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Hello from Wisconsin! My husband and I are bringing our 10, 7 and 4 year old kiddos to the Pit 11 area at the end of next week for a couple days to try to find some fossil concretions. I have the Wittry book, joined ESCONI, and have read this forum thoroughly and am grateful for all the info provided by you wonderful experts, thank you! I am realistic however that a 4-year-old is going to limit just how much walking we can do, especially as it's rough terrain. Could someone please confirm whether it is okay to just park alongside the road *anywhere* around the Pit 11 area? Specifically W5000 North, Merchants Rd (route 6) and Kankakee? Trying to shorten our walking distances as much as possible, but don't want to be ticketed or towed! I could always have my husband drop us off and go park in the lots, but it would be good to be closer to the vehicle throughout the days for multiple reasons. Also, am I right to be concerned and cautious about venomous snakes? Seems like this would be prime territory, I know it's early spring so not as likely, but stepping into a copperhead den is a concern when exploring with young kids. Thank you so much for any feedback!
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@RCFossils @stats @connorp @Mark Kmiecik Here are a couple more that I put to the side and do not recall if I looked for ID’s in the past. I just can’t feel comfortable with an id on this worm, what do you think? It is a cutie. 1. 2. This is reminding me of an Octomedusa, but do not recall seeing one with this type of preservation. 3. Here are Three Amigos- any ideas?
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@RCFossils @stats @connorp @Mark Kmiecik I do not think that I have posted these unknowns that I have. If I have, I do not have an ID. What do you think about these 8 pieces?? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Hystriciola delicatula?? 7. 8.
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Hello, I'm considering purchasing some unopened Mazon creek nodules to open for fun, since I'm unable to hunt fossils myself. I'm inexperienced with the material so I wanted to ask if there is a rule of thumb for judging if a nodule is going to be good or potentially contain some rare stuff? Here is an example batch I'm considering. The nodules range from 4-8 inches. My gut tells me the very long thin ones are most likely the common plants like Pecopteris, and that I should try to get more of the round/oval ones?
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Hello all, my name is Patrick - nice to meet you! I recently went back to the Mazon Creek area to hunt with my daughter, it has been about 40 years since I went with my dad as a kid, so it had been a while! We did ok, found a few that had already popped open, but are covered in white mineral deposits. I tried the method that our local club ESCONI has on its website (Soaked in 25% Vinegar and water solution for 15 minutes and gently rub with a cotton ball), and only saw minimal improvement on the ones that were really bad. I only tried this once on each one - just wondering if my expectations are a bit high for these and I should just accept the condition or if anyone had any suggestions or recommendations?
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One of the nice things about collecting Mazon Creek concretions is that most specimens don't require any prep - they open up and are good to go. This however was not one of those cases. This concretion exploded during freeze thaw last year into hundreds of pieces, and on most pieces the fossils were still covered by sections of shale. It took around 25 hours in total to reassemble the concretion and prep out what wasn't exposed. Big thanks to Kris @Ptychodus04 for helping to finish the prep work. This is a large frond of the rare fern Mariopteris nervosa. And if that wasn't enough, there was a second layer to this concretion, containing more plants and an opisthosoma of the horseshoe crab Euproops danae. A lot more work than is usually necessary, but well worth it in the end.
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New Interpretation of Essexella Jellyfish Mazon Creek
RCFossils posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
A new paper redescribing the common Pit Eleven Jellyfish as an anemone. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spp2.1479 -
So a friend told me that this was a Trigonotarbid. My Dad, the paleontologist, had it ID'd as an unidentified anthracomartid. Any thoughts?
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Hello all, this is a small concretion I broke by hand from the Mazonia Braidwood locale. Concretion is 1.1 inch or 2.42 cm in diameter. I'm thinking it's simply empty, however in the event it was a hard to see jellyfish I figured I'd ask. I think animals usually appear as white carbonized silhouettes but some of the jellyfish appear colored.
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Yesterday I had the pleasure of getting out for one of the nicest opening days of the fossil hunting season at Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area that I’ve experienced. The sun was shining, the ground was relatively dry and temps were in the 40s-50s. And I only encountered 1 tick! I ran into a few other collectors over the course of the day, including @connorp. The park was mostly quiet as usual, with the sounds of birds and passing cars nearby, as well as the distant rumble of trains and planes. My hunting area for this trip was south of Monster Lake- after getting nearly skunked when it came to interesting fossils the last two years I wanted to go back to a site that had given me more success in the past. It’s about a one mile hike to get down to the collecting area, although I was able to pick up a few concretions on the way there. I’ve been using an 8 inch wide plastic rake the last few trips to clear leaves and litter from the ground and I have found it really effective. It’s a full length rake like this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ames-60-in-handle-Collector-8-in-Poly-Shrub-Rake-2915900/204476248 so maneuvering it in the underbrush can be annoying sometimes, but since I’m already trying to fit a 6’3” frame through there it doesn’t make it notably more difficult to get around. Here are a couple concretions in an area where I didn’t clear things up: I didn’t find too many already split concretions- a few dirty plants I’ll share once I’ve had a chance to clean them up and some mystery things that may or may not prove to be anything (and one exciting find I will detail below). As usual, there were also plenty of split Essexella blobs to be found, but I didn’t bring any of those home. Towards the end of the day, I found myself at the base of a small hill that was veritably covered in both split and unsplit concretions. At first I thought it might have been a dump pile from a collector back in the day, but the number of unopened smaller concretions made me question that, as well as the next find I made- a very partial Tullimonstrum gregarium! It’s a wee one, but only the second example of our state fossil that I’ve found. Here is a wider shot of the hill where I found it: By this time I was starting to get pretty sore, so I decided to head back. I ended up with around 2 gallons of concretions, a pretty average day at Pit 11 for me. Here is my bucket at the end of the day: I’ve got about 10 gallons of other concretions in the queue ahead of these, so it may be a while before I start freezing and thawing them, but I will work on getting them cleaned up and ready to go in the meantime. As @Mark Kmiecik famously said about hunting Pit 11, I left “bruised and abused and grinning from ear to ear”. It’s a tough experience, but you can count on me keeping at it as long as I can. Anybody else planning to make it out to the park this week?
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Yesterday I stopped by another good friend of mine (Marty) that I have known for about 30 years. He has been collecting Mazon Creek fossils a lot longer that I have and also use to collect with my mentor Walter. Every once in a while he contacts me and has me stop by to pick up Mazon Creek concretions that he does not want and I go through them and place them into 5 gallon buckets for the ESCONI Braceville trip. I then bring the buckets and dump fossils for the participants. Here is a picture of the bags that I picked up yesterday. Marty also pointed out a bag of concretions that he received from Walter, probably back in the early 1980s. In this bag there were two fossils mounted on cardboard, that were given to Walter from a fellow collector that lived in Marietta Ohio. These two fossils, one is a Cyclopteris, and the other I am not sure of, or collected from the Permian- Washington formation, that is found in southeast Ohio. Pictures are below. I also looked at one other piece that was in this bag, and it came from Pitt 11. It is really cool, since it has four different fossils in the concretion. Euproops danae, Pecopteris, Neuropteris? and maybe a lycopod leaf. I had to get acetone to get rid of the writing on the concretion. When I go through the other bags, I will include some future pictures.
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Belotelsonid donation
Sauropod19 posted a topic in Partners in Paleontology - Member Contributions to Science
Greetings, friends. I have some very exciting news on a personal front: My first ever museum donation is this Mazon Creek Belotelsonid, which is going to the Indiana State Museum! Using advice from elsewhere on TFF, I reached out to their team a couple of days ago to ask if they might want it and surely enough they did!- 4 replies
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This concretion opened up recently and I'm pretty stumped. My best guess is that this is a lateral view of some sort of pollen organ, but I haven't been able to find a match in literature. I was hoping someone here might have an idea? @paleoflor @RCFossils @fiddlehead
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Yesterday I took my second trip of the year to do some collecting at Pit 11. A little chilly, but once the sun came out it was a nice day. An idea of how overgrown it is, even this early in the year. The first find of the day A productive hillside A nice handful of concretions I broke my personal record and was able to collect about 3 gallons in the 6 hours I collected. Not many open finds, although I did find this fairly nice Annularia, hopefully a sign of things to come!
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Hello. I found this piece during my first visit to Mazon last year and just got around to asking about it. I believe it may be tracks of some sort, as they look vaguely like other arthropod ichnofossils. I was wondering if anyone may be able to confirm my suspicions and possibly ID what kind of animal it could be. I understand this second part is difficult without anything else to go off of, and I apologize for lower camera quality than the other images I’ve seen here. Thank you!
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2022 I&M Canal Corridor Fossil Trip - August 27th and 28th, 2022
stats posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
The annual I&M Canal Corridor Fossil Trip was split between two weekends this year. Saturday, August 13th and Sunday August 14th, 2022 were family and beginner days, while more experienced collectors had their opportunities on Saturday, August 27th and Sunday, August 28th, 2022. From the look of what was found, the families barely made a dent in the supply of fossils. In case you are not familiar with the history of the site, the Kodat/Benson farm is designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1997. Statement of Significance (as of designation - September 25, 1997): The Mazon Creek Fossil Beds are important in the history of U.S. geology. When they were discovered in the mid-19th century, the beds provided the best and earliest representations of the oldest plants and animals known. Sites where fragile fossils are common and well preserved (here in distinctive ironstone nodules) are exceedingly rare. The Mazon Creek beds continue to be a prolific source of fossils. This trip is always well attended. The family and dinner event (August 28th) included an informative lecture by Andrew Young and Dave Dolak about the geology, history, and the fossils found at the site. There were quite a few opened concretions found on each day. The finds ranged from a shark tooth, to a huge lungfish scale, and many of the spectacular ferns common throughout the Mazon Creek fossil deposit. I saw many Fossil Forum people at the event. Please post photos to this thread. I gave most of my open pieces away, but will be adding any new fossils as my unopened concretions go through the freeze/thaw process. Please add yourself, if I have missed you. @deutscheben @connorp @bigred97 @Roby Here are a few photos over the 4 days.- 41 replies
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Curious if anyone recognizes this. Looks floral but I don't recall having seen anything like it before. @Nimravis @stats @Mark Kmiecik @deutscheben @RCFossils
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Hello. I found three pieces in the Mazon Creek area that I’ve finally split open and am interested in. While there is a very good possibility that all three are just consequences of opening the concretion and not actually fossils, I figured I’d check. Image 1: I thought there was a slight possibility it was a leaf or a worm, but due to lack of detail, I imagine it is not. Image 2: Potentially the top of E. asherae or something similar. Image 3: I am actually just curious about what causes the small, light circles on the right side of the bottom piece and in the middle of the top piece. I’ve noticed these on many Mazon rocks and wonder if it is a mineral inclusion or something else. Thank you for taking a look!
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This concretion opened up a couple weeks ago. When I first looked at it, I could tell there was something there, but the contrast between it and the surrounding matrix was very low, so I didn't think much of it. I got around to looking at it again yesterday. In very bright oblique light, I realized it was actually a very beautiful spider with legs and all. It measures about 1cm. I am not sure on the ID. Colors inverted
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An idea for a Museum solely dedicated to the Carboniferous life of Mazon Creek, Illinois
Joseph Fossil posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
I've been to a least a few museums where they would have a part of an exhibit dedicated to the Carboniferous era (of which the Field Museum's section for that in the Evolving Planet is pretty good). But I do wonder what would it be like if a whole A grade small to medium sized museum opened dedicated solely to the fossils found in the Mazon Creek area, including the Essex Fauna. It could be located close to the Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife area and include life sized reconstructions of both the terrestrial and aquatic environments. It could also be a place where fossil hunters could donate there finds to have them displayed so scientists will have an opportunity to study any fossils found (where most of the fossils from the area now I fear end up in private hands). Any thoughts?- 10 replies
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- carboniferous
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I spotted this on the outside of a concretion this week while sorting some buckets. It looks to me like it is possibly a wing, but it's pretty water worn so it could also just be a suggestively worn fern pinnule. I was hoping for a second opinion. @Nimravis @stats @deutscheben @RCFossils @Mark Kmiecik @flipper559 Thanks. A couple shots under a microscope.
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- illinois
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This concretion opened up tonight. I'm not entirely sure what it is. I thought it might be a cross section of a small bone, but I could also seeing it being some weird pyrite formation - the site that this was collected at produces a lot of those. Any thoughts? A couple shots under a microscope.
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As with many Mazon Creek pieces, a lot is left up to interpretation and imagination. Looking to see what people think about this piece. @RCFossils @stats @Mark Kmiecik @connorp @deutscheben and any other FF members.
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I had this concretion open today. I immediately noticed what I believe is a coelacanth scale, but on closer inspection there looks to be some other bits that might be related. Any thoughts? @jdp @RCFossils
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- carboniferous
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