Mazon and Danville

[bockryan]

Wanted to share some photos I took at the most recent ESCONI field trip to Danville, IL and then some collecting I did on the same trip in the Mazon River. Some of my finds are starting to open up after a few rounds in the freezer. 

 

First the Danville material - these are all from a large pile of overburden from an old shaft mine that partially "baked" due to chemically induced fires in the interior of the pile. The material has the texture and sound of brick (and the color) and preserves some pretty nice plant fossils.

 

Lepidodendron or Lepidophloios?

 

 

A large Sphenophyllum:

 

Bark of some kind:

 

Unidentified so far:

 

Large chunk of Sigillaria?

 

Diplazites unita perhaps?

 

Alethopteris of some kind?

 

Lobatopteris tenuinervis:

 

Macroneuropteris:

 

Danaeites emersonii (my favorite from the trip, found in the last 30 minutes or so):

 

Calamites:

 

Mariopteris hispida:

 

And the site itself:

 

And then the concretions from my previous collecting - I think all of these are the very common Crenulopteris acadica, but maybe some more rare stuff to come, still a big bucket of nice concretions left. And I like them all the same, especially the triple one preserved on multiple bedding planes.