Tidgy's Dad Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Some great recent finds, Ralph, the Rhabdoderma is incredible! Or should that be Ralphiderma? I'm sure there're more great finds to come. 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 @Nimravis have never wacked but wow you do find some pretty cool specimens in these nodules and the variety is amazing. Are the fossil bearing nodules common to specific areas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 18, 2018 Author Share Posted July 18, 2018 1 hour ago, Troodon said: @Nimravis have never wacked but wow you do find some pretty cool specimens in these nodules and the variety is amazing. Are the fossil bearing nodules common to specific areas? Thanks Frank- To answer your question, Yes. The concretions that I have are found in areas where there was strip and shaft mining facilities in the past, but they were first found along the banks of the Mazon River (Creek). The concretions were found about 2 feet above the coal measures. Besides the areas where I collected these, about 50 miles South of Chicago, similar concretions are also found in Southern Illinois and in Indiana, though I never collected in those areas. The one big difference that I am told is that they do not have the Fauna as found at Mazon Creek, but Southern Illinois does have some fantastic Flora. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 On 7/16/2018 at 10:27 PM, Nimravis said: Now my second concretion was really a nice find. When I was looking through the bucket, I was putting certain concretions off to the side that I plan on Freeze / Thawing them over the winter. I had this concretion in my hand to put on that bucket and I decided against it, I was really happy that I did. If you take a look at the concretion, you will see that something was exposed, but I did not see it because there was dirt on it. Now due to the fact that this fossil was not found in the center of the concretion, which would have made it more stable, this fossil would have had a good chance that the thinner side would have disintegrated during the Freeze / Thaw process. Looking at this fish, I am saying that it is a Conchopoma edesi, but can also see a resemblance of Rhabdoderma, @RCFossils , what do you think? I agree with Rhabdoderma, Ralph. What an outstanding find! Glad to see them pay off big time, once in a while. Congratulations on a spectacular find. 1 Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCFossils Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 This has been a really great post. It is hard for people who have not collected Mazon Creek fossils to appreciate the work that goes in to finding these treasures. As Ralph has shown, it can take many thousands of concretions but amazing things can still be found. unfortunately most of the areas where these concretions were collected has been reclaimed or lost to development. It is much harder today to collect large quantities of concretions. Unlike most fossil collecting, there is little instant gratification in picking up concretions. It takes a lot of work and patience to go through the buckets. Ralph has had these sitting in storage for many years waiting to be split. It is nice that they are finally being shown to the world after a 300 million year wait. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t-tree Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 That is a beautiful fish nodule and i'm still enjoying this thread as much as ever! John Be happy while you're living for you're a long time dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 18, 2018 Author Share Posted July 18, 2018 37 minutes ago, RCFossils said: This has been a really great post. It is hard for people who have not collected Mazon Creek fossils to appreciate the work that goes in to finding these treasures. As Ralph has shown, it can take many thousands of concretions but amazing things can still be found. unfortunately most of the areas where these concretions were collected has been reclaimed or lost to development. It is much harder today to collect large quantities of concretions. Unlike most fossil collecting, there is little instant gratification in picking up concretions. It takes a lot of work and patience to go through the buckets. Ralph has had these sitting in storage for many years waiting to be split. It is nice that they are finally being shown to the world after a 300 million year wait. Thanks for the nice comments and you are exactly right about instant gratification, it rarely happens in the field when collecting concretions. I rarely opened any concretions in the field because if I found nothing, which most likely would have been the case, I had the 1 1/2 hour drive back to Chicago to think about that. So I decided to always wait until I arrived home to open some and then I just started hoarding them, knowing that the areas I collected from were vanishing due to developments or nature and lack of weathering. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 18, 2018 Author Share Posted July 18, 2018 6 minutes ago, t-tree said: That is a beautiful fish nodule and i'm still enjoying this thread as much as ever! John Thanks John, I will be opening more today, yesterday I had to go see my 4 year old grandkid perform at his summer camp show and all he did was stand there with his hands over his eyes- he tells me that he does not sing “Spring or Summer songs”, but if it was Nirvana or Green Day he would have been all in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 19, 2018 Author Share Posted July 19, 2018 Today was not a good day for fossils, I continued to go through the bucket from Braceville that produced the Coelacanth a couple days ago. I went through about 60 concretions and only found (2) Essexella asherae Jellyfish. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 15 hours ago, RCFossils said: It is hard for people who have not collected Mazon Creek fossils to appreciate the work that goes in to finding these treasures. As Ralph has shown, it can take many thousands of concretions but amazing things can still be found. unfortunately most of the areas where these concretions were collected has been reclaimed or lost to development. It is much harder today to collect large quantities of concretions. 14 hours ago, Nimravis said: Thanks for the nice comments and you are exactly right about instant gratification, it rarely happens in the field when collecting concretions. I rarely opened any concretions in the field because if I found nothing, which most likely would have been the case, I had the 1 1/2 hour drive back to Chicago to think about that. So I decided to always wait until I arrived home to open some and then I just started hoarding them, knowing that the areas I collected from were vanishing due to developments or nature and lack of weathering. Good thing you did. Maybe it's also a good thing that I assembled a small collection of Mazon fossils for myself when I did, as they're probably going to become more and more pricey? Maybe one of these days I should tackle the job of taking pics of them all to show the Forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 19, 2018 Author Share Posted July 19, 2018 19 minutes ago, Wrangellian said: Good thing you did. Maybe it's also a good thing that I assembled a small collection of Mazon fossils for myself when I did, as they're probably going to become more and more pricey? Maybe one of these days I should tackle the job of taking pics of them all to show the Forum. Yes, I and other members would love to see them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 Well they are bought - not as special as seeing your self-found stuff - and probably nothing you veterans haven't seen before, and my crummy photog skills might not do them justice, but I'll see what I can do! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miocene_Mason Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 14 hours ago, Nimravis said: other members would love to see them. If you could see me, you’d see I’m raising my hand. 1 “...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin Happy hunting, Mason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 27 minutes ago, Wrangellian said: Well they are bought - not as special as seeing your self-found stuff - and probably nothing you veterans haven't seen before, and my crummy photg skills might not do them justice, but I'll see what I can do! Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 Today I continued to open concretions collected from the Braceville Shaft Mine, here are some of them prior to opening, and what I got rid of at the end- I just found ordinary stuff for this location. Essexella asherae Jellyfish Myalinella meeki Bivalve Mazonomya mazonensis Bivalve Polychaete Worm Coprolite 3D Pecopteris Fern 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 That's a very 3D fern! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 15 hours ago, Wrangellian said: That's a very 3D fern! Yes- I don’t recall ever finding one like this before and definitely no from Braceville. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Very nice fish! Cheers, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 On 7/18/2018 at 7:56 AM, Nimravis said: Thanks Frank- To answer your question, Yes. The concretions that I have are found in areas where there was strip and shaft mining facilities in the past, but they were first found along the banks of the Mazon River (Creek). The concretions were found about 2 feet above the coal measures. Besides the areas where I collected these, about 50 miles South of Chicago, similar concretions are also found in Southern Illinois and in Indiana, though I never collected in those areas. The one big difference that I am told is that they do not have the Fauna as found at Mazon Creek, but Southern Illinois does have some fantastic Flora. There is also a locality in Missouri and western Illinois. I have bought a few from Missouri and Indiana. They are very similar to Mazon Creek. Cheers, Rich 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deutscheben Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 13 hours ago, stats said: There is also a locality in Missouri and western Illinois. I have bought a few from Missouri and Indiana. They are very similar to Mazon Creek. Cheers, Rich And don't forget East Central Illinois (my home turf). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 On 7/21/2018 at 11:03 PM, deutscheben said: And don't forget East Central Illinois (my home turf). Have you guys ever tried Pyramid State Park in Perry County? I has the same characteristic strip mining marks. There seems to be quite a few operating coal mines near Pinckneyville. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Perry+County,+IL/@38.0168469,-89.4359466,14z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8876f88857983c3b:0x6a4d6e89f65da23a!8m2!3d38.0612022!4d-89.3226954 Cheers, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 On 7/21/2018 at 11:03 PM, deutscheben said: And don't forget East Central Illinois (my home turf). Actually, is the East Central Illinois locality associated with the Indiana sites? I would like to try some new areas. Cheers, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 23, 2018 Author Share Posted July 23, 2018 6 hours ago, stats said: Have you guys ever tried Pyramid State Park in Perry County? I has the same characteristic strip mining marks. There seems to be quite a few operating coal mines near Pinckneyville. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Perry+County,+IL/@38.0168469,-89.4359466,14z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8876f88857983c3b:0x6a4d6e89f65da23a!8m2!3d38.0612022!4d-89.3226954 Cheers, Rich I never heard of that site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 24, 2018 Author Share Posted July 24, 2018 I decided to take a quick 660 mile (Round Trip) this last weekend to Southern Indiana to do a little Ordovician collecting, so I have not been able to open any Mazon Creek stuff, after doing 8 hours of interior house painting today (got more on me than the walls), I opened a number of concretions from Braceville- nothing special found. Mazonomya mazonensis Bivalves Myalinella meeki Bivalves Partial Polychaete Worms Coprolite 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 I've been away for a week and not missed too much, it seems. Except for your Ordovician trip. Must have a look out for that one. Hope you found lots of goodies, Ralph! Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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