Sometimes You Have To Whack It !!

[Nimravis]

Well today it was 33 degrees and snowing, so what else could I do but open some concretions. I had to change things up a bit because everything was getting wet, so it took a little more time to go through things.

 

This first piece really had me going for a bit, first it did not break properly so I had a number of pieces to reassemble. The reason I reassembled it was because I thought I found and damaged another fish. But after spending time on and off putting it together I discovered that it was not a fish, but a piece of bark- it is a real pain when your eyes don't work the way they use to.

 

 

 

Here are some more of my finds, these all came from "Across From Pit 4". I really love little concretions that have nice flora inside.

 

 

 

There is a tell tale cracking sound that is made when a concretion breaks nicely, as happened with this piece.

 

 

Here are a couple nice pieces of bark and subsurface bark.

 

 

Pecopteris-

 

 

Myalinella meeki Bivalves-

 

 

Coprolite-

 

 

 

Here are a couple that have me stumped. I am pretty sure that the first piece may is a bivalve, but I am also leaning more towards a piece of a cone, but not positive.

 

 

The next piece is really pretty and I would rather not try to clean it up, I like the way that it looks. I am wondering if it could be Rhacophyllum corntum? Any help @fiddlehead would be appreciated.

 

[Nimravis]

[RCFossils]

31 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

Yes,

It is a nice example of Rhacophyllum.

Nice preservation!

[Nimravis]

53 minutes ago, RCFossils said:

Yes,

It is a nice example of Rhacophyllum.

Nice preservation!

Thanks for the confirmation.

[Nimravis]

I was at it again today, and although I did not find anything spectacular, I did find a couple tiny fern pieces that I did like. Sometimes the best preserved Mazon Creek fossils come out of very small concretions.

 

Here are a couple examples-

 

 

 

Here are a couple pieces of Fauna.

 

A couple poorly preserved Cyclus americanus.

 

 

Myalinella meeki Bivalves-

 

 

Sedgwickia-

 

 

Poorly preserved worm-

 

 

I believe that this is a poorly preserved shrimp.

 

 

Coprolite-

 

 

Bark and subsurface bark-

 

 

 

 

[Innocentx]

13 hours ago, Nimravis said:

I did not find anything spectacular

My eyes are impressed. Great veinage revealed on this one:

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Innocentx said:

My eyes are impressed. Great veinage revealed on this one:

 

 

 

I agree Patty- it is hard to believe that the detail on some fossils can exist after 300 Million Years. I do like Fauna, but the Flora can really be beautiful, especially in the smaller pieces.

[Nimravis]

On Black Friday I decided to open a few concretions to see if I could find myself a Christmas Gift, but that was not the case. Here are a couple pics of some of my finds from today.

 

This would have been a nice little Palaeoxyris, but i hit it a little too hard and it broke. I believe that this is my 5th one that I have found since I started this post.

 

 

Here are a couple worms - partials.

 

 

And a couple Sea Cucumber pieces (Achistrum sp.)

 

 

Myalinella meeki Bivalves-

 

 

Essexella asherae Jellyfish-

 

 

Coprolite-

 

 

Here are a couple pieces of bark and subsurface bark.

 

 

Ferns-

 

 

Neuropteris-

 

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Today I felt like a dog, all I found was (Bark) and (Coprolite).

 

Here are some of my finds from concretions from Pit 4 (Shadow Lakes) and "Across From Pit 4".

 

Bark and Subsurface Bark-

 

 

Neuropteris-

 

 

Pecopteris-

 

 

Coprolite_

 

I found the first three pieces in consecutive order which was odd. The first piece had a lot of fractures through it and did not think that it was going to contain anything.

 

 

This next piece also had fractures-

 

 

Here is the third one that was found.

 

 

This last piece of coprolite I found later in the day.

 

 

 

Myalinella meeki Bivalve-

 

 

 

This piece contains a couple Lepidostrobophyllum bracts.

 

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice to see the more recent finds! 

I do agree that the detail, especially in some of the smaller nodules is quite astounding. 

And I love the colour patterning on the Sedgwickia near the top of the page. 

[Innocentx]

On 11/24/2018 at 5:48 PM, Nimravis said:

Today I felt like a dog, all I found was (Bark) and (Coprolite).

You have sharp sense of humor. 

 

Now this is exquisite:

 

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Innocentx said:

You have sharp sense of humor. 

 

Now this is exquisite:

 

 

 

 

 

Yes Patty, that piece was very pretty.

[RJB]

  This needs a little help, but here is what this looks like just from a 'Whack'!!   Just amazing!  this doesnt happen too often!  and a very weird concretion.  This one is gunna be a really good B-Grade crab.

 

RB

[Nimravis]

24 minutes ago, RJB said:

  This needs a little help, but here is what this looks like just from a 'Whack'!!   Just amazing!  this doesnt happen too often!  and a very weird concretion.  This one is gunna be a really good B-Grade crab.

 

RB

Now that’s a nice whack.

[Nimravis]

Well after about 9" of snow yesterday, I decided that it was a good day to take off and open some concretions from Pit 4 (Shadow Lakes). It was sunny, but cold at 24 degrees, so I went through about 1/2 bucket.

 

Here are a few of the finds and I will start with a couple of my favorites.

 

Alethopteris- I really wish that this was a full concretion, versus just a tip.

 

 

I believe that these are both Asterophyllites, but am not positive.

 

 

 

Neuropteris-

 

 

Pecopteris-

 

 

The bottom portion of a Lepidostrobophyllum majus bract.

 

 

 

Bark-

 

 

A poorly preserved Asterophyllites.

 

 

Lycopod Leaf-

 

 

Stem Portion?

 

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

4 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Well after about 9" of snow yesterday, I decided that it was a good day to take off and open some concretions from Pit 4 (Shadow Lakes). It was sunny, but cold at 24 degrees, so I went through about 1/2 bucket.

 

Here are a few of the finds and I will start with a couple of my favorites.

That's some nice preservation in those asterophyllites.

Edited November 28, 2018 by UtahFossilHunter
Removed pictures

[Wrangellian]

On 11/9/2018 at 9:57 AM, Nimravis said:

... Some of these open with a tap of a hammer and others I can rain down Thor’s fury on them and nothing happens. Lol

Would these not be the ones you could use the joey on? or would those invariably have nothing in them?

 

Some nice plants lately - the Annularia, Sphenophyllum, Rhacophyllum, etc. Also those 3D-preserved plants are interesting, even if only cavities.

[Nimravis]

23 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

Would these not be the ones you could use the joey on? or would those invariably have nothing in them?

There are a lot of duds, even though it is thought that something had to be present to form the concretion. I really think the only way to open them is freezing or whacking them. The ones that I have been freeze / thawing have not opened yet and I have done a lot of cycles.

[KimTexan]

On 11/18/2018 at 8:49 PM, Nimravis said:

I was at it again today, and although I did not find anything spectacular, I did find a couple tiny fern pieces that I did like. Sometimes the best preserved Mazon Creek fossils come out of very small concretions.

 

I do like the little ones. They are just so adorable. They have some nice detail too.

On 11/18/2018 at 8:49 PM, Nimravis said:

 

 

That is kind of cool. I don’t recall ever seeing more than 2 together. It almost looks like that a few shell are converted to aragonite this maybe that’s just an iron patina. Occasionally shells here convert to aragonite.

On 11/18/2018 at 8:49 PM, Nimravis said:

Sedgwickia-

 

I like that one. It is pretty decent looking. I’m sure you’ve shared those before, but that’s is the most striking one to me.

On 11/18/2018 at 8:49 PM, Nimravis said:

I believe that this is a poorly preserved shrimp.

If you do t look close at the detail it looks like a bullfrog tadpole.

 

On 11/18/2018 at 8:49 PM, Nimravis said:

 

Is that hat bark or a cone or seed pod? Really like the edges with all the triangle shapes with detail. Very interesting. If bark is it a Lepodendron?

On 11/18/2018 at 8:49 PM, Nimravis said:

 

I really like this one. Love the little rhombus like detail or whatever you call it. What kind of tree would it come from?

On 11/18/2018 at 8:49 PM, Nimravis said:

This one looks very interesting. Really like the 3D quality. Is it fern? I can’t tell what it is.

 

Thanks for sharing your fossils with us like you do. Thanks for all the pics.

[KimTexan]

You skipped right past this without saying a word! It’s gorgeous!!!!

It is so different from everything else. Was it really in a Mazon nodule? What is it? Is it just enormous pinuals? It looks amazing.

[Nimravis]

@KimTexan this piece is not very big. I believe that it might be Pecopteris , but I am not sure.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Love the Asterophyllites! 

[Innocentx]

19 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Asterophyllites

Your well preserved specimen is impressive. 

[Nimravis]

Due to the weather, I have not had time to go out and whack some concretions. Today I found a little time before it started drizzling> I opened about 50 concretions from the area "Across From Pit 4".

 

I did not find much of anything today, but here is my favorite find of the day.

 

Neuropteris-

 

 

 

This piece is interesting, but I cannot figure our what it might be.

 

 

 

Myalinella meeki Bivalves-

 

 

 

I believe these might be Asterophyllites.

 

 

Some pieces of bark-

 

[BLT]

44 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

Due to the weather, I have not had time to go out and whack some concretions. Today I found a little time before it started drizzling> 

 

I’m glad you were able to open more concretions today. I often browse this thread while drinking my first cup of coffee each morning. I’ve been missing your updates! It’s always exciting to see what you’ve found.