stats Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 Nice fossils! I have a bunch of material. But, just tap mine from time to time. I have a bunch of Tupperware containers in my small freezer all year long. Are you only using a hammer on them? Maybe, I'll post a few as they open. Cheers, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted May 29, 2018 Author Share Posted May 29, 2018 27 minutes ago, stats said: Nice fossils! I have a bunch of material. But, just tap mine from time to time. I have a bunch of Tupperware containers in my small freezer all year long. Are you only using a hammer on them? Maybe, I'll post a few as they open. Cheers, Rich Yes, I am only using a hammer since I have so many to go through from years of collecting. I have Freeze / Thawed and from time to time things open, but I have had some that I did for multiple winters and they never popped. Good luck with yours and it would be good to see what you find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted May 30, 2018 Author Share Posted May 30, 2018 Yesterday and today I was cracking open some larger concretions, again from Pit 4. As stated in previous posts, larger concretions are usually void of fossils, but sometimes they are not. The preservation in the concretions from Pit 4 is not usually great, but you can clean them up a little bit with vinegar. Here are a few of the fossils that I found. Here is an 8" Lycopod Leaf that opened perfectly, if is rare to have them open like this using a hammer. But like Thor, I am skilled with my hammer- sometimes. LOL Alethopteris Frond Cleaned up a bit. Annularia Leaves Cleaned up a bit. Neuropteris Frond Neuropteris Frond Pecopteris Frond Neuropteris Frond Alethopteris Frond Calamites Bark with crystal inclusions. Small Neuropteris. Small Annularia Small Neuropteris Fronds 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted May 30, 2018 Share Posted May 30, 2018 More lovely finds Ralph. This is beautiful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldigger Posted May 30, 2018 Share Posted May 30, 2018 You have so many Carboniferous plants in your basement, maybe its time to invest in some Roundup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 12 minutes ago, caldigger said: You have so many Carboniferous plants in your basement, maybe its time to invest in some Roundup. I agree Doren, that is why I am using "Crack Up" with my hammer. I am really trying to get through these concretions, but it does not look as if I am making a dent in them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 @Bobby Rico thanks, some are nice looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 The lycopod leaf is great and I always like the connected Annularia and fronds of Neuropteris. Nice, keep 'em coming! 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 5 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said: The lycopod leaf is great and I always like the connected Annularia and fronds of Neuropteris. Nice, keep 'em coming! Adam, this will always be my favorite Annularia / Neuropteris Large concretion. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 Just now, Nimravis said: Adam, this will always be my favorite Annularia / Neuropteris Large concretion. Yes, that's quite extraordinary. 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 Just now, Tidgy's Dad said: Yes, that's quite extraordinary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miocene_Mason Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 Beautiful stuff! I’m always amazed by the preservation of the pinnules! 1 “...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin Happy hunting, Mason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 I did not have much time to open concretions tonight, I only opened about 30 larger / partial ones. There is a rock climbing book that I own, it is called "One Move Too Many" and it is a great book on climbing injuries and how to prevent / treat them. That title can also be used for opening Mazon Creek concretions, but I would call it "One Whack Too Many". That title can take on two definitions, both of what I experienced today- 1st when hitting the harder concretions with force, there are times that the concretion did crack, but since I am swinging hard and fast, you can not stop fast enough and you shatter or break the fossil. The 2nd definition is when hit end up slipping and hitting your self. This does not happen very often and I think I stated in an earlier post that I had the precision of Thor, but that was not the case. You will notice that in the following pics of my finds, you will either see a band-aid on my left hand or a rappel glove to keep the band-aid on. Now on with my finds, again nothing special, but I do like to show some of the stuff that opened. First up was a larger partial concretion and when you look at the broken end, you can tell that there is something enclosed in the rock- and there was, some bark. Next up was a concretion that contains what I believe are Lepidodendron leaves, this was very different. Next is another larger partial concretion that contained a Pecopteris Fern. Partial Neuropteris leaf. Another poorly preserved Neuropteris leaf. Stem Poorly preserved Annularia Bark Hopefully tomorrow I will find something special. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 Just now, Nimravis said: I did not have much time to open concretions tonight, I only opened about 30 larger / partial ones. There is a rock climbing book that I own, it is called "One Move Too Many" and it is a great book on climbing injuries and how to prevent / treat them. That title can also be used for opening Mazon Creek concretions, but I would call it "One Whack Too Many". That title can take on two definitions, both of what I experienced today- 1st when hitting the harder concretions with force, there are times that the concretion did crack, but since I am swinging hard and fast, you can not stop fast enough and you shatter or break the fossil. The 2nd definition is when hit end up slipping and hitting your self. This does not happen very often and I think I stated in an earlier post that I had the precision of Thor, but that was not the case. You will notice that in the following pics of my finds, you will either see a band-aid on my left hand or a rappel glove to keep the band-aid on. Now on with my finds, again nothing special, but I do like to show some of the stuff that opened. First up was a larger partial concretion and when you look at the broken end, you can tell that there is something enclosed in the rock- and there was, some bark. Next up was a concretion that contains what I believe are Lepidodendron leaves, this was very different. Hopefully tomorrow I will find something special. I hope so too! But this one is pretty weird and unusual. And please be careful ! 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 Today I am going to do something different, I am going to show pics of the concretions (Pit 4) that I was going to open and then post the fossils that came out of those concretions- be it Good, Bad or Ugly. You will notice that some groupings had a high percentage of fossil inclusion and other not. In total today, I cracked oped 170 of them in about a 3 hour time frame. GROUP 1 The piece of granite that I use to crack them open. Pecopteris Neuropteris Bark GROUP 2 Pecopteris & Neuropteris Calamites bark Bark and Annularia GROUP 3 Bark Neuropteris Coprolite This is nothing, but I wanted to post it as many people fell that they found something. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 GROUP 4 Pecopteris Another concretion with a non fossil. GROUP 5 Pecopteris Bark Calamites bark with an internode GROUP 6 Calamites bark GROUP 7 Neuropteris GROUP 8 Pecopteris / Neuropteris Annularia Bark 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 GROUP 9 Pecopteris / Neuropteris GROUP 10 Fern Bark Lepidostrobophyllum majus GROUP 11 Pecopteris A whole lot of nothing. GROUP 12 Neuropteris Bark GROUP 13 Ferns Bark Another bunch of nothing. All other concretions were void of fossils. Mazon Creek collecting and opening is not an easy task. Check back tomorrow. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 2 hours ago, Nimravis said: Another bunch of nothing All other concretions were void of fossils. Mazon Creek collecting and opening is not an easy task. Check back tomorrow. How very frustrating. But one or two interesting pieces. I find myself eagerly anticipating something different in each batch and then being a bit let down! Ha de ha. Maybe tomorrow............................ Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miocene_Mason Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said: I find myself eagerly anticipating something different in each batch and then being a bit let down! Something tells me now the next conc he splits is gonna be something amazing, if for no other reason than you saying that 2 “...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin Happy hunting, Mason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 Just now, WhodamanHD said: Something tells me now the next conc he splits is gonna be something amazing, if for no other reason than you saying that One does hope so. Though my guess is Neropteris. Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted June 3, 2018 Author Share Posted June 3, 2018 1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said: How very frustrating. But one or two interesting pieces. I find myself eagerly anticipating something different in each batch and then being a bit let down! Ha de ha. Maybe tomorrow............................ Hopefully when I get to buckets that contain more Fauna. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 Dude, you are a fossil machine! I pretty much exclusively freeze/thaw my concretions. I do tap from time to time, but lightly. This takes a long time. Somtimes, I have really nice shapes that explode into many pieces. I have often wondered if some hammering would be better, as maybe the freezing is introducing more cracks. Do you have a feeling for which ones are better smacked and which ones are better freeze/thawed? Just thinking out loud... I would like to improve on the efficiency of preserving good specimens. Cheers, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted June 3, 2018 Author Share Posted June 3, 2018 4 hours ago, stats said: Dude, you are a fossil machine! I pretty much exclusively freeze/thaw my concretions. I do tap from time to time, but lightly. This takes a long time. Somtimes, I have really nice shapes that explode into many pieces. I have often wondered if some hammering would be better, as maybe the freezing is introducing more cracks. Do you have a feeling for which ones are better smacked and which ones are better freeze/thawed? Just thinking out loud... I would like to improve on the efficiency of preserving good specimens. Cheers, Rich To be honest with you, it is really hard to tell which ones I would freeze or whack. I also have them explode in my hands, and lots of times it is with concretions that have perfect shapes. The ones that do explode into pieces 99% of the time had nothing worth saving in them if there in fact was something inside. Today I cracked open a bunch of concretions and one of them was one that was in a concretion that tends to shatter when hit. This type is different that what was discussed above, these don't explode, they can shatter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 >To be honest with you, it is really hard to tell which ones I would freeze or whack. I also have them explode in my hands, and lots of times it is with concretions that >have perfect shapes. The ones that do explode into pieces 99% of the time had nothing worth saving in them if there in fact was something inside. Today I cracked >open a bunch of concretions and one of them was one that was in a concretion that tends to shatter when hit. This type is different that what was discussed above, >these don't explode, they can shatter. Pit 4, Shadow Lakes, is sometimes frustratingly referred to as "Shatter" Lakes. Cheers, Rich 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 Well today (Sunday), I opened a couple concretions from Pit 11 and a bunch from an area that I have always designated as "Across From Pit 4". Pit 4 is located in Wilmington, Illinois and is also referred to as "Shadow Lakes" and contains Braidwood Fauna, I have found Euproops danae horseshoe carbs and my only Eurypterid. The area "Across From Pit 4" is literally across Novy Road. At this location I have found clams, fish scales and coprolite as well as plant material. Now whacking concretions open are a quick way to go through your supply, but it is not the preferred way to open (Freeze / Thaw). But when you have a lot of concretions, like I do, I take the risk in the summer time and use a hammer and in the winter, I will Freeze / Thaw some. Unfortunately, using a hammer can damage a nice specimen, as I did today. Now the concretions from "Across From Pit 4" sometimes contain ones that can shatter easily, this is not the norm, but it does happen. That happen to this fish that I found today, I tried to be a master Jigsaw Puzzle guy today and put the pieces that I did have, back together again. I was not able to reassemble perfectly as some pieces shattered immediately when the hammer struck the concretion. But with all of that said, it will not stop me in the least from using a hammer. Now on with my finds from today. I am going to refer to @RCFossils for an ID on this one- I am thinking it is Elonichthys peltigerus. Clams- the first one has a beautiful internal 3D mold (Mazonomya) Myalina Clams A double one- Sometimes you find concretions that show a portion of the Myalina sticking out, I did not open this concretion. Here are some Essexella asherae Jellyfish from Pit 11. Coprolite from "Across From Pit 4". Neuropteris from "Across From Pit 4". A poorly preserved Cyclopteris. Bark Hopefully tomorrow nothing break, too bad. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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