularia - it might clean up better.

IMG_4477.jpg.318b25d61dfca3dd6ec45d5cb9e2ed1f.jpg

Oh wow! the Spiropteris are positively dreamy! That neuropteris 

Has some very nice detail. It’s quite a nice piece.

Those little annulara ball concretions are still just cute and sweet. You gave me one that is the most adorable little gem. I did find a number of annulara in Oklahoma.

 

The sea cucumber and shrimp are pretty cool too.

 

Have you ever played with slicing through those ones you throw away with the table stone saw just to see how it looks? If the blade were sharp enough to not chip them I’d be tempted to try. Or try it on the ones that didn’t split in quite the right place. Of course you’d lose any 3D affect with that, but it might be ok on some.

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On 5/25/2018 at 7:57 PM, Nimravis said:

Coprolite

IMG_4546.jpg.945c1c000893a44a867bd00c1b3e3562.jpg

 

IMG_4542.jpg.8c2c3e06d685199d1a1f264d0fc61e71.jpg

Poorly preserved examples of Pecopteris 

IMG_4548.jpg.e34db69b42170441fb6cd8290c59bacc.jpgIMG_4547.jpg.765709dc303187f753dd8bc30e149deb.jpgIMG_4549.jpg.46f6169ce0e09ffaebe364855b50cfe3.jpgIMG_4550.jpg.6508ecfaf49ac3344f7c41266326125f.jpg

Poorly preserved examples of Annularia

IMG_4551.jpg.00f23737f268143e2a6bc0ed1c5a3490.jpgIMG_4552.jpg.068fd3ab8e9fdfae7ca66b701bc1ac35.jpgIMG_4553.jpg.0c296e67dd8bcb1c892e303778106ddb.jpg

 

Must be rough on the hands. I think I see some blood there on your fingers.

I’ve tried to start wearing gloves more while collecting and some when working with my fossils. My nails get dirty and chipped and my hands get all rough if I don’t wear gloves. You’ve probably seen the purple gloves in some of my reports. Those are gloves we use at work. If I don’t get them all bloody or donor tissue on them I’ll decontaminate and take them home. They’re super thick and very durable. 

 

Ralph, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. I’m sure I have ammonites and other fossils I’ve collected that I deem low grade because their type is so abundant. Others would be thrilled to have them because they don’t have access to them where they live.

 

The ferns and annulara are still lovely in my book even as they are in a less than perfect state.

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@KimTexan Kim, no blood, it was a drop of sweat. Years ago I tried gloves, but I do much better with bare hands, I can get a more secure grip and am less likely to hit my fingers.

 

I agree about your comments on the finds, but I am looking for specific finds.

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Excellent topic, thank you for sharing all of your splits , even if they are partial or imperfect. And there are definitely some real gems in the mix too! 

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Just now, deutscheben said:

Excellent topic, thank you for sharing all of your splits , even if they are partial or imperfect. And there are definitely some real gems in the mix too! 

I plan on trying to post them everyday, I have so many that I have collected over the years that it is time to start going through them.

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Regarding your love of calamities bark. Here are a couple pics from Oklahoma last month:

This one was just over knee high and about the diameter of my

leg.BDD4A378-964D-4D6B-8C2E-F670C0BC1664.jpeg.692a77fdd0d902270d5592658c20cc30.jpeg

You can see my shoe in this one for size.

16F5328D-C9DA-4122-9897-235687BC9F03.jpeg.d56bbb5b0f07c8b0876a3b25cf7536e7.jpeg

 

This was a strange one. It looks like it was poured into the rock. There is calamities imprint behind it. The odd shape was layer after layer of plant mater. 414EF5B0-373A-4226-9513-F0E87E2D7EB6.jpeg.fe42a58963fdffef68f57541e5441180.jpeg

43204FC8-8FD8-452C-B2CB-5367D957ACB1.jpeg.c50cc85bd02f075e7b6215bba1f44cdd.jpeg

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Today I went through a bucket of "ends" (not complete concretions), from Pit 4. I cracked open about 80 concretions and had a success rate of about 95% for them having some type of fossil inside- all flora. That is a very high percentage for concretions, though the majority of them had below average preservation. Here are some pics of the better preserved pieces.

 

Example of "ends":

 

IMG_4771.jpg.40046efad50540c01d41435d2def63d8.jpg

 

 

The vast majority of large concretions in my experience are void of fossils, but I never left one in the field knowing that there was always a possibility that it did contain something. For example, this 8 1/2" concretion that I opened today. It had a good shape, though thick at the end and not complete. After a couple hits with my hammer, it opened perfectly along the plane line to expose a great piece of bark.

 

IMG_4792.jpg.cc357e31b24dc8b43b620dbf0b2e8289.jpgIMG_4791.jpg.fcf4fdc14950ca41da9127908d891508.jpgIMG_4793.jpg.aebc4456213434a57cc24d05d8344e9c.jpgIMG_4794.jpg.9996f987c0a73c7cdba9574a035254e6.jpgIMG_4795.jpg.43ebf4f911630ca3dd7045223341dc1e.jpg

 

 

Here is another "end" piece and as you can see, there is a hole in the concretion, indicating that a fossil is enclosed. And inside is another nice example of a piece of bark. Bark is always nice to look at under a loop, because sometimes you can find Spirobis worms or if you are lucky an insect.

 

IMG_4825.jpg.81875eeb72fed885829fa6068d46016c.jpgIMG_4826.jpg.8f43961315c0a9fa753e532fce8ef1b9.jpgIMG_4832.jpg.e175020a5c134f6d6a9a32eaf07e6c99.jpg

 

 

Here is a nice piece of Calamites bark with internodes.

 

 

IMG_4823.jpg.a3b42832e9aed81966177600387b1752.jpgIMG_4824.jpg.4bae97f34d8fb353471b450ac67e3bf4.jpg

 

 

The below type of concretion usually contains a Lycopod or a stem and they are very difficult to crack open with a hammer without breaking it. As you can see, I was almost successful, but had to super glue the broken piece.

 

IMG_4821.jpg.30ab9eb51ab01cc400f2f29649508ce4.jpgIMG_4822.jpg.61f0118db6bcd72a1290232ec671166d.jpg

 

 

Here are a couple Pecopteris Ferns that I found today.

 

IMG_4784.jpg.f16255504b98496463c6ef0ca15c8e77.jpgIMG_4810.jpg.9abced7b81b3625c0ce3a2006621177d.jpgIMG_4817.jpg.400361de441ddf74193800806784fb5e.jpgIMG_4787.jpg.0e4fb1b64d9bd759d0a1ff125b99fe2d.jpgIMG_4801.jpg.be48264fbd5eac0d7ca0381f369d4e03.jpgIMG_4830.jpg.5535decc90fa4ea6e452115fdf5c8a99.jpgIMG_4834.jpg.a9a5f8dd03c029d2a19833e31dccf5eb.jpgIMG_4818.jpg.1a986d3371420dd8523afbe3b11573a9.jpg

 

 

Sometimes when you crack concretions they get damaged, like the other half of this Annularia radiata.

 

IMG_4820.jpg.ff7729a1e8af0aac111a128764294667.jpg

 

 

Lastly, here is a partial Lepidostrobophyllum majus, when these are complete, they are very nice looking.

 

IMG_4800.jpg.12305dfe6a5fd4b45669a4c4a29604e1.jpg

 

 

Check back tomorrow for more finds, it is going to be about 94 degrees out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Not bad, the big piece is a quite decent. :)

But like you, i'm starting to hope for for rarer finds now! 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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6 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Not bad, the big piece is a quite decent. :)

But like you, i'm starting to hope for for rarer finds now! 

It would be nice, but this IS Mazon Creek collecting, it is not as sexy as some people think. You can find great things on your first visit, but that is usually not the case. As see in this post, I have already gone through hundreds of concretions and in my opinion have only found average to below average things. The good or maybe the bad thing is that I still have thousands of concretions to go through, so hopefully something really nice will show up like it has so many times in years past.

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You must be a master at whacking them by now Ralph. Some nice additions there too. It would drive me made thinking  in theses thousands of concretions maybe a Tully Monster. Keep going Ralph and thank you for an enjoyable thread.

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1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said:

You must be a master at whacking them by now Ralph. Some nice additions there too. It would drive me made thinking  in theses thousands of concretions maybe a Tully Monster. Keep going Ralph and thank you for an enjoyable thread.

Thanks Bobby, if I got a complete Tully it would be great, but you usually get portions of them when you do find them. I would rather find another nice fish or insect. What drives me crazy is knowing how many buckets of concretions I have. Not until I started making a concerted effort to go through them did I realize how long it will take. Not all buckets are the same, some have larger concretions and the majority have smaller ones. The buckets with smaller ones can contain hundreds. I am trying to go through larger end / partial pieces first, but it takes a long time and a lot of swings of the hammer. Some of them I have to beat the snarge out of to get them open and usually they are void of fossils-  luckily I am pretty good at striking them and I do not hit my fingers- that is Yet :).

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Thanks Ralph it sounds like you have got your  work cut out for you. Keep it up . I would really like to see your fish and insects specimens, can I find them on TFF? Also if you find some more of Achistrum sp and consider them spare I would like to buy one from you in the future. Looking for to you updating this thread with new finds. Cheers Bobby

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1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said:

Thanks Ralph it sounds like you have got your  work cut out for you. Keep it up . I would really like to see your fish and insects specimens, can I find them on TFF? Also if you find some more of Achistrum sp and consider them spare I would like to buy one from you in the future. Looking for to you updating this thread with new finds. Cheers Bobby

Bobby I don’t know how to share links, but here are two posts that I put together when I first joined the Forum, the show some examples of nice Fauna and Flora that I have. I just searched by name to find them, let me know what you think.

 

8C2B9534-C521-4E71-877C-21EACDD42B16.thumb.png.3361e6ee570f1032fd46e11275023986.png67B1A410-D128-401C-B983-C42920DF108A.thumb.png.646ad9ece18a51ebe9a3a813e1a3ea9d.png

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Hi Ralph just added a link and I will get back to you later.cheers Bobby 

 

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1 hour ago, Nimravis said:

I don’t know how to share links,

To make a link go to the top of the page and highlight the "www."  address for that thread. Right click on it and select copy then paste it where You want the link.

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Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Hi Ralph just added a link and I will get back to you later.cheers Bobby 

 

Don’t forget to check out the Flora one- I tend to like the plants more, especially when they are real nice.

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2 hours ago, ynot said:

To make a link go to the top of the page and highlight the "www."  address for that thread. Right click on it and select copy then paste it where You want the link.

Thanks Tony

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Hi Ralph 

Your Fossil-bearing concretion collection is incredible.

Thanks for showing us that Mazon Creek really is such a abundant and diverse hunting spot, so many taxonomic descriptions.

 

I love the tully monsters and the Winged Insect- (Eucaenus ovalis) but your plant collection 

stands out to me just beautiful (ANNULARIA and NEUROPTERIS ) thank you for sharing Ralph keep cracking them open all the best Bobby. BTW have a look at my plant collection it is on the forum.

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Here are pics of some of the concretions that I broke open today, my favorite was a large concretion containing Calamites bark.

 

IMG_4861.jpg.29e97bfc6de9e3416192bb46e0bd61a8.jpgIMG_4888.jpg.c7c79052e82aae4bdaa68d80b15e8136.jpg

 

Another piece of flora that I found is something that I have not found in a while, it is a Neuropteris stem with the leaf attachment point, unfortunately it is small and did not break properly. 

 

IMG_4893.jpg.328d9fc10541aa41497612350dfdb448.jpg

 

 

This was a nice Neuropteris fern.

 

IMG_4866.jpg.a420810476dcbed81cef5eb4cd8ea48c.jpgIMG_4867.jpg.6959b1f9ce8a4a31949dc008308cc98d.jpg

 

 

I would say that this is a triple Lycopod leaf.

 

IMG_4874.jpg.cedc4c2ebca440bfb7687ed2620c1bef.jpg

 

 

A poorly preserved Asterophyllites equisetiformis.

 

IMG_4891.jpg.9999c4d3d4f44703e85966e9ce5327b1.jpg

 

 

A couple more pieces of bark.

 

IMG_4848.jpg.0fa849676972b9602c2f9c367bec415b.jpgIMG_4881.jpg.22e2b339b1d590f86dff21f7ea297eeb.jpgIMG_4886.jpg.b1a86cc8f2d2997b09ef0d6d244cccb5.jpg

 

 

A couple partial Lepidostrobophyllum majus.

 

IMG_4869.jpg.3ebdf7611b4cf331e1921ae2d471eef5.jpgIMG_4857.jpg.215d5d4ac027ecbd6387b3e14cd1fd9a.jpgIMG_4858.jpg.9d5956ce49eec8edb431248a45ce9124.jpg

 

 

Lastly, what appears to be unknown fauna, though at this point I am having a brain cramp trying to think of what it can be. I would say that this concretion was dropped into this bucket, most likely from Pitt 11, I do not believe that it would have come from Pit 4. If you have any suggestions, let me know. With Mazon Creek concretions, you come across a lot of things that have suggestive shapes or cannot pint point what they are.

 

 

IMG_4852.jpg.92ab1aa54df19a955a8bc0ba15ed53e2.jpgIMG_4854.jpg.47949fc43619840bec9a8b7bb246bff7.jpg

 

Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to open some more after work, that is if I am not climbing.

 

 

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@KimTexan I thought of you when this concretion opened, now I do not know if you would call it a septarian, but I will include it in the package that I will be sending you- it is kind of cute and I believe crystal filled.

 

IMG_4883.jpg.791cfd10f9ae1f63a6c9f9cd69ebc1fe.jpgIMG_4875.jpg.115ba0bdeaaa4eac1e975e3ed7c43725.jpg

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