Sometimes You Have To Whack It !!

[stats]

Nice ones!  Clean the plants a little.  This one may be a rarer one like Mariopteris.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

Edited June 4, 2022 by stats

[Mark Kmiecik]

5 hours ago, Nimravis said:

These are not soft, this piece split open perfectly, there was just nothing inside.

 

Only half came out of the shell? Hard to tell from the photo. It's a neat nodule at any rate, and great for explaining how the concretions formed. The layers show well.

[jdp]

I wonder if those coprolites are from adults of one of the holocephalans known from the assemblage

[Nimravis]

Here are some of my finds from today. I will start with my favorite find from today.

 

A number of beautiful Microconchids, possibly on a piece of bark. The color and preservation on a few of them are really nice.

 

 

 

 

 

I again found a number of of Myalinella meeki.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is one with a piece of bark.

 

This piece, like some that I cracked open yesterday, appears to be multiple pieces of them, possibly as coprolite.

 

 

 

Here is a Mazonomya mazonensis opened in the death position.

 

 

Here is a possible piece of  sea cucumber, Achistrum, or coprolite.

 

 

Here are some misc ferns-

 

 

 

 

This Macroneuropteris did not open the way that I wanted it to, that is the main downfall of whacking them with a hammer.

 

Too bad that this Pecopteris was not a full concretion, it would have been very nice.

 

 

 

Here are some misc flora pieces, most probably subsurface bark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also found this round piece that appears to be solid pyrite.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2022 by Nimravis

[Nimravis]

Pyrite Ball-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by Nimravis

[Tidgy's Dad]

Some nice finds this time, Ralph, especially those stunning microconchids 

[Nimravis]

4 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Some nice finds this time, Ralph, especially those stunning microconchids 

Thanks Adam, it is always great when something like that is preserved after 300 million years.

[stats]

Very detailed microconchids!  Even freeze/thaw doesn't open them all the right way.  Had a nice fern splinter pretty badly the other day.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[connorp]

This one is interesting. Maybe Mariopteris nervosa?

[Nimravis]

8 hours ago, stats said:

Had a nice fern splinter pretty badly the other day.

Too bad Rich, any chance of piecing it back together?

[Mark Kmiecik]

20 hours ago, connorp said:

 

M. nervosa is what I'm leaning toward.

[stats]

15 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Too bad Rich, any chance of piecing it back together?

Maybe... a bunch of pieces.  Longer shards.  Also, have a good sided spike that is crumbling.  Pit 2 concretions.   Some explode like Pit 4.   I take a picture when it dries out.  Sitting out in the rain.

 

 I've had mixed results weathering some outside under some mulch to see if they will oxidize and harden.   I heard that in the old days people would leave some concretions out to harden.  Ever hear that?  @Mark Kmiecik

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

Edited June 7, 2022 by stats

[Nimravis]

1 minute ago, stats said:

Ever hear that?

I have not, let me know how that works out.

[Mark Kmiecik]

 

13 hours ago, stats said:

Maybe... a bunch of pieces.  Longer shards.  Also, have a good sided spike that is crumbling.  Pit 2 concretions.   Some explode like Pit 4.   I take a picture when it dries out.  Sitting out in the rain.

 

 I've had mixed results weathering some outside under some mulch to see if they will oxidize and harden.   I heard that in the old days people would leave some concretions out to harden.  Ever hear that?  @Mark Kmiecik

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

 

Never heard of any way to "harden" them. I know from experience that if you don't soak them long enough before you begin freezing and thawing them they are more likely to break into multiple pieces. Perhaps that's what "aging" them outside under some cover or even partially buried as the mulch or dirt would tend to keep them moist and soaked all the way through. Then, when you begin freeze/thaw they are primed by having had the time and conditions to be fully wet throughout. I know, also from experience, that concretions that have been exposed by strip mining tend to deteriorate the longer they are exposed to the weather. As an example, here's one that had cracked partially and had weathered for a long time (tens of years?) before I found it. It did need some freeze/thaw and a bit of tapping with a hammer to open, but it's obvious that it would have been better without the "aging". I'm not arguing that each concretion would be susceptible to this, but why take the chance? Jack @fiddlehead may know more about it as he's researched the history and processes used.

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

I think I am going to start calling this post, “Sometimes You Gotta Break It”, because that is what seemed to happen today. 
 

Today I went through concretions from two different buckets, one was smaller concretions from Pit 11 and the the second bucket was concretions that I collected at the site that I designate “Across From Pit 4”.

 

I did not go through all of the concretions from both buckets, I took a sample and worked on them. Here are 3 pics of the concretions that I selected.

 

 

 

 

One thing with Mazon Creek concretions, they come in all different shapes and sizes.

 

 

 

 

 

Some are doubled up, like the one below. When I see these, I usually find Myalinella meeki bivalves on each side, this time I only found one.

 

 

 

This first piece that came from the Pit 11 bucket caught my eye immediately. I am keeping my fingers crossed and I am going to tag Rob @RCFossils and anyone else that wants to chime in and tell me what you think. My thought is that these are Mazonova helmichnus eggs. Again this is what I am seeing. They are blackened orbs, in a lighter color substance and in a row, but it could be wishful thinking.

 

 

 

 

 

I also found a weak worm and shrimp, nothing to write home about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some miscellaneous fern portions also came out of this bucket- Neuropteris, Pecopteris, Odontopteris, Annularia, and a piece of petrified wood from Tipple Hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The concretions from the other bucket had some nice stuff, but boy did I damage a couple.

 

CONTINUED ON NEXT POST

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

I really liked this Myalinella meeki with microconchids.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some other Myalinella’s.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a cool one as it appears to be caught trying to escape, you can find them every once in a while with a portion of their shell protruding from the concretion.

 

 

These last two pieces were found at the end and come from Across from Pit 4. I have found several from this site. The first one I whacked and saw the split of the concretion, but the hammer was already coming down again and caused the damage. It is a nice large Ctenodus fish scale, one half is fine the other broke a bit. Pieces splinter off in shards on some of the concretions from this location and it can be hard to put the pieces back on.

 

 

 

This next piece was my second to the last concretion that I was opening. I struck it with the hammer and it seemed to implode. 
 

 

My heart broke and I let out a few choice words. I looked at the damage and how the pieces shattered and collected everything I could and made an attempt to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I was not to successfully because of the fracturing that occurred to this concretion. I figured that it is better than nothing and figured that if I freeze/thawed it over the Winter, it would have probably disintegrated anyway.

 

 

Tomorrow I am going to continue to break open concretions from the bucket that contained the fish scales.

 

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

1 hour ago, Nimravis said:

 

I agree with your ID of this one. Also, after two fish scales in the same bucket, I would be tempted to take all the round ones out of that bucket and freeze/thaw just for grins.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Mark Kmiecik

[stats]

Very nice!   Love the fish scale!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by stats

[Nimravis]

23 minutes ago, stats said:

Very nice!   Love the fish scale!

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

Thanks- it was nice to find two, it’s unfortunate that the second shattered with the first strike, hopefully tomorrow I will have better luck.

[bigred97]

Wow! I would love to find a fish scale some day and you had 2 open the same day! Just awesome, they're beautiful!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice.

I love the eggy things, the microconchids and the scales. Thin you did a pretty darned good job on the repair to the second one. 

[deutscheben]

Nice bunch today! Even damaged those fish scales are still excellent, and the eggs are really cool.

[Nimravis]

4 hours ago, deutscheben said:

Nice bunch today! Even damaged those fish scales are still excellent, and the eggs are really cool.

Thanks Ben, that is what my wife said, “Hey be happy, two damaged scales is better than no scales”. Lol

[Nimravis]

5 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Nice.

I love the eggy things, the microconchids and the scales. Thin you did a pretty darned good job on the repair to the second one. 

Thanks Adam, I tried. 

[Nimravis]

Today I finished off the bucket that had the two scales in it and unfortunately I did not find anymore.

 

I found a couple ferns and some other concretions that contained misc. plant material, including bark and subsurface bark. Here are some pieces.