① Hammer—a bricklayer’s hammer will work well.② One or two chisels, preferably one large and one small.③ Knapsack or basket in which to carry specimens.④ Newspapers and a roll of tissue paper for protecting fragile specimens.⑤ Pencil and paper for labeling specimens and making notes about the collecting locality from which the fossils came. Much of the value of a particular fossil lies in knowing precisely where it was found and the layer of rock it came from.
① Hammer—a bricklayer’s hammer will work well.
② One or two chisels, preferably one large and one small.
③ Knapsack or basket in which to carry specimens.
④ Newspapers and a roll of tissue paper for protecting fragile specimens.
⑤ Pencil and paper for labeling specimens and making notes about the collecting locality from which the fossils came. Much of the value of a particular fossil lies in knowing precisely where it was found and the layer of rock it came from.
When entering a collecting area every collector should observe several rules carefully:
① For your own protection get permission to enter and collect on any private property. Such action also will help to assure your welcome if you wish to come back again.
② Leave the gates exactly as you find them, open or closed. Do not climb fences that may break or sag under your weight; crawl under or go around.
③ Don’t litter, even though far from any house or other buildings. Do not disturb the owner’s equipment, stock, or planted areas.
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The most successful way to split an ironstone concretion is to set it on edge, long axis horizontal, on any fairly large rock and strike the upper edge with the hammer. If the concretion is one that developed around a fossil nucleus, it generally will split along the plane of weakness, revealing the fossil. Sometimes one side of the concretion will break off in the middle, in which case the remainder should be tapped firmly but gently on the upper edge until the fossil is completely uncovered. Pieces of the broken half should be glued together neatly with waterproof cement so that the entire specimen can be retained.
Fossils embedded in shale may be recovered by the same method or by repeatedly tapping a chisel insertedalong the bedding plane. If the fossil is exposed, the matrix can be chiseled away by slow, painstaking effort.
The usual method of wrapping plant-bearing nodules is to place the end of a sheet of newspaper between the two halves of the nodule, fold the paper over the nodule, and roll it up in the sheet.
How to Wrap a Fossiliferous Concretion
How to Wrap a Fossiliferous Concretion
When several localities are visited in one collecting trip, the fossils from each should be kept separate; cloth bags are convenient for this purpose. Notes about the locality should be put in the same bag as fossils from that locality so that there is no possibility of confusion.
Some fossils are so fragile or porous that they should be covered with a hardening protective coat of crude gum arabic solution. (Refined gum arabic will not serve.) This may be applied with a fine brush in successive layers, or sturdier fossils may be dipped in it.
When a fossil is so delicate that the surface tension of the gum arabic solution causes the fossil to “spread,” celluloid (not plastic) dissolved in acetone should be substituted. Before this solution is used, the specimen must be completely dry or the coating will become cloudy or opaque.
If the specimen is pyritized, it should be sprayed with lacquer or shellac to prevent disintegration. If these protective sprays are used they must be applied to dry specimens during dry weather or the coating will remain sticky.
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AN INTRODUCTION TO PALEOBOTANY. C. A. Arnold. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1947, 433 p.
GRUNDY AND WILL COUNTIES. Frank H. Bradley.InWorthen et al., Geology and Paleontology, Geological Survey of Illinois, vol. IV, 1870, p. 190-225.
PALMLIKE PLANTS FROM THE DOLORES FORMATION (TRIASSIC), SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO. Roland W. Brown. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 274-H, 1956, p. 205-209.
CARBONIFEROUS INSECTS FROM THE VICINITY OF MAZON CREEK, ILLINOIS. F. M. Carpenter. Illinois State Museum Scientific Paper 3, pt. 1, 1943, p. 7-20.
THE LIVING CYCADS. C. J. Chamberlain. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1919, 172 p.
GUIDE FOR BEGINNING FOSSIL HUNTERS. Charles Collinson. Illinois State Geological Survey Educational Series 4, 1956, 36 p. (Revised 1959, 40 p.)
HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. Carl O. Dunbar. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1949, 576 p.
COLLEGE BOTANY. Harry J. Fuller and Oswald Tippo. Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1954, 993 p.
HANDBUCH DER PALÄOBOTANIK, BD. 1:THALLOPHYTA, BRYOPHYTA, PTERIDOPHYTA. Max Hirmer. R. Oldenbourg, Munich and Berlin, 1927, 708 p.
SOME FOSSIL PLANT TYPES OF ILLINOIS. Raymond E. Janssen. Illinois State Museum Scientific Paper 1, 1940, 124 p.
LEAVES AND STEMS OF FOSSIL FORESTS. Raymond E. Janssen. Illinois State Museum Popular Science Series; v. 1, 1957, 190 p.
THE MAZON CREEK EURYPTERID: A REVISION OF THE GENUSLEPIDODERMA. Erik N. Kjellesvig-Waering. Illinois State Museum Scientific Paper 3, no. 4, 1948, p. 3-46.
PLANTS OF THE PAST. F. H. Knowlton. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J., 1927, 275 p.
THE WILMINGTON COAL FLORA FROM A PENNSYLVANIAN DEPOSIT IN WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS. George Langford. Esconi Associates, Downers Grove, Ill., 1958, 360 p.
THE MAZON CREEK, ILLINOIS, SHALES AND THEIR AMPHIBIAN FAUNA. R. L. Moodie. American Journal of Science, 4th Series, v. 34, 1912, p. 277-285.
INTRODUCTION TO HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. Raymond C. Moore. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 1958, 656 p.
PENNSYLVANIAN FLORA OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. A. C. Noé. Illinois State Geological Survey Bulletin 52, 1925, 113 p.
PENNSYLVANIAN INVERTEBRATES OF THE MAZON CREEK AREA, ILLINOIS. Eugene S. Richardson, Jr. Fieldiana: Geology, v. 12, 1956, p. 1-76.
REPORT ON THE CARR AND DANIELS COLLECTIONS OF FOSSIL PLANTS FROM MAZON CREEK. Wilson N. Stewart. Illinois Academy of Science Transactions, v. 43, 1950, p. 41-45.
A RECENTLY DISCOVEREDPHLEGETHONTIAFROM ILLINOIS. W. D. Turnbull and Priscilla F. Turnbull. Fieldiana: Zoology, v. 37, 1955, p. 523-535.
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The Educational Extension Section of the Illinois State Geological Survey reaches the public through a number of channels, including nontechnical publications, rock and mineral collections for Illinois schools and educational groups, lectures, exhibits, correspondence involving identification of rocks and minerals, news items for the press, and field trips.
During each year six field trips are given, in widely separated parts of the state, for teachers, students, and laymen. The general program is especially designed to assist in teaching geological sciences and to help make Illinois citizens aware of the state’s great mineral wealth.
Illinois State Geological SurveyUrbana, Illinois
ILLINOIS, Land of Lincoln
PENNSYLVANIAN OUTCROP AREA
PENNSYLVANIAN OUTCROP AREA
Illinois State Geological SurveyEducational Series 6