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Hi everybody, i recently made an exchange and so i received those ferns, all i know is that they come from Colorado, i have no other clue about them. I also received an unknown urchin and have no clue about it. Could you help me know a bit more about them ? The longest diagonal of that piece is a little less than 15 cm, the base is about 13 cm and it is about 11 cm hight. @Plantguy @paleoflor ?

I see a fair amount mentioned online about seed ferns. How did these differ from modern day spore bearing ferns? Where these seed ferns true ferns?

I recently acquired this multi species fern fossil from a friend who said it came from Pennsylvania. I wonder if anyone knows the age and species of the plants here? Thanks for looking.

My dad and I collected this large fern several months ago in PA and have since contemplated how best to prepare it in order for the fossil to be visible. When the material is dampened, the fossil is visible; but, when the shale dries, the fern kinda disappears back into the material. We read somewhere that coating the material in Butvar may darken the material and may make the fossil more visible; however, we would love to hear the thoughts and suggestions on this group. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Here is a sample of a fern and Cordaites along the bottom (my guess) I've been finding. Pennsylvanian formation in an area with igneous intrusions. I would enjoy being able to identify and label different fern types in the future so any help naming these now and a good source for learning more would be my ideal goal. Lastly; what induces the coloration? Is it some form of pyritization? High iron mineral content of water and ground it grew in at the time? I have additional specimen photos that appear to be of other types but I just realized my file sizes are limiting how many I can post at a time...need to learn how to do better in future posts.

Hello everyone ! I found on a rockside a piece of slate with a plant print on it, but I can't figure out which kind of fern it is. In my view it's wormfern. Anybody else have an idea what it might be ? Greetings Raptoria

Hi, a month back I bought these two plant fossils at a shop. But unfortunatly the guy at the store forgot to put the information card of them in the box. :/ What I can remember reading when I bought them was that they were from the Triassic era and that they were found in the Bruchsal area in Germany. But that's unfortunatly all I could remember, I don't know their exact age or species. I tried to research the exact age of the fossils found in that area or what species can be found there, but unfortunatly in my search I did not find any anwsers, only one guy with pictures of the same fossil species from the same area and age, but unfortunatly I did not get a reply back from the guy. So I was hoping one of you guys here could help me to ID the fossil. Thanks in advance! photo hosting

Is this a tree fern/cycad fossil? It measures 12cm in diameter and is round in shape. It is from Liaoning of China.

WHAT WE LEARNED IN OUR FIRST FOSSIL HUNTING SUMMER This is a short recap of what we learned on our fossil trips this summer, in our first 3 months as very new fossil collectors. This week, Nancy and I gave a slide presentation on our summer fossil hunting experiences, to the Delaware Valley Paleontological Society. We didn't realize it ourselves but in 3 months we visited 8 sites in Pennsylvania and New York including: Antes Creek, Deer Lake, Red Hill, Juniata County, McIntyre Mountain, Montour and St. Clair in Pennsylvania, and a very productive trip to Tully, NY. We visited St. Clair 4 times, which has become our home site. At St. Clair, we were astonished by the diversity of species - we collected well articulated samples of more than a dozen species including: Alethopteris, Annularia, Asterophyllites, Cordaites, Cyclopteris, Eusphenopteris, Lepidophylloides, Neuropteris, Odontopteris, Pecopteris, Sphenophyllum, Sphenopteris, and numerous Seeds, Bark, Roots. Most notably - I learned to pronounce all of these without stuttering! At St. Clair, we spent one trip looking exclusively for seeds trigonocarpus), and one trip looking just for roots (stigmaria). Our most significant finds have included very large (2 foot long) display pieces covered with well articulated orange ferns, an alethopteris seed attached to a leaf stem, and many Carboniferous leaves that have different shapes from traditional ferns. What we learned this summer has really helped us find some interesting fossils - here are a few things we did that helped a lot: 1. DOING OUR HOMEWORK. It helped to study each site in advance using Internet websites and books on fossils (Dave's "Views of the Mahantango" and "Louisville Fossils" are among the best, imho). Several universities also have great educational sites that bring each era to life in very creative and interesting ways, with lots of illustrations and photos. I like the UC-Berkeleyand University of West Virginia websites. 2. LEARNING FROM TRIP REPORTS. We read trip reports from other groups and individuals to see what they reported - sometimes this helps us stumble across new places to visit such as the site at Tully, NY and Deer Lake. 3. SETTING GOALS AND TARGETS FOR EACH TRIP. For each trip, we establish specific goals - for example we may look for seeds, or roots at St. Clair, or trilobites or shell assemblages at a Devonian site. Our interest right now is in looking for things that are scarce or rare, and fossils that are extremely well articulated (which is also rare!). We also like solving puzzles so eventually we would like to find things that help add to the fossil record in areas where there are still questions or missing links. 4. DISPLAYING WHAT WE FIND. Personally, Nancy and I like collecting larger fossils that we can display in mounts and frames, and we are also looking for larger pieces that we can display like sculptures - we have a few pieces that we drilled holes in, inserted wooden dowels that we stained, and then drilled/inserted the dowels in wooden trophy bases - all available from a craft store. This allows us to display thicker fossils esp. assemblages, like sculptures, and you can turn them around and look at all sides when they are mounted like this. 5. WE AVOID FOSSIL HORDING. We both agreed that we would NOT become "fossil horders" putting hundreds of rocks in boxes and sticking them away in the basement or garage - instead, we focus on finding display-quality items, and rare or scarce finds which we are slowly putting in frames. 6. DOCUMENTING OUR FINDS WITH CLOSEUP PHOTOS. We photograph everything we find as soon as possible after returning from a trip, using a digital camera with a closeup attachment - many times we find new discoveries while taking closeup photos and some of our best finds came AFTER we returned from the trip and inspected our fossils. I usually put the finds on a white background on an ironing board and use window light, nothing fancy, but it works. 7. FOSSIL ID. We post anything we can't identify on the Fossil Forum and are EXTREMELY grateful for the terrific response from our friends on the site! We are also accumulating a growing library of fossil books (some modern, some from the 19th and early 20th century) so we can identify more fossils ourselves without having to post on Fossil ID. 8. WRITING ABOUT OUR EXPERIENCES GIVES US NEW INSIGHTS. We report everything that interests and excites us about fossil hunting on Fossil Forum to share our experiences - and we find that writing about what we're doing helps us learn more and gain insights, just from writing about it. We have also started videotaping some of our adventures and are thinking about the best place to post some of these. 9. WINTER PLANS: COPING WITH CABIN FEVER. Our winter plans are to visit one or two more sites, then go into "fossil hibernation" and organize, identify and label fossils we haven't processed yet. We have a Dremel to do some light preservation work where needed. We are not planning to become "chemical conservators" - using chemicals to dissolve limestone and so forth - that's a bit too ambitious for us at this point. We may get involved in some interesting activities by local universities that are using 3D printing to process and replicate large dinosaur bones. We are also planning to provide an exhibit (on Carboniferous plants and trees/coal swamps) at a fossil fair in April. 10. RECOMMENDED READING: I enjoy reading fossil books - I'm currently reading with great interest a small book entitled "Leaves and Stems from Fossil Forests" by Raymond E. Janssen (1939) which I bought last night at the DVPS meeting, and a textbook entitled Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record by Benton and Harper (2008) (excellent book). The book that has been the most useful to me so far is the classic book "Fossil Collecting in Pennsylvania" by Hoskins et. al. (3rd ed. 1983). I am constantly re-reading the Hoskins book and find something new each time as my knowledge grows. A book that impressed Nancy and me is a large beautifully illustrated book entitled "Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth" (published by Dorling Kindersley, 2012) UPDATE (Oct 11): Nancy is taking some college courses which are prerequisites to enter grad school, so I am doing most of the fossil reading and ID. I read several books at the same time and other books I purchased that I am currently reading are: Paleobotany: The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants (second edition) by Thomas Taylor; and Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record by Benton and Harper. I guess you can tell from this that I'm reading up on fossil plants - my main interest is not just to understand the evolution and fossil record, identification tips, etc. - but also to try to figure out where the missing links and gaps are so if we come across something that adds to the fossil record, we will be able to recognize the value. What is most surprising is that there is a lot missing from the Carboniferous record - partly because after this period, many of the oceans and swamps apparently dried up and there were ice ages and other factors that caused mass extinctions. Here are some interesting things I have learned this summer about Fossil Plants and Trees: 1. More Carboniferous insect fossils and evidence of insects are needed (by the way, there are some GREAT current discussions about insects on this forum!). 2. Many categories of lycopsids and other Carboniferous trees and plants do not have verified associations between the leaves and seeds, or leaves and trunks/stems. Many trigonocarpus (fossilized seeds and "fruits") are found with leaves, but examples of seeds actually ATTACHED to leaf sprigs are rare (we have found one example of a seed attached to Alethopteris). 3. More Leaf and Bark Verifications are Needed. Another interesting thing I learned is that there are more than 30 different types of "scale tree" patterns but only half a dozen leaves for these trees - suggesting that a lot of different species had the same leaves - or - there are a lot of missing leaf types or the existing leaf types have not been matched to the bark patterns yet. 4. Another peculiar revelation is that most Carboniferous leaves that do not fall neatly into classic fern shapes seem to be lumped together as "sphenopteris" - we have many "non-traditional fern" leaf fossils that are VERY different from each other and obviously different species, but when we go online to ID them, they all seem to be grouped as "sphenopteris!" Maybe some of these leaf types match up with the bark patterns I mentioned. 5. Last but certainly not least is the insight that fern trees could have 2 or 3 different types of leaves on the same tree! This was really interesting. Also, some leaf types can come in different shapes - for example, Neuropteris can be round at the base of a stem and elongated along the stem and at the tip...AND...some paleobotanists now classify cyclopteris - the round fan shaped leaf - as a form of Neuropteris. This definitely adds to the confusion. I'm still reading and trying to understand all of this and these are only my initial impressions, which are still forming and there may be explanations for some of these questions that I haven't discovered yet but these are the questions that I am trying to answer by reading, and of course, by fossil collecting. I hope that many of our new friend (and I should add, VERY COOL new friends!) on the fossil forum will help clarify some of these interesting questions. Hope this is helpful.

Hello TFF, I found what I am most certain is a fern in Athens, Ohio while I was doing oreintation for college last summer. The fossil is very faint and I’m not sure what formation it belongs to nor the species. I plan on giving it to my father for Father’s Day because while he doesn’t collect fossils he loves plant fossils and finds my hobby fascinating. I know he’ll love it, even if this is my only fern I’ve found to date. I did manage to get some other plant bits which I am unsure of, I’ll try and get an ID later. If anyone could help that would be greatly appreciated.

Is this wood? Or some kind of fern plant? I collected this at saltwick bay.

I was going through some material from Cory’s Lane, a Carboniferous fossil site in Rhode Island, when I noticed this fern. It didn’t really look like anything else I had and so I came here for some help. I’m very new to identifying fern fossils, so any help is greatly appreciated.

So yeah as the title says decided to go here the day before my birthday to hunt for some plant fossils was good fun only found the one outcrop...umm yeah and thought I would share it with you guys also good piece of advice if you go here bring consolidate with you and wear wellies.

Found this on a Lake Champlain beach, looks like a fern but any info would be great!

I was hiking in Berkeley county WV and last week and came across this fern fossil? I'm a neophyte when it comes to fossil ID but wanted to know if anyone could give me some idea of what I found? Thanks, Matt Orsie - Hedgesville, WV

Can't help with the initial question but when checking the seller's offerings I just had to spontaneously buy a fern fossil as it looked so amazing and the price seemed also very ok! I've never bought a plant fossil before but also never seen a Carboniferous fossil which looked so well preserved and colorful to me. Oddly I can't find any of these anywhere else on the web and hardly any information about the locality. Does anyone have any information about the locality or the formation? Greetings from Germany

In between all of the 4th of July weekend barbecues I was able to make it down to Cory's Lane, Rhode Island for a few hours of shale splitting. The day started out slow with only a few small plant imprints found, but I eventually managed to rip up a 5 foot slab of rock with a larger fern section on one end of it. After cutting the slab down to a little over a foot and a half in length this Pecopteris arborescens manages to go down as the largest fern I've found at this locality! It was a nice start to the long weekend, but the real win was the awesome weather .

Here are a couple of "old" pieces from St. Clair that I found. The first one is a faint trace that I think is Pectopteris but I find it so rarely at St. Clair I can't tell for sure. What is throwing me off is that the leaflets are getting longer as they progress along the rachis whereas I have always thought that Pectopteris had a consistent leaflet length along the whole leaf. Then the second piece is a cluster of leaves/leaflets that don't match anything I've seen before. The tips of the leaves are not pointed enough for Alethopteris and not wide enough for Neuropteris. Any suggestions are appreciated.

This is obviously not a seed fern fossil, but the "fossil guy" at the flea market across the river in Jersey told me that it is a fern. My understanding was that it is petrified plant material, a petrified fern. I'm not confident in his identification as he, I now know, missed several identifiable pieces (crinoid columnals and a chunk of perfect rose quartz, for example) or simply wasn't as into looking as he said he was. So, I need another ID! Again, as usual, it was found under the bridge behind my house in Bucks County, PA along the creek not far from the Delaware river.

Two days ago I bought this nice fossil for a very convenient price at a local shop. Unfortunately, the seller could not remember key informations about this specimen, but he told me that it probably was Pecopteris and came from Germany. I want to identify it for a proper display alongside my other Carboniferous fossils, but I need again some help from a more experienced collector. In my opinion it is very similar, if not identical, to an other Acitheca (Pecopteris) polymorpha specimen I previously identified on an old topic thanks to this wonderful community. It may be the same plant, but I'm not sure. I am also skeptical about its German origin, is it reliable? Here is the upper side of the fossil: Pinnules detail from the other side (not exceptional quality, but I tried to make them more clear with a flashlight) Thanks in advance for your help!

I was looking over the Smithsonian collection of Mazon Creek ferns tonight (http://paleobiology.si.edu/mazoncreek/mazonGroups.html). It seems like most ferns are labeled as Pecopteris species, but that there are a number of very similar fern species. Is there a good reference that breaks down the different species and how to identify them? I have Richardson's guide, but that is just for the fauna. Thanks!

An enjoyable and productive outing with Jeffrey P, my first to the carboniferous. Id's welcome. Gordon See pattern to right of coin

Well... I seem to be turning into a Rhode Island native at this point. This past weekend I was able to head down to Cory's Lane for an afternoon of digging. Here's my latest find from the Carboniferous period. This fern still needs to be cleaned up a bit and I'm still trying to nail down an exact ID. At just over 3 feet long this is now my biggest and most complete find to date (1-upped myself again). More pics to come once I finish cleaning this guy up. P.S. This was definitely not fun to carry back to the car . I couldn't save the entire second half of this fern as it was partially destroyed when I ripped up the 8 foot slab of rock this fossil was on. I did manage to save the middle section at least!