This is "Fossil Friday" post #128. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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This gorgeous Acanthotelson stimpsoni comes from the Mazon River near Morris, IL. ESCONI member Becky Monroe found this as a closed concretion a few years ago on one of the I&M Canal Corridor Fossil Field Trips. She used freeze/thaw to coax it open. It's fairly large and nicely detailed. A. stimpsoni was named way back in 1865 by F.B. Meek and A. H. Worthen for William Stimpson. Stimpson worked at the Smithsonian Institution and was later the director of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. For more information, have a look at Mazon Monday #52.
Thanks for sharing, Becky! Here's hoping you found some nice ones this year, too!