Tidgy's Dad Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Very glad to have you back whacking things again, Ralph. 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plantguy Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Yup some nice finds. Glad its warmed up. Those are/were crazy temps to even think about. Regards, Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 2 hours ago, Plantguy said: Yup some nice finds. Glad its warmed up. Those are/were crazy temps to even think about. Regards, Chris I agree Chris, I decided to take tomorrow off and maybe open some more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 It has been about a month since I have posted to this thread and I am going to have to start getting back into "Whacking" open concretions, today is a little different post though. I believe around the November time frame I put 3- 5 gallon buckets of concretions outside to freeze and thaw throughout the winter. Each bucket contained between 100-110 complete concretions from various sites. I filled each bucket with water and let nature do it's best to unlock the hidden treasures inside the 300 million year old time capsules. This Winter was a great one to do the freeze / thaw method since there were great fluctuations of temperatures and for an extended period of time it was really cold. Unfortunately, Nature was not as persuasive as I would have like. Out of the 100-110 concretions that I checked today from one bucket, only 6 concretions opened and the remainder are just as solid as they have been for the past countless millions of years, and that is why I like to "Whack" them, I am a little more persuasive. Here is a picture of the concretions that did not open- I used a standard 12" / 20 CM ruler for scale so you can see the various shapes and sizes. The elongated, larger concretion that is seen on the lower left hand side of the picture had a crack along the mid section that I did not see until I was placing them back into the bucket. Unfortunately, this Annularia did not make it. Here is that Annularia, this is one of the problems with freezing, sometimes they just shatter ti pieces after freezing. The original break- Showing what was inside- After a little tap- The other end- Here are the other things that opened- Essexella asherae Jellyfish- Sub surface bark- Taeniophyllum latifolium. MIsc. plant material, one piece had a Microconchid right side picture. When I go through the other 2 buckets, I will post what if anything opened. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 Hi Ralph just court up on your thread love your squirrel friend. Great thread thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted March 18, 2019 Author Share Posted March 18, 2019 6 hours ago, Bobby Rico said: Hi Ralph just court up on your thread love your squirrel friend. Great thread thank you. Thanks Bobby, I will get this going on a regular basis soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted March 19, 2019 Author Share Posted March 19, 2019 Well I went through my second bucket of concretions from my Winter freeze / thaw and this one was even more disappointing than the last last bucket that I went through. This bucket contained at least 94 concretions, though I think that there was more and that they just disintegrated. Here are the remaining 91 concretions that I will continue to freeze and thaw. I am using a standard 12” / 30 cm ruler for scale. Only one one concretion opened and it was a large one, it contained bark. This next concretion just broke apart and it not worth putting back together- it contains some miscellaneous flora. I have one more bucket to go through, hopefully something will pop out. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 I have been suffering withdrawal symptoms from the lack of whacked nodules (or frozen and thawed ones). Good to see this thread operational again. Sorry about the breakages but good luck with the final bucket! Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted March 20, 2019 Author Share Posted March 20, 2019 2 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said: I have been suffering withdrawal symptoms from the lack of whacked nodules (or frozen and thawed ones). Good to see this thread operational again. Sorry about the breakages but good luck with the final bucket! Thanks Adam, I have to get back to them, but this weekend is the ESCONI Show and next weekend is the MAPS Show. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 7 minutes ago, Nimravis said: Thanks Adam, I have to get back to them, but this weekend is the ESCONI Show and next weekend is the MAPS Show. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 Still watching with great anticipation. Hope the next bucket holds some joy. 1 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 On 3/19/2019 at 9:40 PM, Nimravis said: Thanks Adam, I have to get back to them, but this weekend is the ESCONI Show and next weekend is the MAPS Show. I'll be at MAPS on Sunday. There is usually a good selection there. I like to get there Saturday, but can't this year. I've bought a few "Mazon Creek" fossils from Missouri and Indiana the last couple years. See you at the ESCONI show. Cheers, Rich 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taj Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 I've been whacking too this winter , but fauna from the mid Jurassic ( Oxfordian) . Must say it worked quite well ! A few fauna pics for a change ... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 I stopped at the ESCONI Show again today and I say Rich @stats and we were discussing Mazon Creek fossils and I mentioned that I had to check my last bucket that I had freezing over the Winter. Even though I am not feeling the best, I decided to check the bucket. It would have been better if I just stayed on the couch. Out of 100 concretions that I was freezing in that bucket, 96 are still the way they have been for 300 million years. 3 opened and they were void of anything and 1 just disintegrated. LIFE IS GOOD. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 7 hours ago, Nimravis said: I stopped at the ESCONI Show again today and I say Rich @stats and we were discussing Mazon Creek fossils and I mentioned that I had to check my last bucket that I had freezing over the Winter. Even though I am not feeling the best, I decided to check the bucket. It would have been better if I just stayed on the couch. Out of 100 concretions that I was freezing in that bucket, 96 are still the way they have been for 300 million years. 3 opened and they were void of anything and 1 just disintegrated. LIFE IS GOOD. Sorry, Man... soon! Cheers, Rich 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted April 7, 2019 Author Share Posted April 7, 2019 Well after visiting two Rock / Fossil Shows today and seeing that this has been the warmest day in about 5 months, I decided to try and Whack open some concretions today. Nothing special was found, but one piece that I have not found in a while was opened. I do not recall finding a pecten in a while, here is an okay example. Here is a small piece of Lepidodendron bark. Myalinella meeki with multiple Microconchids. Neuropteris- Pecopteris- Myalinella meeki- Misc. pieces of bark / sub-surface bark- 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted April 7, 2019 Share Posted April 7, 2019 Ralph - that pecten is a little cutie! Congrats on finding it, along with some other nice things! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plantguy Posted April 7, 2019 Share Posted April 7, 2019 Yep, the Lepidodendron fragment and Pecten are especially nice. Regards, Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 I too like the little pecten. And I'm very interested in microconchids. Very nice, Ralph. Life's Good! 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted April 12, 2019 Share Posted April 12, 2019 On 5/27/2018 at 6:37 PM, Nimravis said: 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. And that's the reason you keep all the "floor tile" until you can examine it under magnification. After that I would give it to people who had no Mazon specimens as a starter. Floor tile is more common than Essexella. Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted April 12, 2019 Share Posted April 12, 2019 On 6/3/2018 at 9:14 PM, deutscheben said: Wow, I'm a big fan of that fish too, even shattered. It has a real sense of liveliness to it. Those massive nodules from last page blew my mind! I haven't found anything bigger than my palm at Mazon Creek. And there was some good quality plant material in yours too. Nice fish. I never found one, not even a blade. Nodules that were "round-ish" from 9 to 12 inches and "long-ish" up to 18 inches were common back in the day. Most of those are in museums and old-fart collections nowadays. I've seen annularia in other peoples collections (collected, not purchased) that are 4 inches wide, 17 inches long and have 11 to 13 whorls with absolutely zero calcification and unbelievable detail. It is my belief that once the concretions are exposed to weathering it affects them internally and deteriorates the level of preservation. Twenty years ago they seemed much cleaner with better detail. Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted April 12, 2019 Share Posted April 12, 2019 On 6/4/2018 at 10:23 PM, Nimravis said: Here is today's installment of some of finds that I found today, unlike yesterday, nothing real cool. It is a real pain when you have a nice shaped concretion that cracks perfectly in the middle and it is void of a fossil. Here are two examples: Sometimes they break in the wrong plane, either above or below the fossil. Sometimes the plane the fossil lies in is not the weakest in the nodule. When I come up with blanks that looked really good to begin with I'll crazy glue them back together and continue the freeze/thaw for 50 cycles and if they don't split by them, hammer again. If I get another clean split I repeat. Only then would I discard. I've gotten a few really good ones doing this. It seems that the specimen doesn't degrade as quickly in the "firmer" finer-grained nodules. You've probably noticed by that the finer-grained nodules have specimens with the best detail. Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted April 12, 2019 Author Share Posted April 12, 2019 1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said: It is my belief that once the concretions are exposed to weathering it affects them internally and deteriorates the level of preservation. Twenty years ago they seemed much cleaner with better detail. I do not believe that this is the case, those large, perfectly preserved pieces of flora most likely came from areas like Dresden, the pieces out of there were beautiful. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted April 12, 2019 Share Posted April 12, 2019 On 6/12/2018 at 2:34 PM, Nimravis said: Lepidostrobophyllum Cone bract Is this bract lying on top of a cyclopteris? or something? or? Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted April 12, 2019 Author Share Posted April 12, 2019 5 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said: Is this bract lying on top of a cyclopteris? or something? or? I would have to look for that one, but if I remember correctly, it is just the way the concretion is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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