Oof, took some time to label these and touch up some rough spots. But here it is, the Mazon Creek #paleostream piece. This was, again, a piece that barely scratches the surface.
Mazon is a Carboniferous Lagerstätte and preserves hundreds of species, one could fill whole books with scenes like these. Biggest challenge was that we have two distinct faunas, the marine Essex biota and the terrestrial Braidwood biota. Some marine animals might be able to venture into freshwater but usually the two don't mix much so I had to find a way to transplant a piece of fauna into the other. We settled on a natural raft, the likes we still see today.
After storms or floods, mats of vegetation can drift out to sea and carry with them whole communities of organisms. On the other hand driftwood is often used by marine animals as shelter so from both sides we have reasons for animals to be here. As you can see in this size chart by Discord member JW, there is much more one could have added.
But I leave that part to YOU if you are inclined to pick up where I left off ;)
