deutscheben Posted August 18, 2019 Share Posted August 18, 2019 Yesterday I went on a combined field trip with ESCONI and LOESS to the Starved Rock Clay Products pit in Utica, Illinois. ( @connorp was there too!) This open pit exposes the Pennsylvanian Mecca Quarry black shale, Francis Creek shale, Colchester Coal, and an underclay below the coal- an assembly of strata that have produced world-renowned fossils elsewhere, including Mazon Creek fossils further east and complete sharks from the Mecca Quarry Shale in Indiana. At this location, unfortunately, the concretions are almost all blanks but the black shale does produce isolated fauna including bivalves, brachiopods, cephalopods, and shark teeth and scales. The underclay also contains petrified and pyritized wood and root traces. About 30 of us gathered at a nearby McDonalds before heading to the pit- dark clouds on the horizon brought intermittent hard rain that kindly let up by the time we reached the pit floor. My interest for this trip was in the black shale, with hopes of finding shark material in particular. With the recent rains everything was muddy, and the black shale could be found in chunks strewn along the slumping highwall. Some folks were splitting the shale, but I did not have any luck with that-all of my finds were already exposed. The mud really made it hard to see whether or not there were fossils in the exposed black shale, but I was happy to be able to find a few pieces worth taking home- as often seems to be the case for me when fossil hunting, I found my best stuff in the first hour and virtually nothing the rest of the time I was there. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deutscheben Posted August 18, 2019 Author Share Posted August 18, 2019 Here are my uncleaned finds- one plate has a few bivalves and a cephalopod, and the other two had some interesting things that will need to be cleaned for further ID. I also found a nice hunk of pyrite on the left. But the piece on the upper right made the whole trip for me. It was exactly what I had been hoping to find- a Listracanthus dermal denticle, and not just one, but four associated ones together: They are each a little over an inch long. I am so happy to have this little piece of ancient Illinois life my collection now! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connorp Posted August 18, 2019 Share Posted August 18, 2019 Very jealous of that Listricanthus. Look forward to seeing the rest of your finds. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted August 18, 2019 Share Posted August 18, 2019 Congrats on that denticle. Definitely the find of the day! Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gieserguy Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 Looks like a fun time! Hopefully they’ll do another trip like this soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deutscheben Posted August 19, 2019 Author Share Posted August 19, 2019 4 hours ago, connorp said: Very jealous of that Listricanthus. Look forward to seeing the rest of your finds. 3 hours ago, Ludwigia said: Congrats on that denticle. Definitely the find of the day! Thanks! This was definitely a case of quality over quantity- I have started cleaning the other 4 pieces I collected and 1 has nothing on it after all, one has two bivalves, another has one mystery object and only the final one has anything else decent, with a scattering of bivalves, a small cephalopod and a few mystery bits. 33 minutes ago, gieserguy said: Looks like a fun time! Hopefully they’ll do another trip like this soon! Me too- the last time they went was in 2016, so I really hope it's not another 3 years! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aek Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 Hey Ben, I was on the trip too. We were chit chatting off on. Your Listracanthus is an awesome find. I never found one, still processing my finds, however I did find a very unexpected Tyrannophontes theridion inside a giant septarion nodule, which at first I thought was a badly preserved denticle, but upon closer examination realized had segmentation. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deutscheben Posted August 19, 2019 Author Share Posted August 19, 2019 16 hours ago, aek said: Hey Ben, I was on the trip too. We were chit chatting off on. Your Listracanthus is an awesome find. I never found one, still processing my finds, however I did find a very unexpected Tyrannophontes theridion inside a giant septarion nodule, which at first I thought was a badly preserved denticle, but upon closer examination realized had segmentation. Right on! It was great to meet you and now put a face to a username here. That shrimp is very cool, I did not even realize they could be found in the shale. That cephalopod you found was striking as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 Great finds so far, guys - the dermal denticles and mantis shrimp are indeed awesome!!! Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connorp Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 16 hours ago, aek said: Hey Ben, I was on the trip too. We were chit chatting off on. Your Listracanthus is an awesome find. I never found one, still processing my finds, however I did find a very unexpected Tyrannophontes theridion inside a giant septarion nodule, which at first I thought was a badly preserved denticle, but upon closer examination realized had segmentation. Awesome find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCFossils Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 16 hours ago, aek said: Hey Ben, I was on the trip too. We were chit chatting off on. Your Listracanthus is an awesome find. I never found one, still processing my finds, however I did find a very unexpected Tyrannophontes theridion inside a giant septarion nodule, which at first I thought was a badly preserved denticle, but upon closer examination realized had segmentation. This is a really nice find! I have been collecting that area for many years and have never seen any signs of fossils in Septarian nodules. Tyrannophontes is a rather rare species and it is the first that i have seen from that area. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 Looks like you had a great time and found some cool things- Congrats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deutscheben Posted August 19, 2019 Author Share Posted August 19, 2019 Thanks, it really was a great trip! Now that they are dry and clean, I took a better picture of the Listracanthus denticles as well: 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aek Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 @deutscheben wow, that is a beautiful specimen all nice and cleaned up. Great to meet you and @connorp too! @RCFossils Thanks, and good to hear from someone more experienced with the black shales, this being only my second visit to the clay pit. Other fauna included in the septarion nodule were a handful of the bivalve, Dunbarella. Also some really beautiful glittery peacock pyrite mineralization. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 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...
Joseph Fossil Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 @deutscheben Those shrimp fossils and shark spines are awesome dude!!! I'm curious is the site in Utica Illinois or Peru Illinois as every time I type in the name of the place (specially Starved Rock Clay Products), it directs me to the town of Peru, Illinois? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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