Fossil hunting trip in Utica, Illinois October/29/2022

[Joseph Fossil]

@connorp Also, you sure the nodules from there don't have fossils or are they just rarer than Mazon Creeks fossil containing nodules?

[Joseph Fossil]

18 hours ago, connorp said:

Was the limestone slab collected in situ? It looks Ordovician.

 

It was collected at the second site in a large rock pile surrounding two large dried up drainage pipes. There were Pennsylvanian nodules (small ones though) in the area as well and we weren't too far away from Carboniferous limestone outcrops so it's possible it could either be Ordovician or Carboniferous. If I or someone could ID what genera are in the limestone slab, I think we'll figure out a general age based on the genera present.

[Joseph Fossil]

@FossilDAWG @deutscheben @connorp Here are some of the larger nodules I found at the clay shale site. They are pretty weathered, but their size is what impresses me. Theses are only a fraction of the amount I found and collected there!

 

 

[FossilDAWG]

Have you tried to split any of them?  Do they contain fossils?

 

Don

[Joseph Fossil]

45 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

Have you tried to split any of them?  Do they contain fossils?

 

Don

 

@FossilDAWG I haven't yet. I'll try to do so either today or within the next couple of days!

[jdp]

On 10/31/2022 at 2:40 PM, Joseph Fossil said:

 

 

Does anyone have an ID for what these tiny black rods are? I'm not sure they're fossils and I found it after splitting open one of the shale rocks! 

 

Unsure of the others, but these are a mix of ribs and fin rays from a coelacanth, possibly Rhabdoderma.

[Joseph Fossil]

6 hours ago, jdp said:

 

Unsure of the others, but these are a mix of ribs and fin rays from a coelacanth, possibly Rhabdoderma.

@jdp Thanks for the ID man. I'm actually in a good way surprised! I know coelacanths were definitely around at this time, but that would have been truly one of the last things I would have thought this specimen to be!!