Testa did, and Richardson asked him to donate the find to the museum. He refused. I knew it at the time. Yet the fossil was so remarkable Richardson thought it ought to be studied anyway. Testa let him make latex molds and send them off to researchers. Years later a Canadian paleoentomologist named Jarmila Kukalova-Peck heard about the fossil.
I have to have it! She named the new species Testajapyx thomasi. Kukalova-Peck placed the fossil in the Diplura order of arthropods and argued that it proved that Diplurans shared an ancestor with insects and should therefore be considered a sister group of the Insecta class. Taxonomists like to study several significant specimens before describing a new species, but Testajapyx, the earliest Dipluran in the fossil record, is the only specimen of its kind.
It was bold of Kukalova-Peck to make her argument on the basis of a fossil in private hands. What if the fossil were somehow destroyed, stolen, or lost or Testa were to sell it? And he has reason to be wary. Some researchers are notorious among amateurs for refusing to respect the terms of a loan. Richardson once told another collector that Testa was without peer among amateurs in his ability to identify fossils.
Less experienced collectors might discard such specimens, but researchers want to see as much anatomical detail as possible, which is why a paleoichthyologist might appreciate a complete fish fossil less than one with the head smashed open. The same goes for Tully Monsters.
Tullies that are folded over on themselves, twisted, bitten, or somewhat decayed sometimes reveal features not seen in pristine specimens. He believes the decay process in six of his Tullies had advanced to the point where their fossils reveal the ordinarily invisible end of their digestive tract.
Testa thinks he can see the anus in his Tullies, just above the point where the tail fin connects. Not many researchers have worked on the Tully Monster since Johnson and Richardson. Papers were published in and , but neither was able to place it in a particular phylum. He agrees with a researcher who suggested in that Tullimonstrum might be related to a group of shell-less mollusks and goes one step further, arguing that the Tully was a parasite that fed on Essexella asherae.
Testa has other papers in mind. This has been suggested before, but Testa thinks he can prove a relationship to a specific genus. He has a theory that a massive die-off of Mazon Creek animals was caused primarily by a toxic algal bloom similar to the red tides that kill marine creatures today. He thinks the animals of Mazon Creek might have been paralyzed by neurotoxins produced by the algae, then sank to the bottom and were buried.
How do you prove such a thing? But can you think of any other chordate interaction that involves pressing their poo-poos together? Now how can we get such delicate things like that? I just pick up mud lumps. The Field Museum houses the third largest collection of invertebrate fossils in North America. It has around two million specimens, about ten percent of them from Mazon Creek. But nearly all these fossils are locked away on the second floor, accessible only to researchers.
The exhibit is now closed for a two-year renovation; the Mazon Creek section is to be expanded. Dave Douglass and his late parents, June and Lincoln, began collecting from the Mazon Creek spoil heaps in During summer vacations he and his mother went collecting at least three times a week, and the family moved to a new house when the old one could no longer contain their finds.
Douglass pursued a geology degree for a few years at Northwestern University before dropping out to peddle rocks full-time, and now sells a large assortment of jewelry and lapidary supplies, rocks, minerals, meteorites, and fossils.
Downstairs specimens his family collected from all over the world are arranged chronologically according to the geologic timescale.
He has big cockroaches, tiny sharks, fish, amphibians, leeches, chitons, sea scorpions, a huge horseshoe crab, and an entire case of plant fossils. Three holotypes named for the Douglass family are displayed prominently, all found in the late 60s and early 70s.
June Douglass picked up the earliest squid in the entire fossil record at Pit 11, named Jeletzkya douglassae by Richardson and a colleague.
Perhaps Richardson was more forgiving of possessive collectors because he knew that even the best museums lose important specimens. But I cannot find the specimen. All three…shrimp were swiped from my microscope. By any chance, do you have them? Several important specimens have disappeared this way, most notably, one half of a magnificent insect…. Something is disturbingly wrong with security around here. Collection managers at the Field say at least part of the shrimp holotype Richardson referred to is safe, as is the lamprey.
But over the years some curators suspected particular collectors of stealing, and though no one was ever prosecuted, rumors have followed these collectors ever since. As time went on Richardson grew less forgiving of collectors who refused to donate. Damrow had started collecting Pit 11 as a teenager, and in the 70s he moved to rural Wisconsin and became a commercial fossil dealer.
He stayed close to the Mazon Creek collectors and corresponded with Richardson. The colleague believed the holotypes had been donated to the museum, but for some reason they were returned to Dabasinskas, who sold them to Damrow.
The consensus is that only specimens in permanent collections should so be used…. I have held out against the majority, so far as concerns the collectors in this area, because I was confident that ultimately their specimens would be deposited in some permanent collection…. Being now older and wiser, I believe I was wrong. That was part of the deal. Then shortly after retiring he was diagnosed with intestinal cancer, and two months later he died.
Amateurs and professionals from all over the world packed his memorial service. Grief quickly gave way to panic among collectors, who began demanding that the Field return their loaned specimens.
As the sole remaining invertebrate curator, Matthew Nitecki, along with a collection manager, had to sort out the mess. When it was clear who owned a fossil, letters went out to the collectors asking whether they wished to donate their fossils or have them returned.
But other collectors say they never saw some of their fossils again. John Anderson had loaned seven to Richardson, who suspected one was a new species of centipede—something very rare at Mazon Creek. In the Field hired Scott Lidgard as assistant curator of fossil invertebrates.
Otherwise he felt the only responsible thing to do was to keep them. Relations between the amateurs and the museum deteriorated further when it became clear that they were no longer welcome to drop by the geology department.
It is true that now and then researchers find new species in museum collections. Just last year a Maryland paleontologist wrote about a new four-legged Mazon Creek amphibian that had been found by amateurs and donated to the Royal Ontario Museum. In a researcher reclassified a shrimp and a millipede specimen at the Smithsonian that had been collected in the s and misidentified. Charles Shabica, who was teaching at Northeastern Illinois when Richardson died, tried to bridge the gulf between amateurs and academics when he and some of the collectors organized the Mazon Creek Project.
The members met occasionally to discuss their finds and concerns, and every year they had an open house, where they set up displays and had some well-known paleontologist speak. Shabica says he asked the Field for space and funding but was told it wanted no official connection to the book.
He, Hay, and other academics and amateurs contributed chapters, fossils, photographs, and illustrations. Professionals, who often struggle to get funding, have always been forced to compete with one another for important fossils.
In the last two decades fossils have become even more commodified, and researchers now also have to compete with commercial dealers and private collectors in a brisk, often cutthroat trade.
Most amateurs refuse to trade in scientifically important Mazon Creek fossils, but the sheer numbers in private hands make it inevitable that some will be bought, sold, and ultimately lost to science.
She reviewed around scientific articles on Mazon Creek fossils published over nearly a century and a half and identified more than specimens that had been in 69 private collections. Then she wrote to as many of the collectors as she could find. She concluded that of the specimens remained in private hands and 17 had clearly disappeared, including three holotypes; the rest had found their way into museums.
More than 20 years ago Richardson told her of a collector who owned a large, fully articulated insect wing that could provide an essential piece of evidence for her theory. He found the wing when he was in high school and kept it for years, even after his father threw away the rest of his fossil collection. He knows he should donate it to a museum—Richardson tried to persuade him to.
After 15 years of collecting in Illinois, Osterberger had changed jobs and moved to Georgia, where he filled a four-car garage with nearly , Mazon Creek fossils. His collection included at least one of almost every animal that could be found in the fauna, he claims, and for that reason alone it would have been an important study collection.
He donated some holotypes to the Field Museum but sold others to fossil dealer Dan Damrow, who says he promised not to sell them. Yet the price of an extraordinary or unique specimen can go a lot higher. Rumors—the busiest commerce among collectors—circulate that wealthy Japanese collectors and drug-money launderers have paid thousands for individual fossils. Keith Holm, a year-old part-time construction worker, has been collecting all over Mazon Creek since he was a teen.
The one-of-a-kind shark fossil named for him, Holmacanthus keithi, is in the research collection at the Field. Half of it anyway. Holm says Douglass traded him some meteorites and a dinosaur egg for it. Holm says he found the shark fossil at Pit 11 about seven or eight years ago. He tried to freeze-thaw it open but lost patience and hammered it.
It broke into several pieces, which he glued back together. Wes and Loretta live on an isolated property not far from the Mazon. Rows of buckets line the borders of their yard and the back of a heated garage where they hammer rocks in the winter. She and her little dog, Trap, would scale the sides of the Lyme in England looking for fossils. Her father was a cabinet maker and in his free time would find small fossils to sell to tourists to make extra money.
Mary took up the same exercise but instead of focusing on tourism, she focused on scientific research. She found many complete fossils during her time, and helped contribute to scientific works that influenced scientists, including Charles Darwin.
The popular nursery rhyme about "selling seashells down by the sea shore" was inspired by Mary. She was able to buy her own storefront and that quickly became a central hub for other paleontologists to discuss their work and findings.
Rockhounding Rockhounding, finding crystals and other minerals, is another fun activity to do outside. How to Hunt The Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art in Elmhurst shared some rockhounding and fossil hunting tips in their spring newsletter. Scientist of the Week Mary Anning was one of the first known paleontologists. Written by Erica. How can we help? Despite the challenge, the area remains open for fossil collecting from March 1-September To find a decent amount, you need to know exactly where to look and what to look for.
A first timer to the area will likely not be able to find any fossils. Collecting with someone familiar with the area, or using this guide, will help tremendously.
I have spent the past 5 years hiking and combing through these hills in search of fossils in this State Park. T his guide contains maps to some of the last collectable areas of Pit 11, and makes the difference between you carrying out a few concretions vs lugging home a 40lb bucket of hundreds. You can read about my adventures to Pit 11 in recent years at the following Blog posts. The famous Mazon Creek concretions formed when layers of sediment rapidly trapped small fish, insects, ferns, and sea life.
You can read more about the paleobiology and creation of these fossils from The Smithsonian and Wikipedia. The end result of this prehistoric phenomenon is that small organisms became encased and preserved in nodules or concretions that can now be collected from Pit Below is an image of my unopened finds that you would look for in this State Park.
The book contains many more photos and resources I am sure you will enjoy.
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