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Taking advantage of the good weather and less traffic on the I-95 because of Super Bowl Sunday, I and my husband decided to head south to North Attleboro, MA to explore the Pennsylvanian age plant fossils from possibly the Rhode Island/Wamsutta Formation. We drove to a park near the site and hiked about a mile through the pine forest and reached the outcrop which has expanded into a shale pit. The specimens here are preserved in great condition and are abundant. The pine forest we walked through. The shale pit full of plant fossils. Here's some finds from my trip. I have tried my best to identify my finds. Let me know if I made any mistakes. Neuropteris Scheuchzeri A seed fern specimen that was too big to carry back home. A mish mash of fern fossils and a baby seed fern which I also had to leave behind. Possibly the top of Annularia sp. peeking out in the middle Calamites More calamites and Neuropteris sp. on the bottom side of the fossil on the right. A lot of fossils overlapping. Cyperites sp.?? Pecopteris sp. (This is a chunk that broke off the large fossil towards the end of the post) A closer look at the same fossil with a different angle showing possibly Annularia sp. Cyperites on the lower side Is this some type of micro fossil?? Neuropteris Heterophylla ?? Calamites More seed ferns?? This is a big specimen I brought home with a bunch of fossils on the front and back and it weighed about 10 pounds. Closeups of them are as follows. The clearest fossil on this side is a Pecopteris sp. I assume. I used water to clean some mud off this specimens and noticed a few more fossils peeking out of the rock. Hope you enjoyed my post. Feel free to ask any questions. Happy Fossil hunting!!

Yesterday afternoon, I had some time to visit the Hoppin Hill Reservoir, in North Attleboro. At my first trip, apparently the water level was extremely low, as this time it was ~4-6 feet above the previous line. Some apparently extensive outcrops were now covered. In the path before reaching the exposures, I picked up a piece of shale from an outcrop, which contains limonite?-stained trilobite fragments, as well as a possible brachiopods. Pleura of a Strenuella strenua? I found near the end of my first trip, a fragment of drift containing a small trilobite cephalon. That area is now covered by water. However, knowing the character of the rock in which the trilobites are found, and the general area, I fortunately found the source exposure above water. Unfortunately, the rock was somewhat heavily metamorphosed, so most of the rock turned into a sort of quartzite, where I found very few trilobite fragments. Some rock turned greyish-white, probably due to the heat. Although most of the rock was like this, some of it was not metamorphosed. Some rock retained its shaly-limestone form. Shaw (1950) states that when the limestone is weathered, and the calcium carbonate leaches out, the rock is reduced to a soft siltstone that “can be crumbled in the fingers.” This was unfortunately the case for most of the rock. I managed to recover some small amount of material that had not completely weathered away. Here is a single thoracic segment preserved in the metamorphosed material. It appears to be silicified. Some fragments of trilobites were recovered from the soft siltstone. I found that upon drying completely, they become slightly more solid. Thoracic segment and free cheek, probably Strenuella. At the end of the day, I took a block of what seemed to be the fossiliferous layers, to split. I found a partial Strenuella strenua, exhibiting the stouter type, with a shorter anterior “flange.” Also, in that same block, I found this quite nice specimen, though it was very fragile. It has a more prominent “flange,” and the occipital spine is rather well preserved. Also, I prepared the trilobite cranidium from the first trip. I believe it is a Dipharus attleborensis, with a nice palpebral lobe preserved. The specimen was much more stable than the ones found on this trip, so I think the layers probably are much better below the water-line. Here is I think Anstey’s map of the reservoir, showing Shaler’s locality 2, as well as where I found the trilobite fragments. I believe the shale layers are a few meters south to where they are represented. Also, I think Landing’s (1988) revision of the formation is unneeded. He puts the Weymouth and the Hoppin formations into one, and names the lower quartzarenite layers the North Attleboro formation. As I have seen the quartzarenite layers grade into the shales and slates, I think this is unnecessary. Also, the species in the sub-trilobitic layers of Hoppin Hill are found throughout, so I think they do not need a separate name. The Hoppin Formation (with the exception of the unusual “Paradoxides walcotti” ) is a preolenellidian fauna, and the Weymouth at Mill Cove has a distinct Callavia fauna with many olenellids. Shaw suggests that the Mill Cove locality is younger in age. I agree with this conclusion. In fact, the only trilobite present in both layers, is Strenuella strenua. Several papers imply that the Pearl Street (Mill Cove) locality does not conformably overlie the sub-trilobitic layers. Correlations have been made between Mill Cove, and Nahant and Cohasset in the faunas found in the sub-trilobitic layers. I propose the Hoppin stay seperate from the Weymouth Formation, and the sub-trilobitic layers in the Weymouth be given a different name, or perhaps be a seperate member of the formation. This may only be a local thing, and somehow the two faunas were separated in some way and they could be of the same age. This is how I think the Formations are aligned. *Not to scale! Overall, I had a fun trip, though the water level at the reservoir was somewhat high.

Hello fellow fossil people! I have this plant that is very unique compared to any others I have found at this site. It is from the Rhode Island formation in North Attleboro. It is about a centimeter long. Some of the pictures are taken at 20x magnification. Any ideas?

I have these two plant fossils that I think I have an accurate id on but I am not sure and would like the confirmation. Mariopteris nervosa? Alethopteris?

I found this fossil plant in North Attleboro, Massachusetts and was wondering if anyone knew the species. For me it seems to be either Sphenopteris, Eremopteris, Karinopteris, or Mariopteris. It definitely could be something else.

Hello, i’ve just recently found out about the possible trilobites that can be found near Hoppin Hill Massachusetts, does anybody have any information on where exactly these are and if they are available to the public?

What is this? Besides what appears to be the first fork lol

I found this little fern at the North Attleboro fossil site, and I cannot seem to put an ID on it. The leaves seem to be confluent, so i’m thinking maybe a juvenile Alethopteris or some other Pteridospermatophyte

This fossil was found at the North Attleboro fossil site, and I’ve had it marked down as a species of Sphenopteris but i’m not 100% certain

Sorry about the double post on here, i’m sorting out my display at the moment. I’ve got this fossil here that I found in North Attleboro, it’s pennsylvanian in age and at first I had thought it may have been an insect, probably just wishful thinking. It’s about a half inch long

I found this fossil in the north attleboro part of the rhode island formation, and I need help with an ID. It’s just shy of an inch in length.