Tidgy's Dad Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 That Mazonomya is super but I really love the Lepidodendron leaf scar, that's very pretty. Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigred97 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 Very nice! I especially like the Mazonomya and the Essexella. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 @bigred97 and @Tidgy's Dad thanks Chris and Adam, those pieces that you mentioned were very nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 I, too, love the Mazonomya - it opened perfectly! I also love the Annularia - the concretion shape is very attractive, and so is the fossil contained within it. ( for both) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 I'm liking the Mazonomya mazonensis from this batch with the unknown white outline thingy running a close second. 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...
stats Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 23 hours ago, Nimravis said: Mazonomya mazonensis- Cleaned up Nice one! Braceville? Cheers, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 4 hours ago, stats said: Nice one! Braceville? Cheers, Rich That is correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted April 6, 2020 Author Share Posted April 6, 2020 It has been a while since I posted to this thread and due to long work hours and also watching out for my lower back, I have not been whacking open any concretions. But besides me Whacking them, sometimes I freeze them over the Winter. This year I only put about 300 nice looking concretions outside to freeze and thaw. Today I did a quick check of the buckets after dumping out most of the water. Here are the pieces that I pulled out that I noticed had cracked open. Nothing special was found and a lot of concretions shattered in the bucket and are lost. Here are the pieces of Flora that I opened- Various ferns and bark. You can see the cracks in this concretion that contains what would have been a nice Neuropteris. This piece just fell apart and it went right in the garbage. Here is the Fauna- Essexella asherae Jellyfish and a Myalinella meeki clam When I have a chance to go through the rest, I will see if others opened. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 Such a shame that some of them shattered. Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 Do you think the ones that shattered would have also shattered if you used a hammer? I always wonder about that. As you know, I always freeze/thaw, but do tap with a hammer after a few cycles. The last few years I have buried concretions under my mulch to let them oxidize a little. Then, I put them in the freeze/thaw cycle. That has helped with some of my material from Pit 2. Unfortunately, I don't have much left from Pit 2. Cheers, Rich 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 It's too bad about the shattered nodules But there is still some nice stuff in there! Just wondering - what are the circles on top of this specimen? And are there two ferns in this nodule - a big one and a little one? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted April 6, 2020 Author Share Posted April 6, 2020 7 hours ago, stats said: Do you think the ones that shattered would have also shattered if you used a hammer Definitely- but the ones that I tend to freeze are usually really nice looking concretions and the freezing breaks off the outer shell on some of them and the cracks are seen at that time. If I saw the cracks before hand I would not freeze them and instead leave them for the hammer. This time I placed a lot of quarter size concretions into the buckets and I was surprised that so far I have not found any of them opened. As you know the small ones tend to have some great fossils inside. Maybe when I go through the buckets and clean everything out I will find a decent amount that did crack and hopefully there’s something nice in those. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted April 6, 2020 Author Share Posted April 6, 2020 1 hour ago, Monica said: Just wondering - what are the circles on top of this specimen? Monica that is just dirt, I took the picture right after I took it out of the bucket and before it was cleaned. And yes, there is a tiny one on the side. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted April 12, 2020 Author Share Posted April 12, 2020 Today I finished going through the rest of the concretions that I had placed in buckets to freeze over the Winter. Again, not much of anything was found opened and some cracked into multiple pieces so I was able to put some of them back together. Here are some of them that I left out to dry- Many people like the larger concretions, but I am a fan of the smaller concretions and they can contain some of the most beautiful fossils. The more concretions that you beak open that are shaped like the two below, you can usually guess what fossil they will contain, that is unless they are duds. The one on the left I would say might be a Macroneuropteris and the one on the right a Pecopteris. This would have been very nice if it did not fall apart. I was able to super glue it together with the pieces that I had. This was the best fern I found that was split open. This should turn out to be a nice Annularia once I clean it up. A beat up Pecopteris, might look okay once cleaned up. A couple Neuropteris. A piece of coprolite. Lycopod leaves- 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 That fern that was already split open is very pretty, Ralph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted April 12, 2020 Author Share Posted April 12, 2020 13 minutes ago, Monica said: That fern that was already split open is very pretty, Ralph These were all split or broken open, but yes that particular one is cute. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 I think the little ones have more variety.. all kinds of good things. The larger sizes are much more predictable by their shape. Cheers, Rich 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 20 hours ago, Nimravis said: A piece of coprolite. The one you say is probably a Macroneuropteris looks more like a three-whorl Annularia to me. Nice bunch of MC fossils. I've got my fingers crossed and am awaiting the insects and reptiles. Oh, oh. I just thought of something that could be fun -- Guess the Fossil. You show the concretion intact. We guess what it contains and then a day or two later you reveal what it is. 1 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...
Pilo Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 Some very nice specimens! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted April 14, 2020 Author Share Posted April 14, 2020 5 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said: Oh, oh. I just thought of something that could be fun -- Guess the Fossil. You show the concretion intact. We guess what it contains and then a day or two later you reveal what it is. If they are super nice concretions I only freeze / thaw them, with that said, that contest might take years to finish. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted April 14, 2020 Author Share Posted April 14, 2020 5 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said: more like a three-whorl Annularia to me I would take that over a Neuropteris any day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 I know that it has been over 2 months since I have posted on this thread, but I have been busy at work and also doing some work around the house for the wife. I decided to spend some time whacking open some concretions, I did some recently but did not post the finds, but I will do that here. Nothing rare, cool or unusual was found, but I did find a couple Lepidostrobophyllum that I liked. 95 % of these pieces went into buckets for future ESCONI Braceville Shaft Mine Trips. Here are the three pieces that I found the other day when I opened some concretions. This first one looks to be a Dumbarella striata- Here is a big Sedgwickia- And a so-so Pecopteris. No onto some of the stuff that opened today- Annularia- Lepidostrobophyllum- This next piece was already opened in the bucket and if it had not been, the way that I would have struck it with the hammer would have destroyed it, and other reason why freeze / thaw is the best method if you have the time. Calamites Bark with an internode. I always picked up every concretion, especially, ends. 99% of the time you be be guaranteed to find a fern inside. You could look at the broken end and see how the fossil is orientated in the concretion be looking at the plane line in the middle. The fossil- Pecopteris. Nothing spectacular to the Mazon Creek collector, but these were show stoppers when we would take groups of people out collecting at Pit 11 or Pit 4. Prior to letting people go look for concretions, we would give a little talk about fossils and then show the participants what concretions look like and how we open them. The people would gather around and we would grab ends, like the one above or other shapes that we knew had a high probability of containing a fossil and the we would whack it. You could hear the familiar sound that they make when they pop and then we would hand the yet unopened concretion to a youngster and let the be the first person to ever see this fossil- everyone always got excited. I decided to leave this Neuropteris concealed in it's 300 million year old tomb, I think is is a nice way to show how they are enclosed. CONTINUED----- Next Post 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 These next two pieces show how the fossils were deposited in different layers before the concretion was formed. Here are a couple pieces of coprolite. I really do like this nice round concretion that contained a beautifully detailed portion of a Neuropteris. I had some large concretions in this batch and this one contained bark. Here was a very nicely shaped concretion that I should have put off to the side to freeze / thaw, but I did not and I kind of destroyed it. I just keep them all to freeze / thaw, it will take decades- lol. These big pieces were all duds- Here are a few nicer size ends that should clean up nicely. Here are a couple pieces of bark- CONTINUED- Next Post 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 Here are some pics of fern pieces, I believe all Pecopteris, that split open. Again, nothing special, but when I was starting out I would have loved to have them and that is why I put them off to the side. I believe that is all for this post, if I find other pics I will add. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 These ones are beautiful, Ralph: Great finds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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