30-620: The Mazon Creek fossil beds are a conservation lagerstätte found near Morris , in Grundy County, Illinois . The fossils are preserved in ironstone concretions , formed approximately 309 million years ago in the mid- Pennsylvanian epoch of the Carboniferous period. These concretions frequently preserve both hard and soft tissues of animal and plant materials, as well as many soft-bodied organisms that do not normally fossilize. The quality, quantity and diversity of fossils in
60-754: A Konservat-Lagerstätte may be based on a number of different factors which constitute "exceptional preservation". These may include the completeness of specimens, soft tissue preservation, fine-scale detail, taxonomic richness, distinctive taphonomic pathways (often multiple at the same site), the extent of the fossil layer in time and space, and particular sediment facies encouraging preservation. The world's major Lagerstätten include: Lakhanda Lagerstätte 1030-1000 Ma Uchur-Maya Depression, Russia Bitter Springs 1000–850 Ma South Australia Preserved fossils include cyanobacteria microfossils . Chichkan Lagerstätte 775 Ma Kazakhstan Doushantuo Formation 600–555 Ma Guizhou Province, China Spans
90-727: A death mask . It is a part of the larger Buen Formation , and has a fauna similar to the Maotianshan shales. Sinsk Algal Lens 518 Ma Yakutia , Russia One of the oldest known Cambrian lagerstätten . The fauna of this site is unique, as it seems that they were adapted to living in dysaerobic conditions. List of Illinois state parks Illinois has a variety of protected areas , including over 123 state-protected areas, dozens of federally protected areas, hundreds of county-level and municipal park areas. Illinois also contains sites designated as internationally important protected areas. These multiple levels of protection contribute to
120-772: A statewide network of numerous recreation opportunities and conservation schemes, sometimes in a small area. For example, DeKalb County contains a 1,000-acre (4.0 km ) forest preserve system and a 1,500-acre (6.1 km ) state park ( Shabbona Lake State Park ); within DeKalb County, the DeKalb Park District in the City of DeKalb has a 700-acre (2.8 km ) park system. Illinois state-owned protected areas include state parks , state forests , state recreation areas , state fish and wildlife areas , state natural areas, and one state trail. These areas are all administered by
150-557: A substantial degree its original natural or primeval character, though it need not be completely undisturbed, or has floral, faunal, ecological, geological or archaeological features of scientific, educational, scenic or esthetic interest.” Illinois contains one national forest , the Shawnee National Forest , one national grassland, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie , and several other sites administered by
180-891: A tree-like horsetail relative, with common foliage names of Annularia and Asterophyllites , and a vine-like form called Sphenophyllum ; Pteridophyta as marattitalean tree ferns and Filicales and Zygopteridales understory ferns, with common foliage names of Pecopteris , Acitheca and Lobatopteris ; pteridosperms , also known as seed ferns, an extinct group of plants that grew both as trees and smaller shrubs, with features like pinnated leaves similar to true ferns, but reproduced by seeds instead of spores; they had common foliage names Mariopteris , Alethopteris , Odontopteris , Neuropteris , Laveineopteris and Macroneuropteris ; extinct gymnosperm Cordaites , believed to be closely related to and sharing many features with modern conifers . The Mazon Creek fauna has over 320 species of animals that have been identified. The fauna
210-459: Is divided into two components: the marine Essex fauna and the land and freshwater Braidwood fauna , that were washed into the deltaic sediments. The Essex fauna includes jellyfish , sea worms , snails , saltwater clams , shrimp , sea scorpions , chaetognaths , cephalopods and fish . The most common species found is the Essexella sea anemone. It consists of 42% of all fossil finds in
240-611: Is known as authigenic mineralisation . The fossiliferous concretions are found in the Mazon River area of Grundy , Will , Kankakee , and Livingston counties. Additional fossils are found in LaSalle County, Illinois ; between the Vermilion River and Marseilles, Illinois . The ironstone concretions are recovered from exposures along streams, roadcuts and in active or abandoned coal mine areas. Most concretions are found among
270-533: Is protected and listed as a state-owned historic site. Two of the eight World Heritage Site structures exemplifying the 20th-Century architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright are also located in Illinois: Unity Temple and the Robie House , and are protected by local and federal schemes. In addition to cultural sites, Illinois contains five wetland areas designated as wetlands of international importance under
300-941: The Devonian Hunsrück Slates and Gogo Formation , the Carboniferous Mazon Creek , the Triassic Madygen Formation , the Jurassic Posidonia Shale and Solnhofen Limestone , the Cretaceous Yixian , Santana , & Agua Nueva formations and the Tanis Fossil Site , the Eocene Fur Formation , Green River Formation , Messel Formation & Monte Bolca , the Miocene Foulden Maar and Ashfall Fossil Beds ,
330-602: The Illinois Department of Natural Resources . In addition, dozens of state historic sites are administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Division . State historic sites are typically protected for their historic and cultural importance but may include a nature preservation component, such as at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site and Lincoln's New Salem . For a list, see Illinois Historic Preservation Division . State parks are owned by
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#1732856084329360-577: The Illinois River near Morris , Grundy County, Illinois . The 25 to 30 meters of shale were formed approximately 309 million years ago , during the Pennsylvanian period. The fossiliferous concretions are usually found within the thickest deposits of the Francis Creek Shale. The concretions occur in localized deposits within the silty to sandy mudstones , in the lower four metres of
390-670: The National Park Service , including portions of National Trails. There are also National Wildlife Refuges . The following U.S. Wilderness areas are located within the Shawnee National Forest and are administered by the U.S. Forest Service : Crab Orchard Wilderness is located within Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge The National Park Service operates the federally owned Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield ,
420-578: The Pliocene Gray Fossil Site , and the Pleistocene Naracoorte Caves & La Brea Tar Pits . Palaeontologists distinguish two kinds: Konservat-Lagerstätten preserve lightly sclerotized and soft-bodied organisms or traces of organisms that are not otherwise preserved in the usual shelly and bony fossil record; thus, they offer more complete records of ancient biodiversity and behavior and enable some reconstruction of
450-1006: The Pullman National Historical Park in Chicago , and the New Philadelphia National Historic Site in Pike County in rural western Illinois. The Chicago Portage National Historic Site is a National Park Service-affiliated site which is located in the Forest Preserve District of Cook County . In addition, the National Park Service partners with the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area . One UNESCO World Heritage Site in Illinois, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site ,
480-643: The Ramsar Convention : A variety of county and town protected areas exist in Illinois, including city park districts and county-wide Forest Preserve or Conservation Districts, as well as land owned by private conservation organizations. One of the largest systems is the Forest Preserve District of Cook County , which includes Brookfield Zoo and the Chicago Botanic Garden as well as 70,000 acres (280 km ) of open land, or 11.6 percent of Cook County's land area. Under Illinois law, counties may set up
510-529: The palaeoecology of ancient aquatic communities. In 1986, Simon Conway Morris calculated only about 14% of genera in the Burgess Shale had possessed biomineralized tissues in life. The affinities of the shelly elements of conodonts were mysterious until the associated soft tissues were discovered near Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Granton Lower Oil Shale of the Carboniferous . Information from
540-422: The sediment deposited in the deltaic system. Bacterial decomposition of the remains produced carbon dioxide that combined with dissolved iron from the groundwater . This process formed siderite in the sediments surrounding the remains, forming detailed casts of their structure. Lithification of the sediments formed protective nodules of ironstone around the now fossilized remains. This mode of preservation
570-602: The Braidwood fauna. 41°19′16″N 88°20′46″W / 41.321°N 88.346°W / 41.321; -88.346 Lagerst%C3%A4tte A Fossil-Lagerstätte ( German: [ˈlaːɡɐˌʃtɛtə] , from Lager 'storage, lair' Stätte 'place'; plural Lagerstätten ) is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These formations may have resulted from carcass burial in an anoxic environment with minimal bacteria, thus delaying
600-683: The Essex biota. The Essex area also includes the most famous faunal member of the Illinois state fossil Tullimonstrum , known popularly as the "Tully Monster". Other well-documented organisms include the crustacean Belotelson and the possible hemichordate Etacystis . The Braidwood fauna includes insects , millipedes , centipedes (three taxa, Latzelia , Mazoscolopendra , Palenarthrus ), scorpions , spiders , other arachnids , amphibians , freshwater fish ( Illiniichthys ), freshwater shrimps, freshwater horseshoe crabs and ostracods . The possible beetle Adiphlebia has been described from
630-465: The Maotianshan shale the world's most important for understanding the evolution of early multi-cellular life. Qingjiang biota 518 Ma Hubei , China This site is particularly notable due to both the large proportion of new taxa represented (approximately 53% of the specimens), and the notable volume of soft-body tissue preservation. Sirius Passet 523-518 Ma Greenland A site known for its fauna, and that they were most likely preserved by
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#1732856084329660-594: The area, known since the mid-nineteenth century, make the Mazon Creek lagerstätte important to paleontologists attempting to reconstruct the paleoecology of the sites. The locality was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997. The Mazon Creek fossils are found in the Upper Carboniferous Francis Creek Shale . The type locality is the Mazon River (or Mazon Creek), a tributary of
690-461: The broader range of organisms found in Lagerstätten have contributed to recent phylogenetic reconstructions of some major metazoan groups. Lagerstätten seem to be temporally autocorrelated, perhaps because global environmental factors such as climate might affect their deposition. A number of taphonomic pathways may produce Konservat-Lagerstätten : The identification of a fossil site as
720-670: The decomposition of both gross and fine biological features until long after a durable impression was created in the surrounding matrix. Fossil-Lagerstätten span geological time from the Neoproterozoic era to the present . Worldwide, some of the best examples of near-perfect fossilization are the Cambrian Maotianshan shales and Burgess Shale , the Ordovician Soom Shale , the Silurian Waukesha Biota ,
750-480: The formation. The paleoecosystem is believed to be a large river delta system, deposited by at least one major river system flowing from the northeast. The sediments are believed to derive from the Appalachian orogeny events. The delta had a tropical climate, a result of the area being within 10° north latitude of the equator during the Pennsylvanian . The remains of plants and animals were rapidly buried by
780-786: The poorly understood interval between the end of the Cryogenian period and the late Ediacaran Avalon explosion . Mistaken Point 565 Ma Newfoundland, Canada This site contains one of the most diverse and well-preserved collections of Precambrian fossils . Ediacara Hills 555 Ma South Australia The type location the Ediacaran period, and has preserved a significant amount of fossils from that time. Khatyspyt Lagerstätte 544 Ma Yakutia , Russia A Late Ediacaran lagerstätte preserving an Avalon-type biota. Maotianshan Shales (Chengjiang) 518 Ma Yunnan , China The preservation of an extremely diverse faunal assemblage renders
810-530: The shale and sandstone that was piled up in either a spoil tip of an older underground mine, or ridges of the later surface mining . The Peabody Energy company operated several large strip mines in Grundy County that are now abandoned. They were named Pit 1 through Pit 11. The northern pits 1-8 are known for the Braidwood Biota with mostly terrestrial fauna and flora. Pit 11, which was located southwest of
840-564: The state and generally administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources . Specifically, “State Park” refers to sites “exhibiting exceptional scenic and natural features and terrain” and that “offer a wide range of recreational opportunities for the public to enjoy”. Areas whose primary purpose is to “reserve land and water areas for production and conservation of fish or wildlife and to provide hunting, fishing, trapping, observation, and other forms of compatible recreational use.” Areas of land which “either retains or has recovered to
870-525: The town of Braidwood, Illinois, is known for its Essex Biota with a greater abundance of marine species. Pit 11 is now Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area , an Illinois state park . Fossil collecting is allowed at the park with a permit. The site's importance was realized in the mid-nineteenth century: "the nodules of Mazon Creek, where fragments of plants, even of the softest texture, have been preserved in their integrity". The Mazon Creek flora comprises over 400 species from at least 130 genera. However,
900-497: The true number of species is difficult to determine. Paleobotanists name separate plant structures with different names by convention, inflating the number of fossil plant taxa. Paleobotanists are currently determining which taxa are valid. Mazon Creek flora includes: lycopsids , related to modern club moss, with arborescent forms named Lepidophloios , Sigillaria and Lepidodendron , and herbaceous forms called Lycopodites and Cormophyton ; sphenopsids like Calamites
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