This is Mazon Monday post #62. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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The Mazon Creek fossil beds are considered a conservation lagerstätte, a site of exceptional preservation. Plant and animal fossils are often preserved here with full-body impressions and even soft tissues like leaves, skin, and organs. Images: fossil plants and shark by James St. John [CC BY 2.0]
"Common Descent" is a podcast about paleontology, biology, and evolution. The hosts are David Moscato and Will Harris, who are paleontologists and science communicators. As it says on their website, they "love talking about fossils, evolution, and life history" They have interesting episodes on many topics, including - dinosaurs, the Burgess Shale, Trilobites, Fins to Feet, and Trees. Episode 110 is called "Mazon Creek Fossil Beds". It's very informative and provides a good summary on a huge topic. They discuss ferns, shark egg cases, and the Tully Monster among other topics like the geology and paleoenvironment of Mazon Creek.
Go digging in the right place in Illinois and you’re liable to find some of the best Carboniferous fossils in the world. This episode, we discuss the history, the geology, and the incredible – and sometimes bizarre – plants and animals of the Mazon Creek Fossil Beds.
Since at least the mid-1800s, geologists and fossil collectors have recognized that the banks of Mazon Creek (Mazon River) in Northeast Illinois are a source of exceptional fossils. Throughout the 1900s, as extensive mining operations dug into the geologic formation known as the Francis Creek Shale, it became clear that these Mazon Creek fossils were also exceptionally widespread, found over an area of some 150 square kilometers. Today, thousands and thousands of Mazon Creek fossils are held in museum collections and private collections, making this one of the best-sampled fossil localities in the world.
The Francis Creek Shale was deposited in a deltaic environment, a vast region where freshwater flowed into an ancient shallow sea around 310 million years ago during the Pennsylvanian Period, at a time when Illinois was very near the equator. The fossils of Mazon Creek represent animals that lived in these tropical waters, as well as land-dwelling plants and animals washed into the delta by the flowing rivers.
What a weirdo! The Tully Monster has a soft body, stalk eyes, and a long clawed proboscis. Most Mazon Creek fossils are pretty recognizable, but Tullimonstrum looks like it belongs in the Burgess Shale.
Artist’s reconstruction (left) by PaleoEquii [CC BY-SA 4.0)
Fossil photo (right) by James St. John [CC BY 2.0]
This link was contributed by an ESCONI member.... Thanks, Stephanie!
