stats Posted July 3, 2019 Share Posted July 3, 2019 15 hours ago, Nimravis said: Mark I wanted to add this little bit of information. In my papers on Mazon Creek I came across a "typed' copy of George Langfords diary that he kept as he collected fossils. For those who do not know who he is, he was the Curator of Fossil Plants at the Chicago Natural History Museum, now known as the Field Museum. Langford retired from that position in January of 1962. His first trip to the Strip Mines was in October of 1937 and after that first visit, he would regularly collect with his son. Langford did collect at the actual Mazon Creek years before his visit to the strip mines. Now onto cracking concretions. From what I understand, Langford had lost one of his arms sometime before collecting concretions. According to Eugene Richardson, Former Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology (Field Museum), who would collect with the Langfords, said that in order for Langford to crack open concretions, he would hold them with his feet and whack them. Richardson said that Langford would jokingly remark- "Occasionally the collector misses his aim and hits his thumb, a painful injury results. When I miss my aim, my shoes protect my feet. I have split many thousands of nodules and have never hit my thumb." It must have been a great time to collect, here is a list of fossils that he opened after one day of collecting on September 1, 1948. Flora Large 1st Grade (86) I believe 1st Grade might be Excellent and 2nd Grade might be Very Good Small 1st Grade (45) Large 2nd Grade (157) Small 2nd (grade) 162 TOTALS- 450 Fauna Euproops Horseshoe Crab (4) Acanthotelson Shrimp (9) Fish (1) Spiders (2) Fish Scale (1) Gyromices (Microconchids) (2) Bivalves (5) TOTAL- 24 Do you know of https://www.georgesbasement.com/? It has George Langford's diaries and other documents online and is maintained by his grandson. A truly valuable site... I never tire of browsing on that site. A very interesting character! There aren't many of the old timers left. I always enjoy visiting with Rich Rock. Have you met him? He has lots of interesting stories. Cheers, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 3, 2019 Author Share Posted July 3, 2019 4 hours ago, stats said: I always enjoy visiting with Rich Rock. Have you met him? Yes I have. I did not know about that site, thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 5 hours ago, Nimravis said: Yes I have. I did not know about that site, thanks for posting. It's a great site for ID although a bit outdated. The drawings are most helpful in that respect. 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...
Nimravis Posted July 5, 2019 Author Share Posted July 5, 2019 After I was out collecting for some Tentaculites oswegoensis, I took some time today to crack open some concretions from "Across From Pit 4", did not find much today, but it did help me get rid of some. Subsurface Bark and other Misc. Flora- I noticed on the first picture that I am getting my fingers back to being "Climbing Ready". I took some time off from climbing, but now I am back to climbing 4-5 days a week and it will toughen up my fingers up the way I like- Here is a piece of bark and a Myalinella meeki- Here is a worm and then a Cyclus americanus- These are always cool to find, it is a Myalinella meeki trying to get away from being trapped. That's my story and I am sticking with it. Here are just a couple cool pieces with pyrite. That's it for today, I am off to go climbing. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 21 hours ago, Nimravis said: Here is a piece of bark and a Myalinella meeki- Definitive proof that Pennsylvanian clams could climb trees. 2 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...
Nimravis Posted July 7, 2019 Author Share Posted July 7, 2019 Today was a very poor day for opening concretions. I decided to go through some smaller concretions, I usually have some pretty good luck and find some nice fossils, but today was not that way. Here are what some of the unopened concretions looked like. A lot of the concretions had great shapes, but 90% were void of anything or had pyrite in them, very disappointing, but that is Mazon Creek fossils. Here are all of my finds, felt like a 3% success rate today, Essexella asherae Jellyfish- Worm- Weak Shrimp Molt- Bad looking Pecopteris- Subsurface Bark- Subsurface of the non-vascular plant Taeniophyllum latifolium. I always love finding this checker board pattern that is found in these pieces. Hopefully I have better luck tomorrow. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 It has been a while since I cracked open some concretions, so I decided to spend some time in the cool weather today opening some- the feels like temp was crazy. I went through a lot of concretions and the vast majority were duds, but I did find a couple things, but nothing to write home about. I came across these 2 Essexella asherae Jellyfish in the bucket, they were already split and I only had each half from a different concretions. Sedgwickia sp. - a marine bivalve. Bark and Subsurface Bark- Alethopteris- Alethopteris on the outside with a Pecopteris on the inside. Pecopteris- Neuropteris- Bivalve- This happens too often, you lightly hit a concretion and it explodes in your hand. This would have been a Sedgwickia sp. if it would have stayed together. If I have time tomorrow I will try to get to more of them and hopefully something nice is revealed. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 17 hours ago, Nimravis said: Bark and Subsurface Bark- Woof and Subwoof? Nice little Alethopteris. 2 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 July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 6 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said: Woof and Subwoof? Nice little Alethopteris. Alethopteris is my favorite! Nice little one Ralph! Cheers, Rich 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 I was sorting through fossils tonight and I came across one of my favorite Lungfish scales that I collected from the site I call “Across from Pit 4”. Back in 1998 this piece split so nice with one whack of the hammer. This piece is somewhat concave and looks very nice. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stats Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Ralph, nice one! I found this in Pit 11 this spring. It's hard to tell in the picture, but I think this is a fish scale. I found it open, so there has been some weathering. Cheers, Rich 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 On 7/20/2019 at 7:50 PM, Nimravis said: This would be a great "start-up" restoration project for someone just getting into prepping. I have a few that I saved, somewhere. Small zip-lock bag is all it takes. 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 July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 43 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said: This would be a great "start-up" restoration project for someone just getting into prepping. I have a few that I saved, somewhere. Small zip-lock bag is all it takes. Looks like a clam. I like putting ones like this back together as practice for the real good ones that open as bunch of pieces. Cheers, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 11 minutes ago, stats said: Looks like a clam. I like putting ones like this back together as practice for the real good ones that open as bunch of pieces. Cheers, Rich This one actually is a very nice specimen. It is a clam. You should ask Ralph if he still has it. I doubt that he will be restoring it since he has so many, or ask him to save some for you in the future if he doesn't. I'm 100% sure he'll have a bunch more that "explode". 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...
Nimravis Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 47 minutes ago, stats said: Looks like a clam. I like putting ones like this back together as practice for the real good ones that open as bunch of pieces. Cheers, Rich It was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 38 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said: This one actually is a very nice specimen. It is a clam. You should ask Ralph if he still has it. I doubt that he will be restoring it since he has so many, or ask him to save some for you in the future if he doesn't. I'm 100% sure he'll have a bunch more that "explode". That one went right in the garbage- if you do want me to save some I can if I come across more. @stats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 9 minutes ago, Nimravis said: That one went right in the garbage- if you do want me to save some I can if I come across more. @stats You could save those as 3D puzzles for students to reassemble. Just a thought. I bet some members of this forum would even pay for them. Remember, they're common to you and me, but quite a rarity to those from outside our area, and those new to MC fossils. You could probably fill the tank with the proceeds from your "scraps" for an extra field trip each year. And one or two of those extra large hash plates from downstate and Indiana cut down into a dozen pieces is another tank full. 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...
Nimravis Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 2 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said: bet some members of this forum would even pay for them. I never charge anything Mark I always give stuff away for free. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 9 minutes ago, Nimravis said: I never charge anything Mark I always give stuff away for free. Auction to support the forum? 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...
Nimravis Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 5 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said: Auction to support the forum? I have done many in the past.- last year I did 6 auctions and many the previous year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 2 minutes ago, Nimravis said: I have done many in the past.- last year I did 6 auctions and many the previous year. Yes, I saw some of those. I mean the stuff that explodes. I think it may be of interest to those who don't otherwise have access to MC material. 2 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 July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 29 minutes ago, Nimravis said: That one went right in the garbage- if you do want me to save some I can if I come across more. @stats Thanks, Ralph! But, I get a bunch myself. Maybe, save them for someone else to repair and practice. Like you, I try to give a bunch away each year! Funny, the wife thinks I can give more as I have a bunch of buckets. The unopened ones I rarely give away as I want to see what's inside. That's a good bit of the fun! Cheers, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdp Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 8 hours ago, stats said: Ralph, nice one! I found this in Pit 11 this spring. It's hard to tell in the picture, but I think this is a fish scale. I found it open, so there has been some weathering. Cheers, Rich I could see this being a small lungfish scale, definitely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 1 hour ago, stats said: The unopened ones I rarely give away as I want to see what's inside. That's a good bit of the fun Ditto on this quote- So far I have 4 buckets of different time periods put aside for the September Braceville Trip, this is a great way to get rid of stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted July 29, 2019 Author Share Posted July 29, 2019 I do not believe that I ever posted what I do with many of my finds and how I mount them. My fossil mentor taught me this and it always worked well for me. I use a thin piece of white cardboard, cut to size and I secure the fossil with Elmer’s White Glue. The fossils can be easily removed and the glue residue is easy to get off. Here are a couple that I had opened recently, but were collected years ago. This method makes it so much easier to see what you have versus rubber banding them all and opening each one up individually. Any type of special finds I just usually keep together with rubber bands and place them in a drawer- I don’t mind opening this pieces up. Others that are not special to me so I just place them in individual plastic bags and parcel them out at some other date. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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