This is Mazon Monday post #208. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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We ran across another great post over on Facebook by Steve Pavelsky in the "Illinois Mazon Creek, and Carboniferous Fossils of the World" group. If you're on Facebook and a fan of Mazon Creek, this is one of a couple fun and interesting groups to follow.
We'll let Steve tell his story...
Here's a strange coincidence and one of the things I often enjoy about falling down rabbit holes when researching random stuff on FB groups..... Back in late January when researching a Missouri Arachnid fossil I found a book image online that had a beautiful Mazon Creek fossil spider on the front cover. I shared that image but in looking at the book contents, discovered that much of the text was written by Gorden Baird, an old teacher (ala U of R / NYSGA field trips in the 1980s) of mine. Much of the content deals with diagenesis which is central to Wisconsin material I've been studying. Today I visited a Old/Rare bookstore that I've been wanting to get to. On the shelf, patiently waiting for me was a copy of "Richardson's Guide to The Fossil Fauna of Mason Creek", priced at $25. Oddly, the next 4 or 5 books I looked at were all similarly priced. I never have experienced this before in a Used/Rare Bookstore. After a while the owner approached me and off the cuff said "...don't worry about the prices - I'll work with you on them...". I thanked him and noted that I thought it was strange. He tried to explain it but not very well. When checking out he told the clerk "Give it to him for $17.95.". When I was waiting to pick my wife up from work I started to look more closely at the book. The title page had been stuck together with the previous page. When separated, there was a nice surprise. The book had been signed by multiple authors, editors and artists. One sig is to a "John" who I think may be "John Prinos" who is thanked in the Acknowledgements for donating specimens. I'm pleased (2 pics follow). I recall thinking, "...Man, I'd like to read those diagenesis chapters by Baird..." and then they fall into my hands. I love when that happens.
You just never know what you're going to find in old bookstores... The signatures here are worth the price of admission... Charles Shabica, Sam Kruty, Steven Shroka, Don Auler, Andrew Hay, and Walter Lietz. That's Walter's stunning spider on the cover of the book. An amazing specimen, there are treasured casts of it that are both studied and cherished to this day.
So, have a look around and let us know what you find! Thanks for letting us post this Steve!
