Patrick K. Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Hi all! Got a quick question for the Mazon Creek veterans - I've only been collecting for this season and last, but I've been out there 15 times or so now. On opening weekend I took my 17 y/o daughter and her friend, the girls and I hit a spot that was loaded w concretions. I did the 10 day soak and they are now going through 10 freeze/thaw cycles. I've never had concretions with this color - all the ones were rust colored, the outer layer and the inner concretions. These were rust colored also, but the outer shell flaked off and now they look like this. Has anyone that collected a lot of concretions noticed any patterns in the type of concretions that have better success rate? Basically I'm asking which ones to get my hopes up for -- haha! Last year I had a lot of nice shapes, and very little success. Heres a pic of one of them and a few of the haul from our trip and a pair of happy kids! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPrice Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 That's a nice lot of concretions! Congrats on the finds and please share the contents when you start prepping/splitting them. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 I have found over the years that the ones that have outer layers that peel are more likely to contain a fossil but it will often run out beyond the edge of the conretion. 1 2 1 Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Nice haul! 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deutscheben Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 From my experience, the nicely shaped concretions that are not red have had a bit better odds of finding something- tan and grey ones both. The red/rust nodules seem to have a higher percentage of blanks with just pyrite on the inside. This may be skewed by the particular areas I have collected in, though- it’s hard to say definitively when looking at such a vast deposit. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick K. Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 Apologies I didn't get back to this sooner, for some reason I was not getting notifications - user error I am sure! Thanks for getting back to me! It's been a bit of a rude awakening with the freeze thaw process since I started collecting last year - I've only got one nice shrimp (that I hammered open lol), a badly preserved plant, a few Essexella and 2 FULL BUCKETS full of scraps! I figured I'd ask here in case there was a concretion pattern that everyone knows never produces it would save me the hassle of freezing it 25+ times to find nothing. I like to describe the process to being a kid and opening empty Christmas presents every few days! Luckily we've had pretty good luck on the open finds so that keeps me going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connorp Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 6 hours ago, Patrick K. said: Apologies I didn't get back to this sooner, for some reason I was not getting notifications - user error I am sure! Thanks for getting back to me! It's been a bit of a rude awakening with the freeze thaw process since I started collecting last year - I've only got one nice shrimp (that I hammered open lol), a badly preserved plant, a few Essexella and 2 FULL BUCKETS full of scraps! I figured I'd ask here in case there was a concretion pattern that everyone knows never produces it would save me the hassle of freezing it 25+ times to find nothing. I like to describe the process to being a kid and opening empty Christmas presents every few days! Luckily we've had pretty good luck on the open finds so that keeps me going. That's just how Pit 11 goes. Nice symmetrical shapes are generally best. But even weird shapes occasionally produce stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 On 3/16/2024 at 9:40 AM, deutscheben said: From my experience, the nicely shaped concretions that are not red have had a bit better odds of finding something- tan and grey ones both. The red/rust nodules seem to have a higher percentage of blanks with just pyrite on the inside. This may be skewed by the particular areas I have collected in, though- it’s hard to say definitively when looking at such a vast deposit. I have noticed that as well. Also, the ones that have multiple layers and are very grainy are usually duds or "forest floor" debris. Unfortunately, there's no telling what may be inside so we pick all of them up (including those obviously broken in half) and take them home to process. Once in a while you get lucky and are rewarded with something excellent. The s-shaped ones are Tullymonsters. 1 Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Also, stay away from the diagonals. Those are the ones with layers that are off from the vertical and horizontal planes. I've found those tend to be duds. Rarely, you'll find something small inside. I've seen many like your first photo. They look so promising. They can have fossils, but the preservation tends to be very light. Cheers, Rich 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick K. Posted April 9 Author Share Posted April 9 I've had lots of concretions pop so far - all duds besides one tan one, exactly as you describe Rich. Very faint shrimp molt I think - not the entire creature since it has no depth to the fossilized material? Still cool though! It is only visible when wet - I'd like to add some sort of lacquer to it to be able to see it - any ideas? I wouldn't do this to anything good I may come across but this one is pretty useless without being able to see it. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 My exact experience with those. Although, I do have a few nice ones from concretions like that. Cheers, Rich 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 (edited) Shrimp molts are not well defined by default. There's not really any way to dramatically enhance them. They are what they are. Edited April 10 by Mark Kmiecik fix typo 1 Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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