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This concretion from the Mazon Creek area Chowder Flats site split earlier this week but I just had a chance to examine it today. It preserves a narrow ~10 mm long veined object, unfortunately with a portion missing from the middle. The shape and venation makes me think of an insect wing, but it could certainly be a partial leaf of some sort instead. I would love to hear thoughts from anyone with more experience. I had to take the pictures through my loupe since it is so small- the first two are of the part and the third is the counterpart.
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Beginner newbies wanting to search for fossils in northern illinois
MaizyMae posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
My granddaughter and I are coming to Chicago from 3-29 to 4-4. We’ve looked for Petoskey stones along the shores of Lake Michigan in Michigan, and found a few small fossils, but we don’t know how to hunt for them or what to look for or what equipment we would need. Any info would be helpful. We are looking into Mazon Creek, but a lot of what I’m finding is that it’s all picked over. Any other sites that would be good for two beginners? Thanks! -
Hello. Today was the Des Plaines Valley Geological Society Show. There were many dealers selling gems, minerals, fossils, and jewelry. Here are some pictures.
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Who's going to Mazonia-Braidwood/Pit 11 Opening Day 3/1/20?
deutscheben posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Who is going to be heading out to Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife area for the start of the Pit 11 fossil hunting season on Sunday? They are forecasting a high of 58 degrees right now, practically t-shirt weather! (but watch out for those ticks) I am planning to be there Sunday and Monday, my first time trying two consecutive days. I hope to run into some other fine forum members out there. -
Came across this small fossil (4mm). It appears to be a ventral genal spine, but I could be wrong. Upper Ordovician. Any idea what species?
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Mazon Creek Formation (Fossil Identified) Lepidostrobophyllum
TheGoblinKing posted a topic in Fossil ID
My great grandfather majorly shaped who I am today by getting me introduced to biology, paleontology, and earth sciences at a young age. He left me with many fossils that he had gone out and found himself, picking about in the Mazon Creek Formation of the Carboniferous. Among the ferns and leaves I had found this one, it looks a lot like a negative impression of an invert to me, although I could also see it being a leaf impression. I'm pretty immature so I'd appreciate any help, thank you
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I am wondering if there are places that have a community prepping lab, where equipment is shared between members and people can give advice and help each other out, similar to a maker space? If there are places like that could anyone point me to one somewhere in Illinois preferably close to central Illinois.
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Hey all! Just bought this piece at a rock shop here in Chicago. It was sold to me as a shrimp, the shop owner was pretty confident in this, but I'm pretty sure it's a fern instead. Not disappointed since I just appreciate the composition here, it's a super pretty one, kind of off-beat. Can anybody help ID the exact fauna? Thanks so much!
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I’m hoping someone on here has some spare matrix from the Mississippian Golconda Fm in southern Illinois. The roadcuts near Anna and Vienna are pretty well known (I know a few members here have hunted there), but at over 6 hours away it’s a bit too long of a trek for me right now. A recent paper on microfossils from there piqued my interest and I’d like to try and process matrix to search for some. If you have any, PM me and we can work something out.
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Managed to stop in for a little Mazon Creek style Easter egg hunt when I was up in Chicago last June. Brought back maybe a gallon or so of concretions and I've been cycling them in my freezer (when I remember). I like to give them a bit of a (gentle) tap around the edges from time to time. This often helps the concretion to shed an outer layer or to coax a split that is nearly there and just begging to pop. As expected, I've had a number (the majority) of concretions open up to reveal a complete lack of anything at all within. The only thing that revealed itself to be of interest was this little concretion that measures 3.5 x 4.0 cm. I pulled out my copy of The Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna book and you think with that information at my fingertips that I'd be able to make a coherent guess as to the identity of this fossil but I am at a loss to match it up convincingly to any of the taxa described there. Hoping some of the members here with more experience can chime in. @Nimravis @RCFossils @stats @Mark Kmiecik
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Over the past year, I've become fascinated with the often bizarre fish and sharks of the Pennsylvanian. Fortunately, my home state of Illinois is a great place to hunt for such fossils. I've shared several of these in other posts before, but wanted to put everything together in one thread. Probably won't have much to post for a few months after this, but once summer rolls around, I should hopefully have plenty of new finds to share. I would say there are three major settings in which you can find fish fossils in Illinois: Mazon Creek, black shales, and limestone. I have not had luck at Mazon Creek yet, but hopefully that will change. So I'll start out with the black shales. These specimens, my first fish fossils, were collected in August 2019 from the Mecca Quarry Shale exposed at a clay quarry in Utica, IL. This shale directly overlies the Francis Creek Shale (i.e. Mazon Creek) at this location. The three specimens below are stomach ejecta from some kind of fish, and are composed mostly of partially digested fish scales. In addition, I found this very nice pair of associated acanthodian fin spines. The top fin has an area showing damage, possibly due to predation.
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Here is a 45 second closeup video of a claw shaped rock. I found it in a creek in North West Illinois, Whiteside County USA. I took it home just in case it actually was something other than a rock. What do you guys think. Thanks for the help. Claw or Rock Video
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Does anyone have experience with the Middle Ordovician brachiopod faunas of the upper Mississippi Valley? I came across this odd fragment in rocks from a quarry in south-central Wisconsin. To my knowledge they are known in North America only from the Appalachian Basin (Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Newfoundland), not the interior basins like the Illinois basin. Has anybody else seen this critter or similar in the Platteville? As far as I am aware, the only species documented from the Platteville that looks anything like this is Megamyonia unicostata, but that has a single costa rather than the several apparent here and in the types of Ptychoglyptus. Platteville Fm, probably in P. undatus biozone = Upper Ordovician, Sandbian stage (old North American Turinian Stage)
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I took advantage of the (eerily) nice weather today to make a trip to my favorite spot, an exposure of the Pennsylvanian LaSalle Limestone near Oglesby, Illinois. I found what appears to be a fragment of bone, or at least that's my best guess. The "inside" is very smooth with some twisting striations running partway down. What's left of the "outside" is porous and purpleish, similar in color and texture to the petalodont roots I find which is why I thought bone. I also found a small fragment (pictured) right next to it that appears to be associated, although I haven't found where the two might join yet. This certainly doesn't look like any shark teeth I've found, and besides the occasional fish scales or tiny indeterminate fragments, I've never found any other vertebrate material. I will say that my first thought was a tetrapod bone fragment as I know at least one such specimen has been found here, but I won't get my hopes up just yet.
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Hello! Picked this up in a quarry in Livingston County, IL USA near the town of Ashkum.
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Pennsylvanian Road Cut Collecting in Oglesby, Illinois (11-10-19)
Nimravis posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
When I woke up this morning I look outside and saw that it was going to be a nice day in the low 40's and I decided to go out and do a little collecting before it gets really cold and the snow shuts everything down. So i figured why not do the 130 mile round trip to Oglesby, Illinois and collect a nice road cut that I have been to several times that exposes the Pennsylvanian LaSalle Limestone member of the Bond Formation. As with all of the other times that I visited, I was the only one at the site. I only spent about 1 1/2 hours here looking around. I did not collect a lot of fossils, but did pick up a few. If you like brachiopod hash plates, you can find some nice ones just sitting there waiting for someone to pick them up. You do not many weathered out fossils at this site since most of the rockfall is recent, but you can find Composita argentia laying around sometimes- these cool brachiopods pop out of that matrix when struck by a hammer or in natural falls. Here are some pics of the area, hash plates and some small pieces that I collected in the field. Fossils in the head wall- Fossils in the field- Part and Counterpart- Here are some of the pieces that I collected and photographed with a photo cube- Inarticulate Brachiopod- PeltalodusTooth portion- Unknown- Inarticulate brachiopod ? Composita argentia- More to follow-
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Hi all Found this in Braidwood club. Has cylinder like tubes that are crystal like tubes.Input greatly appreciated.
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I found it near Byron, IL. Can see gabella.... I need confirmation. My guess is gabricersurus....?!?
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On my way out of town after a family gathering at Starved Rock State Park (it was packed like crazy with people, but I was still able to get a quiet hike in early Sunday morning with my mom. The food at the Lodge is not bad at all, also!) I made time to stop by one of my favorite sites, a roadcut near Oglesby, IL. This steep, talus-covered slope is known to produce generous quantities of brachiopods, as well as rarer shark teeth, cephalopods, echinoderms, trilobites and coral, among other things, primarily from the Pennsylvanian La Salle Limestone Member of the Bond Formation. With the wet weather this year plants had grown wildly over the slope, but there was still plenty of rock to explore. I got out of my car, jumped over the little brook running through the ditch, and made my way up the slope. As erosion slowly eats away at the bluff, fresh boulders fall away and expose new things. A large section had fallen last year, and at the top of the slope I saw another section perilously close to breaking away, so I steered well clear of it. Caution is definitely required at this site, especially because of the risk of rock fall near the overhang, but also the danger of slipping on loose rock and falling- a good sense of balance is very helpful! Working my way carefully along the cut I began to find some interesting things. First up was this hash plate- it doesn't look like much here covered in mud, but in the middle are some Archaeocidaris sea urchin spines, and it also features a number of crushed brachiopods, including some with spines, as well as crinoid stem pieces and other bits. I have started cleaning it up, so I will need to take a picture of it after I'm done.
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My friend found this near a parking lot just outside of Chicago in Lisle, IL. Any idea of what it is? Looks a little like the shape of a tooth to me. Thanks!
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OK folks, Really have no idea on this one, so need some help please. Thanks all in advance with this riddle. Dan
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I found this back in July from the Ordovician Platteville Formation in Oregon, IL. This is the only picture I have of it, and unfortunately, since it’s at home and I’m at school, this is the only picture of it that I have. It’s less than 2cm from side to side. I just don’t know with this one, my best guess is part of trilobite maybe? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
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This weekend I made my first trip out to Mazon Creek! Sorry this is such a scroller, I'm going to try and have this post be informational since there is definitely some stuff I wished I'd known about in advance and some stuff I did that really aided my success. There are pictures at the bottom. The most important thing I did before my trip was print off a topographic map of the area that I pulled from ArcGIS online. It really came in handy. It was also necessary to have a permit to collect there, something I only discovered the night before. Here is a link to a PDF of the permit. I drove down with a fellow UChicago student. We parked at the first lot off of WN5000 road from the Kankakee road side. Our plan was to use the topo map to find the steepest erosional surfaces to collect on. Initially this strategy seemed like a bust. In our first forty minutes we only found three concretions between us. I think that was because the area near the parking lot and WN5000 road was just really picked over. As we moved deeper into the brush, our finding rate increased. At some points we literally found piles of concretions, this was usually because they had landed in the roots of trees or come up against some other impediment. Our best finds were usually midway and above on the hills. Finds near the bottom of the hills tended to be weathered more extensively and were often fragmented. The concretions themselves were reddish and mostly about the size of half dollars, but larger and smaller ones were also abundant. Concretions found in sunny areas tended to have oxidized to a rusty orange color. We found fragments of some very large concretions, so those are out there, but the largest intact ones we found were about the size of a tea saucer. Many were also pre-split from weathering. We collected a fair number of these since they were covered in mud and it was hard to tell whether there might be a fossil or not. By the end of the afternoon we each had about 1/3rd of a 5 gallon bucket filled with concretions. We could easily have filled the buckets with an additional hour or two of effort, but we were pretty tired and satisfied with our success, so we called it a day. In terms of the environment, the terrain was very rugged and filled with dense brush. Open spaces were filled with burr plants to the point of absurdity. By the end of the day we looked like we had ghillie suits from the sheer quantity of vegetable matter clinging to our clothing (picture below). I recommend wearing long sleeves and pants to protect the skin, and selecting fabrics that burrs will not easily cling to. Additionally, there were lots of biting insects, but a quick spray of DEET solved that problem. I'm prepping the concretions by throwing them in the freezer. However, I'd appreciate it if somebody could link me to a post on the proper treatment, or enlighten me below- both for my own knowledge and for other readers. Photo of two of my pre split finds- the rest are in the freezer right now. (I think a polychaete worm on the bottom, and I have absolutely no clue what the thing on the top is) Our overall route (roughly) Concretions/concretion fragments in situ Me covered in burrs and looking like a dork
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I found this in the sangamon river by Decatur Illinois in Macon county. It was found in what looked like a glacial depost in the river. I don't think it is a brachiopod as the shape doesn't quite look right. I think it might be the tail of trilobite.
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Does anyone know what these are? The previous owner forgot where they were found but thinks they are from the Fox river in Illinois. Can anyone confirm this? They look like plant fossils similar to those found at Mazon creek. Thanks.
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