Mazon Creek Biota Fossils b USA

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Mazon Creek Biota... Fossil Concretions
Normally soft bodied worms are not preserved..... not in this case with this unique Lagerstatten

Esconites zelus
Articulated Annelid with Intact Mandibles:





PL

[mosasurfiend]

Wow, good one for sure and rare sounds like! Seems
like it is very unusual to find soft tissue on any fossil.

Well with all your Mazon Creek collection I have seen,
I plan on searching around for nodules. (on the net)
I won't be able to return to Illinois for a time.

Does your collection include the Tully yet?

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Hi Roz:
Yes the Tully Monster is in transit... will post once it arrives. I see Lance Hall is also here from Fossil Forum... getting busy.... that make 5 people so far that has made it to this forum.

Peter

[mosasurfiend]

The TULLY is in transit! Dang, do I ever wanna see that one!!!!!!

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Unknown Fish Concretion from Mazon Creek IL USA Biota. Carboniferous/Pennsylvanian Era.
Can anyone provide an ID? size= 5/8" PL

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

More close up detail.... It has been suggestede that the unknown is a some sort of lobe fine fish...Elonichthys wolfi ?
Shot of pectoral fin




Close up head



Dosal Fin


Mid section Shot of doral and pectral fins

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Tully Monster:


close up of eye / sensory organ

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

This forum is so quiet... too quiet ... kind of sad state.
Here are a few more pictures from my Mazon Creek Fossil collection....
Another detailed Annelid: Esconites zelus






PL

[Joe Botting]

Woohoo! A Tully Monster!

I must confess I love these things - they're just so delightfully weird. Half the time I assume the conventional view, that they're a weird pelagic gastropod-y thing, but there's a big niggling bit of me that says they could well be an unrecognised phylum. What're your thoughts on the bar organ, having one to look at? Eyes or something entirely other?

In case you're wondering, I've been snowed under at work lately - sometimes out the house from 7am to 11 pm working on an exhibition that's just opened. Back in the land of the living now, and even managed to do some latexing of some gorgeously preserved bivalves today.

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Hi Joe: It is 12F out side... clear an cold.... was thinking of taking out the 6" dia Newtonian scope to see Mars but chickened out... too cold outside so I am inside looking at various fossils sites on the web.

The so call Tully eye is definitely some sort of sensory organ, I am not sure it's function....be it light sensing or vibration sensing or maybe smell sensing ... detection of organic molecules ... maybe ketone and amines, organic acids from decomposition of dead sea creatures assuming Tully monster is a scavenger with a long probosicus.... the design of the eye stalk sensory organ appears to be very fragile... prone to cleavage / damage and loss of sensory organ... maybe these organs were rapid healing self regeneration units... fun to speculate. The Tully monster only occurs in the Mazon Creek Fauna Biota and no where else in the world... when I first saw the creature it reminded me of a Cambrian creature Arthropod Opabina from the Burgess Shale but minus the shell / exoskeleton. PL

[Joe Botting]

Interesting... so why definitely sensory? I know it's the standard view, but is there any direct evidence? I've got to say it does look as though there could be a reticulation in your close-up, which looks a bit like compound lenses. It seems very unlikely to have a damage-prone sensory array, and then stick it out on a fragile stalk! I'd always assumed they were quite robust, so that's thrown a cauliflower in the works.

I know what you mean about Opabinia, but I think it's entirely superficial. There aren't many things with a long nozzle to compare with after all, and all the other features are quite different. I'm not sure you could get a shell-less arthropod to function sensibly either, since the muscles attach to the inside of the skeleton.

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Critical sensory organs often occur in pairs or multiples incase one fails... This is the first time seeing a tully monster... kind of like a squid with one tenticle... long proboscus mouth suggest some of soft bottom scavanger hunting for bits of food... maybe worms... the eye stalk has to be robust ... especially if it is sticking out... must be optical since if it ... it would blindly swim along and have it sheared off... still a weird looking creature with a failed design as there are not modern equivalents. PL

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Rare Acanthodes sp. Fish 1cm length