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Wrangellian's Mazon fossils and question


Wrangellian

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14 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Thanks. Just to be clear: you think the Neuropteris is from Mazon Creek itself, in the upper left of the map?

That's disappointing about the copro and especially the jellyfish, but that's what I get for not asking you before buying! I got both of those some time ago.

I rarely see pit numbers on internet sales, either, but was unsure of whether that was because of carelessness on the part of the seller, or that they didn't know, or that the fossils are always assumed to be from Pit 11.

Yes, the Neuropteris is from the actual creek.

I would not go off of any listing information that you see on the internet.

Rarely is the information correct.

It has been my experience that most of the  people selling Mazon fossils online have little or no experience collecting the fossils.

They are usually purchasing things in bulk and throwing names at the wall and hoping someone bites.

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I think the others have answered your questions very well- I have a few more maps that I hope will add a little something too. 

 

This first map is from a 1990 field guidebook to the area- it shows the various pits, mine dumps, and cities in the area, as well as the separation between the Essex and Braidwood biotas- Essex is below the dashed line and Braidwood above. 

 

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The second map is a screenshot from the Illinois Abandoned Mine Land Program's coal mine location tool  showing where the former strip mine that became "Chowder Flats" was. The highway running across the top is I-80. As others said, it is almost completely turned into a subdivision now, unfortunately. 

 

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You have some excellent Mazon Creek fossils, too, they look like a real good sampling of the site! 

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I would say so, yes! :)

 

Here is the complete citation for that guidebook as well:

 

Baird, G.C. and S.D. Sroka. 1990. Geology and geo-history of Mazon Creek area fossil localities, Illinois, pp c1-c70. In W. Hammer and D.F. Hess (eds.), Geology Field Guidebook. North-Central Section Geological Society of America, Macomb, Illinois.

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  • 2 months later...

Love your Mazon creek fossils.:)

A fascinating thing to me and I'm lucky enough to have a few nice specimens myself thanks to Ralph. 

 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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Thanks Adam, it is a fascinating thing and I have found it so since I first learned about it from books like Simon & Schuster's Guide to Fossils when I was a kid. :D It was right up there with Burgess and Ediacara. Since then I've learned of many others. It is one of the only lagerstatten you can collect at. At least the most famous one you can collect. Not that I have collected there personally.. I've had to do it the hard way - by shelling out!

I've got more, I guess I should get photographing and post the rest. Glad you've got some of your own specimens now. Which ones do you have? Essexella, for starters, no doubt.

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12 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

Thanks Adam, it is a fascinating thing and I have found it so since I first learned about it from books like Simon & Schuster's Guide to Fossils when I was a kid. :D It was right up there with Burgess and Ediacara. Since then I've learned of many others. It is one of the only lagerstatten you can collect at. At least the most famous one you can collect. Not that I have collected there personally.. I've had to do it the hard way - by shelling out!

I've got more, I guess I should get photographing and post the rest. Glad you've got some of your own specimens now. Which ones do you have? Essexella, for starters, no doubt.

Yes, I have a lovely Essexella, possibly my favourite! 

Also Pecopteris, Neuropteris, Annularia, Myalinalla meeki, Cyclus amercanus,  a coprolite, one of the shrimps and a couple of others.  

Ralph was very kind! :) 

No Tully yet, though! ;)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

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Thanks both. You keep your fossils on a bookshelf? With books? ^_^ If I did that they'd probably end up knocked onto the floor!

I do have a partial Tully, pic coming (someday perhaps).

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50 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

Thanks both. You keep your fossils on a bookshelf? With books? ^_^ If I did that they'd probably end up knocked onto the floor!

I do have a partial Tully, pic coming (someday perhaps).

 

 

:) Geological specimens everywhere…

 

 

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6 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Oxytropidoceras just posted a link to a good recent paper containing this nice map - only things it's missing are the county lines and the line between the Essex and Braidwood fauna area:

https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/sepm/jgs/article/545488/the-mazon-creek-lagerstatte-a-diverse-late

 

MazonMap.jpg

Thanks for reposting this paper, it's a fascinating re-examination of the Mazon Creek deposits. @Nimravis, the hi-res illustration of typical Mazon Creek fossils includes a large shark tooth (letter (k.) Phoebodus?) similar to the one you were uncertain about in your "Whack it" thread. 

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12 hours ago, ricardo said:

:) Geological specimens everywhere…

 

Aha... That kind of looks like my place but better organized! I don't have so many fossils/rocks on bookshelves, as I said, but I do have them on almost every other available bit of flat surface.. :blush:

 

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6 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Aha... That kind of looks like my place but better organized!

I must say I like it very much and it looks very well organized! It is absolutely a very nice collection :dinothumb:

 

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1 hour ago, ricardo said:

I have these in other post but you can see how is inside drawers…

 

Very nice! :dinothumb:  I think your mineral collection puts mine to shame... but then I have been focusing on fossils mainly. Your display is also more attractive than mine. I struggle just to keep my things organized and labeled in drawers so they're not outside collecting dust! The little white boxes are affordable and effective enough.

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Here's a general shot of my Mazon drawers. I have yet to get closeups of the rest of the individual fossils but I think I've already done the more interesting ones.

(Just 2 drawers here, with different lighting angles on each)

 

Drawer1a.jpg

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Drawer2a.jpg

Drawer2b.jpg

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:wub: I'm not a fossil collector but I could be if I look more time to your drawers...

 

19 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

Very nice! :dinothumb:  I think your mineral collection puts mine to shame... but then I have been focusing on fossils mainly. Your display is also more attractive than mine. I struggle just to keep my things organized and labeled in drawers so they're not outside collecting dust! The little white boxes are affordable and effective enough.

 

 

1 minute ago, Wrangellian said:

Here's a general shot of my Mazon drawers. I have yet to get closeups of the rest of the individual fossils but I think I've already done the more interesting ones.

(Just 2 drawers here, with different lighting angles on each)

 

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5 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

You're not a fossil collector? Do you have any fossils in your house, or don't you?  ;)

Be a collector is something more than have a few specimens, but one of these days I will start :) 

Thanks for show those great Mazon specimens!

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2 hours ago, ricardo said:

Be a collector is something more than have a few specimens,

If You have 1 - it is a sample.

If You have 2 - it is a set.

If You have 3 or more- it is a collection, and You are a collector.

 

:muahaha::muahaha:

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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2 hours ago, ynot said:

If You have 1 - it is a sample.

If You have 2 - it is a set.

If You have 3 or more- it is a collection, and You are a collector.

 

:muahaha::muahaha:

Fossils are like Pringles.... (and tequila shots)

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