Mica under a "Poor Man's Polarizing Microscope"







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Pennsylvanian

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Trip to the Pennsylvanian edge of the Illinois Basin. Sunrise 6:30am Stop no. 1 was the Bond formation behind a cemetery near the border of Indiana. The rocks here contain a rich fauna, however I was mostly looking for rugose corals to make thin sections. Stop no. 2 was mostly for scouting for the black Mecca shales to find shark remains.
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A rare find in the Pennsylvanian Black Shales

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On August 17th, I went on a group trip to the Starved Rock Clay Pit. I was specifically looking for some Listracanthus parts, and upon splitting open a large septarion nodule measuring roughly 2ft across, came upon what looked at first like a poorly preserved denticle. Upon returning home and examining more closely, it appeared to have segmentation. After showing photos of the specimen to Dave Carlson and Jack Wittry of ESCONI, it was identified as a rare  Tyrannophontes theridion Shram, 1969. From Wittry's book, The Mazon Ceek Fossil Fauna, "First discovered at Pit 11,  Tyrannophontes theridion was figured and described in 1969 by Shram. Subsequently, similar species were found preserved in the Pennsylvanian black shales of Iowa and Nebraska." Interestingly, nothing is mentioned of the black shales in Illinois. On a side note regarding the mysterious spiny, eel-shaped  Listracanthus that has eluded paleontologists for 150 years ,  a complete specimen has...
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Water Levels

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I thought it would be fun to periodically post water level data, since the sea levels are rising. I'll mostly focus on Lake Michigan, Great Lakes, Atlantic ocean. Here are some pictures of disappearing Juneway Beach in Chicago and a link to an article here . 2019
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