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I found this piece about a month ago while hiking near Starved Rock, IL with my girlfriend. It is so strange that i thought TFF may enjoy it. I've never seen anything like it and it is my biggest piece of pyrite to date. It is a large 18cm x 5cm piece of pyrite encapsulating a piece of Lepidodendron fossil from the Carboniferous period. Unfortunately when i collected it the piece was in a shale wall and when extracting it some of the lepidodendron had broken off and was too shattered to save. But here she is. Continued....

Felt bad about leaving this one behind, but will have to wait for another day. Too heavy for me to carry out. The top came out in a few pieces and I am afraid the bottom will also. Beautiful specimen I think.

Is this considered Lepidodendron? Also, I posted the question before but did not receive any reply. What causes the greenish jue on some of the fossils>

Brought home 10/31. I think these are all Lepidodendron?

Can anyone confirm that this is lepidodendron cone? Hoping it's my first plant find. Thx very much. Argh! what ever I try the photo gets loaded upside-down, sorry. Found in Bloomington, Indiana area - Mississipian.

Found in southern NV today. Appears to have radial symmetry but doesn't look like any crinoids I've found. Ideas?

Hi Folks- I believe this is a few segments of lepidodendron aculeatum - with leaf scars and bark expansion. Do folks agree? Evan

This post is just because I thought some of you would like to see it. The piece was sent to the Univ. of OK for identification. Sorry my pictures aren't as sharp as I would like. They returned the piece along with other info on it. This is an excerpt from the letter received from the Oklahoma Geological Survey: Excerpt... ...plant fossil, a piece of a trunk or branch of a Lepidodendron. ...There is a specimen similar to yours in a display case in the geology building here at the University of Oklahoma. The one in the case was collected near Ardmore and is of Pennsylvanian age (approximately 340 million years ago).

Here is one of my newer plant fossils from Poland. Sigillaria bardii sp. What is with the weird deformed part of the bark in the middle of the specimen? Can anyone elaborate? Is it the end of a growth cycle or somthing? Thanks, Peco

Today we were allowed into a Pennsylvanian Period Strip Mine in NW Alabama to collect and had a wonderful day, a little hot, but nice to be out finding many nice fossils. I forgot my straw hat today so my ears are a little red now. There were many high piles of tailings to search and we found many of the typical Pennsylvanian plant flora, Calamites, Lepidodendron, Stigmaria, ferns, and one interesting type of fern with thorns??? on the stem. We saw many of these in an area with many many layers of them some 14-16 inches thick in the blocks. The Strip Mine Calamites below Pyrite replacement Stigmaria below Fern with Thorns??? on stem Look close at the thorns on the top and bottom.

After my original post I learned that the feathery fossils are probably leaves of a scale tree - maybe emergent leaves. They are often described as "similar to conifers" and are feathery as you can see. Are they Lepidodendron leaves or Siggilaria or Calamites? There are also listings in the literature of "LONG" grass-like leaf appendages coming straight out from the above ground (or above water) trunks of the Lepidodendron tree. How do we tell if the side appendages are long leaves or rootlets? One type of leaf appendage is often described as coming straight out from the trunk, looking more like grass, and this is confusing. In the fossils we have found, there appear to be rootlets coming out from the underground (or underwater) trunk stems, but in some fossils it looks like the long appendages are coming out from the above-water trunk because they are long and leaf shaped and do not look like rootlets. Interested in references clarifying the leaf types. The images of small feathery leaves came from cracking open already-thin shale pieces from the St. Clair fossil pits (Llewellyn Formation, Carboniferous/Pennsylvanian, St. Clair, 300-308 mya). The images of the core trunk stems with appendages were excavated from the shale floor of the fossil pit. An example of the larger specimens showing the appendages coming out from the sides is included - some people believe these are rootlets but they may also be leaves coming out from the trunk....ideas? These files are listed as Lepidodendron but actually if it's a root it is called Stigmaria (which includes roots of Lepidodendron and Siggilaria - if the shoots coming out the sides are LEAVES then they are designated Lepidophylloides).

Each rock here contains a fossil. I found lot of Lepidodendrons spent only one hour, that was a beautiful and productive site.