Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Fossil Friday #163: Mazon Creek Shark Egg Case #fossil #paleontology #FossilFriday #MazonCreek #shark #neptunespurse #eggcase

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #163.  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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We have another Mazon Creek fossil today.  There are a few species of shark egg cases known from Mazon Creek.  Palaeoxyris prendelli is the most common species.   P. prendelli was described by Leo Lesquereux in 1870 from fossils found in Lancashire, England.  Lesquereux was a Swiss born bryologist and a pioneer in American paleobotany.   For a long time, these fossils were thought to be plant parts. For more information, see the Field Museum guide written by Jack Wittry. 

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Palaeoxyris.

Palaeoxyris is the prehistoric shark egg capsule morphotype of the family Hybodontidae with a predominant occurrence in ancient freshwater environments. They comprise a beak, a body and a pedicle, with the beak merging into the body. They display a conspicuous right-handed spiral of ridges around the body, and in some cases, the pedicle.^[1] Originally described as plant remains and controversially discussed within the floral kingdom it took decades before their true nature as animal eggs was revealed.^[2]

This particular specimen was collected from Pit 3 during the summer of 2022.  It was in the freeze/thaw process for about 8 months.  It opened about a week ago, so stay patient... good things may happen!

 

Fossil Friday #162: J.C. Carr Mazon Creek Fern #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #fern #crenulopteris #pennsylvanian

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #162.  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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For this week, we have a fossil specimen from long time ESCONI member Jim Alann, who has shared quite a few fossils with us in the past, including a spider (Arthrolycola), a Helen Asher jelly, and a eurypterid.  Now, he's back with another very nice historically significant piece.

J.C. Carr was a banker, actually president of the Grundy County National Bank, in Morris, IL in the late 1800's.  He was a prolific collector, who both sold and gave away many Mazon Creek fossils during his lifetime.   His collection currently resides at the University of Illinois Prairie Research Institute (PRI).

His favorite localities were the upper and lower fossil beds on the Mazon River.  Here is a photo of him hunting the river for fossils around 1900.

The "Upper Beds."  The stream bed is filled with glacial bowlders, which form an excellent base on which to crack the nodules." Mr. J. C. Carr looking for nodules in the creek bed. He usually carries a basket and fills this, then sits down by a good boulder and cracks the nodules collected.

The label identifies the fossil as Pecopteris vestita.  This species has had many names over the years (see Mazon Monday #115).  Currently, it's classified as Crenulopteris acadica (Jack Wittry 2014).  C. acadica is the second most common flora species found in the Mazon Creek flora.  But, with this provenance, the specimen is anything but common.

Thanks for sharing this beautiful and significant fossil, Jim!

Fossil Friday #161: Seeds from Danville #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #pennsylvanian #coalage #danville #plantfossil #seed #seedfern

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #161.  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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On April 15th, 2023, ESCONI held a field trip to a coal mine spoil pile near Danville, IL.  Everyone found something, and there were numerous nice fossil specimens.  Caroline Davis found not one, but two seed fossils.  One was a well preserved Trigonocarpus sp. (Mazon Monday #67), while the other was unidentified.  Jack Wittry has a description of Trigonocarpus on pages 233 - 235 in "A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek".

Thanks for sharing your beautiful specimens, Caroline!

Fossil Friday #160: Texas Starfish Fossils #fossil #paleontology #FossilFriday #pennsylvanian #starfish #echinoderm #texas

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #160.  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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For this week, we have something a little different.  ESCONI member Alan Keith sent us some photos of some fossil starfish he found on a field trip with the Austin Paleontological Society recently.  Here is the story Alan sent...

While on a field trip with the Austin Paleontological society, I found a few slabs of with scattered pieces of petrified wood in them, so I gathered several to take home to split open to look for leaves. I quickly lost interest in the leaves when I realized 1 of the pieces had starfish trace fossils. I went back to the Pennsylvanian era site in Brady, Texas a couple months later and found a slab about 3 feet in diameter with about 150 starfish. Here are 2 of the pieces with the last 1 actually having a few leaves among the starfish. 

A few more photos and a short discussion can be found in a post over on the Fossil Forum.

Thanks for sharing this interesting find, Alan!   It's good to show something new.

Fossil Friday #159: Danville Callipteridium #fossil #paleontology #danville #FossilFriday #fern #pennsylvanian #MazonCreek #seedfern

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #159.  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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For this week's Fossil Friday, we have an absolutely gorgeous plate of Callipteridium sp. plate from our Danville spoil pile field trip back on April 15th.  Callipteridium is a extinct genus of seed fern.  It is known from Mazon Creek, but is considered very rare.

This beauty was found by Steve Buss.  This was his first time on one of our semi-annual Danville trips.  Thanks for sharing, Steve!

Fossil Friday #158: Helen Asher Cnidarian #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #jellyfish #anemone #pit11 #cnidaria

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #158.  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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Today, we have a historically significant Mazon Creek fossil.  If you visit Pit 11, it's almost a given that you will find an Essexella asherae.  Whether it's a jellyfish or an anemone, it's a common Pit 11 fossil.  Both are extremely rare in the fossil record.   They have no hard parts, being just soft tissue... not much more than a bag of jelly-like fluid.  Here's a description from NOAA.

Fascinating, elegant, and mysterious to watch in the water, take a jellyfish out of the water, and it becomes a much less fascinating blob. This is because jellyfish are about 95 percent water.

Lacking brains, blood, or even hearts, jellyfish are pretty simple critters. They are composed of three layers: an outer layer, called the epidermis; a middle layer made of a thick, elastic, jelly-like substance called mesoglea; and an inner layer, called the gastrodermis. An elementary nervous system, or nerve net, allows jellyfish to smell, detect light, and respond to other stimuli. The simple digestive cavity of a jellyfish acts as both its stomach and intestine, with one opening for both the mouth and the anus.

These simple invertebrates are members of the phylum Cnidaria, which includes creatures such as sea anemones, sea whips, and corals. Like all members of the phylum, the body parts of a jellyfish radiate from a central axis. This “radial symmetry” allows jellyfish to detect and respond to food or danger from any direction.

Jellyfish have the ability to sting with their tentacles. While the severity of stings varies, in humans, most jellyfish stings result only in minor discomfort.

We looked at E. asherae way back in Mazon Monday #14.  And, just recently, a paper by ESCONI member Roy Plotnick questions the classification of Essexella asherae as a jellyfish and identifies it as a sea anemone... see Mazon Monday #155.

This particular specimen isn't the best example of E. asherae, but it has something missing from the ones you till find in Pit 11.  Helen Asher is the namesake of Essexella asherae.  She was a prolific collector.  She sold and gave away many examples of the eponymous animal.  Quite often, she would sign or at least offer to sign the specimen.  Too bad more people didn't take her up on the offer, as there aren't many examples of these.

This interesting specimen was sent in by long time ESCONI member Jim Alann.  Thanks for sharing, Jim!  The signature makes this fossil priceless!

Fossil Friday #157: Danville Cone #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #coal #FossilFriday #cone #Danville

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #157.  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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Last Saturday, April 15th, 2023, ESCONI had a field trip to a coal mine spoil pile near Danville, IL.  The deposit is about 1.5 million years earlier than Mazon Creek.  We've found quite a few nice fossils at this locality over the 6 field trips we've had there.  For Mazon Monday #86, we posted some fossil guides and photos of some very nice specimens.

This weeks Fossil Friday comes from the latest field trip.  It was found by long time ESCONI member Ralph Jewell.  He found this stunning cone near the end of the day.  No hammering was needed as the shale had already split.  To add a little more to the pang on envy you might be feeling.... he found this beautiful piece in an area that many people collected throughout the day!

Thanks for sharing photos of this gorgeous piece, Ralph!

Fossil Friday #156: The Origin of the English Poundstone #fossil #paleontology #FossilFriday #poundstone #uk #england #echinoderm #seaurchin

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #156.  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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For this weeks Fossil Friday, we have an article written by ESCONI member Marie Angkuw.  You might remember her sad tale about pyritized ammonites in Fossil Friday #93.  This piece is about her fossil trip to England back in February 2023.

The Origin of the English Poundstone

by Marie Angkuw

Imagine living in the region of Oxfordshire, England, during the 14^th century and you need to buy a chunk of butter. Though spring scales weren’t invented until 1770, a solution ensuring a standard of measure for butter sold at market came from an interesting local source.

In the fields around Oxfordshire, thousands of strange stones dotted the landscape. They were all similar in weight, symmetry, and appearance. Resourceful dairymaids recognized the practical use of these stones as counterweights in the sale of butter and cream. Known as Chedworth Buns or Poundstones, they were also used for beads, flour, wool, and other goods. To ease trade with other countries, a 1389 royal statute established a standard of measurements: for example, 1 stone for butter, 26 stones for a sack of wool, and 5 stones for glass.

With their 5-fold symmetry, relative flatness, and a resemblance to modern sand dollars, the stones piqued the interest of the scientific community during the 18^th century. As discourse and discovery progressed, they were eventually accepted as fossilized sea urchins. That they were found so far from the ocean only fueled the growing interest and debate in geologic strata and the early theories of evolution.

These sea urchins – Clypeus plotti –are Middle Jurassic in age (174 – 163.5 mya) and many are found today in the area of Gloucestershire. The term “stone” is still used in the weighing of dry goods in the UK. It is an imperial unit of mass equivalent to 14 pounds.

 

Fossil Friday #155: Isotelus From Illinois #fossil #paleontology #FossilFriday #trilobite #illinois

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #155.  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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Isotelus is a trilobite from the middle and upper Ordovician period.  It's been found in the northeastern US and Canada.  One specimen, an Isotelus rex, found in Manitoba is the largest complete trilobite fossil ever found.   In 1985, the state of Ohio designated Isotelus as its State Fossil.

Today, we have an Isotelus specimen from ESCONI member Connor Puritz.  It's enrolled and a little flattened but most everything is there.  Connor found this specimen earlier this spring.  It was found is a deposit of the Maquoketa Group (Upper Ordovician) in northern Illinois.   Thanks for sharing, Connor!

Fossil Friday #154: Platysomus circularis #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #fish #panfish #fossilfish #pennsylvanian #illinois

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #154.  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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We have a real treat today... a very rare, some would say "Holy Grail", Mazon Creek fish... Platysomus circularis!  Known as the "panfish" due to its likeness to some modern day freshwater fish.  We looked at P. circularis in Mazon Monday #157.   This small concretion includes another rare animal Pemphilimnadiopsis ortoni, a branchiopod!  Look in the lower right near the edge  of the concretion.  

This little beauty comes from ESCONI member David Duck.  Thanks for sharing!  Congratulations, it's not often you get two rare animals on one concretion!

 

Fossil Friday #153: UK Neuropteris #fossil #paleontology #seedfern #FossilFriday #MazonCreek #Pennsylvanian #uk #england #manchester

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #153.  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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Now for something completely... well slightly... different.   This is a Neuropteris from the Cutacre Opencast in Manchester, England.  It dates to about 320 million years ago.  Very similar plants and animal fossils are known from the coal mines in the UK.  Fossiliferous concretions are sometimes referred to as "pebbles" in the UK.  

The Cutacre strip mine once had the largest slagheap in Europe, but has been since recovered as a 550 acre park.  Here is what it looked like before recovery.

After recovery, which while good for the environment... most likely sealed away very nice fossils forever.

On to the fossil photos...

Fossil Friday #152: Dunbarella striata #fossil #paleontology #scallop #mollusk #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #pennsylvanian

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #152.  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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We have an Mazon Creek Dunbarella striata from Pit 11 for today's gem.  This little beauty was found by ESCONI member Jake Fill in the last few weeks... the year seems to be off to an exciting start for Jake!  We did a Mazon Monday post about scallops back in 2020.  This specimen has very fine detail.  Great find and thanks for sharing, Jake!

Fossil Friday #151: Lepidostrobophyllum Pair from Indiana #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #pennsylvanian #cone #bract #indiana

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #151.  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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Today, we have a pair of large cone bracts from the Pennsylvanian deposits of Indiana.  These are large specimens, similar to Lepidostrobophyllum majus (see Mazon Monday #124) in the Mazon Creek biota.  This specimen was purchased at the MAPS Expo in October of 2022.  Unfortunately, there wasn't any provenance with the fossil, so can't really place it's origin.

Fossil Friday #150: Cladodont shark tooth #fossil #paleontology #shark #tooth #sharktooth #illinois #carboniferous

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #150.  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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For this week, we have a very nice Cladodont shark tooth from the Carboniferous rocks in central Illinois.  It was found by ESCONI member Jake Fill just a few weeks ago.  What a sweet late winter discovery!  It was a little rough when he found it, but after a little prep with his Dremel engraver and a carbide tip, he had a very nice display piece.  It's hard to find nice shark teeth in Illinois!  Thanks for sharing this beauty, Jake!  And, nice job on the prep!

Original...

After a little preparation...

Fossil Friday #149: Rhaphidiophorus hystrix #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #worm #polychaeteworm

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #149.  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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We have a gorgeous Mazon Creek worm fossil for your enjoyment today!  It's a Rhaphidiophorus hystrix, which was known informally as the "Oliver Hardy" worm by old-time collectors.  It was described in 1979 by Ida Thompson in her epic worm paper "Errant polychaetes (Annelida) from the Pennsylvanian Essex fauna of northern Illinois", which classified no less than ten Mazon Creek worm species.   For more details, see Mazon Monday #121.

This specimen comes from Edgar Kooijman, who's active (and helpful!) on the Mazon Creek Facebook forums.  He is a biology professor at Kent State University in Ohio.  He acquired this beautiful fossil recently.  He has quite a few other exquisite specimens as evidenced by some of his posts.  Thanks for sharing, Edgar!

Fossil Friday #148: Phareodus encaustus #fossil #paleontology #GreenRiver #wyoming #eocene #FossilFriday #AmericanFossil #fish

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #148.  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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Today, we have a very nice Phareodus encaustus from ESCONI President Keith Robitschek.  He found this beautiful fossil in the summer of 2020 at American Fossil Quarry in Kemmerer, Wyoming.  American Fossil lets has a large exposure of the Green River Formation, which dates to the Eocene Epoch about 52 million years ago.   Keith spent about 100 hours during 2021 preparing this fossil with an air scribe and by hand via a pin vise.  

Thanks for sharing this gorgeous fossil, Keith!

Keith sent us an MP4 that shows his progress during the preparation.

Here's the final product!

Fossil Friday #147: Annularia from Danville #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #pennsylvanian #carboniferous #Danville #FossilFriday

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #147.  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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Had a large Annularia from Danville open up this past weekend.  The concretion is about 4 inches across.  It has a fern (Crenulopteris?) and a ghostly Lepidostrobophyllum on the outside.  On the inside is a beautiful Annularia.  The Danville fossils are a few million years younger than Mazon Creek, but many of the same species are present in the deposit.  This concretion was collected back during the fall Danville field trip.

Enjoy!

Fossil Friday #146: Kottixerxes gloriosus #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #pennsylvanian #kottixerxes

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #146.  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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As stated back in Mazon Monday #141, Kottixerxes gloriosus is a very rare animal... maybe the rarest.  An article in the "Richardson's Guide to the Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek" found only two specimens out of a sample of 229,979 concretions.  K. gloriosus was described in Frederick Schram in 1971.  It is named for A. W. Kott, who donated the holotype to the Field Museum.

Today, we have photos of one of the best specimens in Jack Wittry's "The Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek".  These beautiful photos were sent in by ESCONI member and Rob Coleman.  At a little over 7 cm, it's the largest ever found.  Thanks for sharing this glorious specimen, Rob!

 

Fossil Friday #145: Bony fish teeth from North Carolina #FossilFriday #fossil #paleontology #fish #northcarolina #auroramuseum

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #145.  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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Today, we have some interesting fossil fish teeth.  They come from the Pongo River Formation in Aurora, North Carolina, which dates to the Miocene Epoch between 12 and 20 million year ago.  The Aurora Fossil Museum in Aurora, North Carolina sells micro fossil kits.  The kits allow you to experience collecting the formation in the comfort of your home.  Probably a very relaxing activity for cold winter days and nights...

If you visit the museum, you can collect fossils in a large pile of material from a nearby phosphate mine - Nutrien Phosphate Mine.

The main museum houses a wide variety of Miocene and Pliocene marine fossils with most displays showcasing specimens collected from the neighboring Nutrien Phosphate Mine (formerly known as Texas Gulf Sulfur, PCS Phosphate, PotashCorp). Featured in our shark hall are the remnants of the terror of the Miocene-Pliocene seas, C. megalodon!

Dig for your own fossils in the Pits of the Pungo!

ESCONI First Vice President Dr. Katherine Howard sent in these photos of fossilized fish teeth from a kit she purchased recently.  These tiny fish teeth are pretty detailed and very cool.  Oh, did I mention they are tiny?!?  Here is the description that Katherine sent with her photos.

I like sorting through sand grands, stalking insects and seeing the micro world. A friend recommended The Aurora Museum’s Micro Fossils kit which includes 2 gallons of micro fossil gravel from the Pongo River Formation, Aurora, North Carolina dated 12-20 million years. The price was $40 and included shipment...irresistible.

Sorting through the gravel, I found some fossilized bony fish teeth. Near as I can tell, these teeth are from a Sea Bream fish or similar species.

In the fossil gravel, I have found around 300 shark teeth, numerous fish bones, ray mouth plates, drum fish teeth, etc. I am still sorting and identifying so more photos are sure to follow.

Thanks for sharing, Katherine!  Please send along some of your future finds!

Fossil Friday #144: Snakestone from England #FossilFriday #fossil #paleontology #england #ammonite #carving #cephalopod #mollusc

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #144.  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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Ammonites are extinct cephalopods molluscs, related to modern day squids and octopuses.  They lived during the Mesozoic Era between about 200 to 66 million years ago.  For the most part, they went extinct during the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Period.  A few species did survive in to the Paleocene in North America's Western Interior Seaway.  Unfortunately, even those eventually died out.  Before the extinction, ammonites were very common, with upwards of 10,000 species existing during their time on Earth.

Snakestones, which are ammonites carved to look like a coiled snake with a head, came primary from two regions of England, Whitby in Yorkshire and Keynsham in Somerset.  Ammonites are common at both localities.

John Catalani, ESCONI's resident molluscan expert, send along these photos of a specimen he received during the holidays from a fellow ESCONI member, who knew he would appreciate the tradition and artistry of one of these fossil artifacts.  Thanks for sharing, John!

Label

Upper Lias, Lower Jurassic
Ammonite from Whitby,
North Yorkshire, England:-
Dactylioceras commune

Commune Subzone,
Bifrons Zone,
Upper Lias, Lower Jurassic,
Kettleness, Nr. Whitby,
North Yorkshire, England
180 Million Years Old

Description

A SNAKESTONE

British Literature from as early as the 16th Century records that Stones are to be found on the shore at Whitby in Yorkshire that reveal stony serpents but generally without their heads'

English folklore tells of the legend of Saint Hilda of Whitby. (614-680 AD) the Saxon Abbess of the town who cleared the area of snakes by severing their heads with her whip and throwing the remains over the cliffs.

To perpetuate the legend local craftsmen have for centuries carved Snakestones on to the local Fossil Ammonites. An extinct form of shellfish that swam in an ancient Jurassic sea during the time of the dinosaurs, 185 million years ago.

Snakestones have been recorded from at least Viking times and in Medieval England were prized for medical purposes and as charms.

THIS IS A GENUINE FOSSIL AMMONITE. FOUND AND CARVED AT WHITBY, YORKSHIRE. FOLLOWING A TRADITION SOME 1000 YEARS OLD.

Specimen Photos