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Hello, I’ve recently been starting fossil hunting excursions at the last place I’d ever imagine — a parking lot. Put simply, there’s some piles of rocks near a big store around Champaign, IL, and in them I’ve found fossils. However, the rocks did not come from there, and because I’m anything but an expert geologist, I have no clue what rock I’m working with, what formation they came from, or in general what to expect. My guess is that it’s Silurian Dolomite but I’d appreciate some secondhand opinions, and nonetheless I’m still unsure of what particular formation the rocks belong to. Here are some of my finds: A bunch of brachiopods, and what looks like an external mold of a crinoid stem, I'm guessing. A few more brachiopods i’ve found as well. This is the usual stuff I find, just lots of brachiopods and (I think?) the occasional bivalve. Oh, there’s also this thing. I’m guessing some weird type of brachiopod but I’m not 100% confident, any IDs would be cool. Anywho, if y’all can figure out where these come from, is there anything else I can find in that formation/in these rocks? And if so, is there any sort of specific techniques/strategies i can use to know which rocks will bear fossils? Because some, like the first image, would be chock-full of them, but many would have only one fossil in them, and most wouldn’t have any at all. (Oh btw, I should note that these are pretty big rocks, like 6-10 cubic inches) Furthermore, are there any rarer fossils i could find (trilobites?? ;-;), and are there ways to find em as well, or is this just gonna be a matter of smashing open rocks till you’re lucky?? Oh, and lastly, whatever kind of rock I'm dealing with, it’s very hard. If I want to crack a rock open, I kinda just smash it with my sledgehammer; but I'm not really able to get precise cuts into the rocks with it, so I wonder if maybe there are times when I’ll crack open a rock, think there are no fossils in it, but in reality i just didn’t crack the right part of the rock open. Is there a way to know? Or a way to crack open the rocks more precisely? (I also have two pickaxes and some chisels, but the pickaxes are much worse at working with rocks, and honestly I’m too scared of breaking my hand with the chisel if i miss my hammer). Sorry if this is a lot, and kind of all over the place. I just have a lot of questions and a lot of inexperience. Thank you so much for any help!
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Chordata Class: Chondrichthyes Order: Petalodontiformes Family: Pristodontidae Genus: Peripristis sp.- 1 comment
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- bond formation
- illinois
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Curious and a bit crazy, I drove a couple hours out to what used to be a popular blastoid collecting site in Illinois. I've read online that this location has been the example of a couple bad apples ruining the bunch in the past, so I wasn't sure if I could collect or not. The exposure lies in a creek between private property, so to cover my bases I went knocking on some doors. Sometimes, that's all it takes. I spoke with the landowner, and he was nice and did not mind me looking and collecting. I would kindly express that anyone else with similar intentions do the same. Excited, I raced down to the exposure. A short walk from my car and I found the creek. The post will be picture heavy. A bit overgrown, but that's normal during the summertime in the Midwestern USA. I waded to the other side of the creek and started checking the mud towards the bottom. It didn't take long until I found a Pentremites blastoid! It was a decent size, though a bit compressed. Checking back, I noticed another one right below it, and gave them a quick creek wash. I then went up and started checking the first lower wall and noticed a nice dirty blastoid eroding out of what looks like a mudstone/ shale rock. I decided getting low on my hands and knees and checking through all the eroded material would be the best approach. This worked well. There were many blastoids just waiting to be plucked at the surface, or waiting just below some debree. So far, they were all in nice condition. The soft matrix attached also comes off easily in most cases. After finding 4, I got overwhelmed a bit from excitement and had to sit for a few minutes. A short break later, I started looking again and found more. A lot more. There were so many Pentremite blastoids just littered around. It was almost like picking up pecans when they start to fall, but better! Venturing towards the top of the exposure, I noticed some larger examples. Some were exposed in the soft wall, while a few looked like they had fell out recently. Here was a very nice specimen I found towards the top buried in mud. After a quick wash Almost everything I had found was just laying there and weathered out. No tools were required. I flipped through and looked at some of the bigger chunks of rock, but most were barren besides one cool little multi block. There were also some nice brachiopods and bryozoa I collected, which I sadly didn't photograph. I did find some sort of crusher toothplate as well. I think the blastoids always get most of the attention here, and I can understand why. I've never collected a spot with them so abundant. My final find ended up being my favorite, and biggest blastoid. I'm amazed at the quality, sizes, and sheer abundance of Pentremites blastoids that are here. This was a lot of fun and is a productive place to spend a day.
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Hello, We found this cool fossil mixed in with other stones in our planting in Lake County, Illinois and cannot figure out what type it is. We are in Northern Illinois near the Wisconsin border. My mom thinks it is a coral but I think it looks like the imprint of a bunch of isopods. We know little about fossils but would love to know more about this find. It is possible that it is not from our area since it was mixed in with landscaping rocks. Thanks!
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Help me name the outstanding fossil deposits of the midcontinent Devonian
pefty posted a topic in Questions & Answers
Crowdsourcing / help request! I'm putting together a review article for the fossil collector community on the Devonian rocks of the American midcontinent, which I've defined as the gray area on the map below plus southwest Ontario. I'm hoping to include a section in which I highlight the midcontinent fossils of greatest renown for each of a number of taxa (list below). (I purposely leave "renown" as a somewhat squishy quality open to multiple interpretations.) I would appreciate (1) your nominations of any midcontinent Devonian fossils of great renown that I have failed to capture in the list below and (2) your assistance in filling in the blanks marked with "????" Thank you! List is below. Microbes: ???? Marine algae: ???? Sponges: Formosa Reef Limestone, SW Ontario Rockport Quarry Limestone, NE Michigan ???? Corals: Widder Formation, SW Ontario Jeffersonville Limestone, S. Indiana Petoskey Limestone, NW lower Michigan Hyolithids: Arkona Formation, SW Ontario Tentaculitids: Arkona Formation, SW Ontario Conulariids: ???? Bryozoans: ???? Brachiopods: Silica Formation, NW Ohio ???? Pelecypods: Arkona Formation, SW Ontario ???? Gastropods: Rogers City Limestone, NE Michigan ???? Non-ammonoid cephalopods: ???? Ammonoid cephalopods: Arkona Formation, SW Ontario Pelecypods: Dundee Limestone, NW Ohio Arkona Formation, SW Ontario Rostroconchs: Dundee Limestone, NW Ohio Trilobites: Silica Formation, NW Ohio Arkona Formation and Widder Formation, SW Ontario Haragan and Bois d'Arc Formations, SE Oklahoma Non-ostracode crustaceans: Chagrin Shale, NE Ohio Arkona Formation and Widder Formation, SW Ontario Silica Formation, NW Ohio Echinoderms: Arkona Formation, SW Ontario Silica Formation, NW Ohio Thunder Bay Limestone, NE Michigan Graptolites: ???? Fish: Rockport Quarry Limestone, NE Michigan Columbus Limestone, central Ohio Cleveland Shale, NE Ohio Woody plants: Ohio Shale, Ohio Herbaceous plants: Grassy Creek Shale, E Missouri
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I'm so pumped to have found my first trilobite! I know it's one of the ones like calymene, but im unsure of the exact genera/species (Silurian dolomite, around Champaign IL). each of those 8x8 squares are 2.54 cm long and wide, if that helps also, kinda random but i was thinking about turning it into a necklace/pendant. What should I do if I wanna do that?
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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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Hey, short time reader, first time caller. Found this forum while looking up some fossil identifications. I grew up in Illinois, and have retired and now snowbird in Tucson Az. I've always been a passive rock collector, but since spending time on the trails in Az, I've rekindled my drive to find unique rocks and fossils. My childhood rock collection ended up being used in my parents garden. Having a new yard and style to landscape to with rocks has sent me off hunting for various colors and types. I've gone fossil hunting in Az (Winkelman), Colorado (Florissant Quarry) and Illinois (Mazonia) recently and hope to do more. I follow a fossil collector on Twitter. He recently did a week on Mazon fossils. I've lived an hour from there most of my life, but had no idea it existed. I've since been twice, once with my 10yo grandson, and once with my 5yo granddaughter who has already declared her intent to be a geologist. Since I've visited here several times looking for information it made sense to register
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Hello everyone! I've been inspired by so many good Mazon Creek topics in this forum, I thought I would start my own. I'll post my own finds, which so far don't include anything as exotic as a Tully Monster, but maybe I'll get lucky on page 134 or so... I have to credit my kids with getting me interested in fossil collecting. I was always interested in rocks and fossils but when my 10 year old son had his dinosaur phase it really sparked my interest again. I wondered if an ordinary person like me could go out and find fossils? So I Googled fossil collecting and found out that not only could I search on my own, one of the world's best sites for amateurs was just 3 hours away! The date I discovered Mazon Creek existed was 9/10/2017. I know that date because earlier in the day was the last ESCONI trip to the Braceville spoil pile for the year - I just missed it! So in May 2018 I finally went on that trip and was hooked. Since then I've gone to Braceville several times, the I&M Canal trip once, and a handful of trips on my own into Pit 11. I want to thank too many people to list for helping me learn about this new hobby. Everyone I've met on the field trips has been so friendly and helpful. And if you have posted something about Mazon Creek on this forum, I've read it. Special thanks to Nimravis for his Sometimes You Have To Whack It thread, which he started the day after my first trip to Mazon Creek - it has taught me so much and I'm so impressed at what a genuinely nice person he is. And Andrew Bach's book from his American Fossil Hunt site is wonderful, so so helpful. With that, onto the fossils (and lots of questions from me). I thought to start I would show some of my jellyfish, all Essexella asherae, I believe. I find it interesting that they are all so different, although they tend to fall into various "types" - some have a distinct "head", others are just faint outlines, some are just cylindrical shapes. #1-3 below are all from Pit 11 - the first two have a distinct head and the other is more cylindrical. For anyone who hasn't heard of Mazon Creek, these fossils are found in siderite concretions from the mid-Pennsylvanian epoch of the Carboniferous period, from roughly 305-310 mya. Cheers! Chris
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Chordata Class: Chondrichthyes Order: Petalodontiformes Family: Pristodontidae Genus: Peripristis sp.-
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- bond formation
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Trilobita Order: Proetida Family: Proetidae Genus: Ameura-
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Chordata Class: Chondrichthyes Order: Petalodontiformes Family: Petalodontidae Genus: Petalodus-
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From the album: Pennsylvanian fossils
Phylum: Brachiopoda-Articulata Class: Rhynchonellata Order: Athyridida Family: Athyrididae Genus: Composita- 2 comments
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I'm happy to announce i possibly found the most complete Listracanthus to date. And we may finally get a proper ID for this strange creature. I thought this was regurgitation, but while prepping i believe i ran into cartilage. So i will stop prepping and give this to a professional, or at least let someone with more experience look at this. Unfortunately the rest is in a giant wall of black shale that i won't be able to get back to until next Spring/Summer. The denticles are up to 6mm thick and associated with smaller denticles. I will get more pictures under a scope when i get a chance. God willing i will recover the rest of this creature in 2019. Happy hunting! Possible cartilage
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This was found on the spoil piles at the Mazonia Wildlife Management Area in northern Illinois. It looks like fish bone to me. Please excuse the poor photos. I found it just before rain set in and am impatient to get opinions on it.
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Found on a spoil pile in the Mazonia wildlife management area, northern Illinois. I've found a couple other cool trace fossils in the area. Is this one ?
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I had a concretion open up. I am confused what it could be, I was thinking some kind of worm, and I thought it had a weird texture and I was wondering if anyone has any insight.
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Hi, as the title said I’ll be headed to University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and I just wanted to ask if there’s any interesting places around there to look for fossils? I’ve done a little reading on some of the publications in ISGS, but haven’t found anything honestly at all, regarding fossils and that area. But I was wondering if maybe y’all knew a few places yourself? Thanks in advance :3 -
I'll update this thread with my Mazon Collection over the next few weeks. With some good weather out yesterday, I managed to get my first fossil hunt in for the season and will post a report in this topic. I will be moving this upcoming summer which will put me even further from Mazon Creek so I have purchased a few pieces to fill in the genus/species I haven't found yet and will mention if I purchased a fossil. I still hold out hope to find some of these pieces I purchased eventually but will realistically be difficult if I only can make 1 trip a year. Fauna Tullimonstrum gregarium A weathered eye-bar I found on my first trip several years back. There is an eye spot evident under the right light. Still the only piece I have found at this point. Euphoberia armigera (Purchased) Acanthodian indet. (Purchased) Note: Under magnification the scales are present. Cyclus americanus What's a Mazon Creek thread without some Essexella asherae? I still like finding these guys despite the vast amount I have found. Here are a few of my favorites: Note: My largest piece, this is about 6-7 inches in diameter. A couple shrimp pieces. I believe Belotelson magister (Traded for the first one) Here is a cool insect wing from the order Palaeodictyoptera. (Purchased) Now I believe this piece may be a Dasyleptus sp. and if it isn't one, I would love to be corrected! Europops danae (Purchased) Mazonomya mazonensis I'll add to this thread with additional fauna and flora later and will continue to add as I go through freeze-thaw cycles.
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From the Mazonia wildlife management area in northern Illinois. Is this a fern seed ?
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Can anyone help me identify these bones. They look old. Found in South Eastern Illinois Length is about 4-5" and both are about the same length.
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Two teeth I need help identifying
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Discovered in creek in southeastern illinois. VERY heavy. Any help with an id would be greatly appreciated!
