Above, hammers raised in geological salute, 

 the Mazon Creek Faunal Study Field Crew, 

 known also as the Pit Eleven Players. 

 Left to right. Professor Ralph Johnson, Charles 

 Shabica, Peter Kranz, Ida Thompson, Arthur 

 Zangerl, Paul Lund. 



The Hunters... 



the Pit Eleven Players 



The Mazon Creek Faunal Study project, 

 supported in part by National Science Founda- 

 tion, sent a field crew to Pit Eleven three 

 days a week this summer. Led by 

 Ralph Johnson, Associate Professor of Geo- 

 physical Sciences, University of Chicago, the 

 effort was the first intensive, large scale 

 survey of the area by professional and student 

 geologists. 



Johnson, who can use the carrot as well as 

 the stick, quickly established ground rules for 

 his brave band of assistants and graduate 

 students. Discovery of sixty identifiable speci- 

 mens on any given day in the field entitled 

 the team to a party (a small one). 

 Thus, a specimen was quickly tagged an 

 M-P, or Micro-Party. 



Below, a view of the Peabody Coal Company 

 mining operation at Pit Eleven. The 

 enormous wheel excavator in the background 

 is nearly fourteen stories tall, and the length' 

 of a football field. It moves 3500 cubic 

 yards of earth an hour, and in two sweeps dis- 

 poses of the entire Pleistocene overlay, about a 

 million years of geological history. 

 In parts of northern Illinois, the Pleistocene 

 rests directly on the Pennsylvanian and there is a 

 geological gap of 250 million years. The 

 middle machine, a thirty cubic yard drag line, 

 scoops about fifteen feet of Pennsylvanian 

 shale, and the final, smallest shovel, excavates 

 the coal itself. The coal measure is 

 generally from two to ten feet thick. 



Charles Shabica, a graduate stu- 

 dent at the University of Chicago, 

 in discussion with Melbourne 

 McKee, a chemist with Peabody 

 Coal. McKee 's advice and help 

 have been invaluable to the Ma- 

 zon Creek project. 



Field Museum International Scout 

 gives an idea of the size of the 

 30-cubic-yard drag-line shovel. 



OCTOBER Page 7 



