Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Carboniferous'.
Found 716 results
-
I just received this nice Aviculopecten bivalve from Mazon Creek today. What catches my eye is the thing extending from the top of the shell. It almost looks like it could be the siphon protruding outwards. I haven't seen a similar specimen before. Any thoughts?
- 8 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- carboniferous
- pennsylvanian
- (and 2 more)
-
To date, I've found 4 teeth, all in the same general area. One is shallow, the others are a big longer. The 3rd is a bit broken, I don't think I have a photo online right now of it. All are attached firmly to the limestone and I don't have any hope of ever getting them out clean. 1st Tooth: 2nd Tooth: 3rd Tooth No photos of this one. Sorry I promised 4 teeth, sadly only photos of three. 4th Tooth:
- 17 replies
-
- 11
-
-
This isn't a recent find but one that i labelled two Cyclus but going back to it i don't think the other fossil is one. The nodule came from a Derbyshire , UK opencast that has now been reclaimed . It was a very productive site with a good spread of flora and fauna. Thank-you for looking John
- 5 replies
-
- 2
-
-
- carboniferous
- cyclus
- (and 1 more)
-
Any thoughts on these small fragments? Carbondale formation, mecca shales. All are pretty small and measure 1-2mm, except the fourth pic is 2cm .Some look like wings and others look fishy to me. Any help appreciated!
-
Here are two Pennsylvanian bivalves I have not been able to ID. I've seen some similar looking ones but in all honesty, I find that most bivalves look the same to me. The first is from the LaSalle Limestone Member of the Bond Formation, Oglesby, IL.
-
Is there a way to identify this plant? Looks like plant leaves, but I am unsure of the species. Does anyone know?
-
This nodule split a while ago. At first I thought it was just a neat looking dud, but after looking closer there appear to be faint radiating lines on the specimen which makes me think it might be plant material, although I have no idea what exactly. Any ideas?
-
Deep in the heart of Pennsylvania's coal country runs the Carboniferous Lewellyn Formation. Once a vast tract of swampland, the area was home to 100 ft. tall Calamites (an extinct relative of modern herbaceous horsetails), giant tree ferns and other enormous plants, plus proportionally large insects. The conditions during the intervening millennia were just right for the plants to break down into iron-based minerals, including pyrophyllite and kaolinite, leaving a coating of white powder over the impressions in the rock. In rare spots, the iron minerals come in yellow, orange or red, too. All this makes the fossils stand out in sharp contrast to the dark, gray shale matrix. This is not a place for the timid. The shale is on a steep, slick slope covered in loose scree. The trees that look like good hand-holds are dead and rotten. Below the surface, fires burn in the coal veins, creating a sinkhole hazard all over the ghost town and on to the neighboring towns. However, the place I was hunting is definitely a beaten path these days, so there is probably a low risk of invisible disaster. I always say that no rock is worth your life, but that doesn't stop me from living a little dangerously. I went there for the first time last month. It was a short stop close to dusk. The fog was thick and the rocks were wet. The white powder was hard to make out in the gloom. Today, the light was good, the rocks were dry and the hunting was good!
- 30 replies
-
- 17
-
-
This piece of limestone looked like sea shells (clams or brachiopods) at first glance. However it’s one bumpy continuous surface. Any idea? The rock would be around 305 million years old. The rock broke easily along this surface which made it easy to see. Shells typically show white preserved Agagonite on them as well. No such preservation on this surface. Rock from Western Pennsylvania, United States. The surface is wet. Ruler is in inches.
-
I found this partial coal measures fish in Scotland a couple of years ago. I don’t have enough experience to prepare this, so I was wondering if anyone would like to prepare it for me in return for one or more fossils? I have various fossil types available. Thanks, Daniel
-
I am lucky enough to have permission to collect fossils at an old coal mining tip in West Yorkshire, UK. The site is now a woods, but pieces of shale can be found, containing upper Carboniferous fish fossils including sharks and Rhizodonts. At this time of year, collecting is difficult due to the leafs which cover the shale. The vast majority of the shale comes from a mussel band, which as the name suggests, contains abundant bivalves, but generally the fish remains are very small. The exceptions to this are blocks of the mussel band which contain orange coloured bivalves. These blocks seem to contain larger fish remains. However, there is generally no one rock type which is better than the others at this site. To ensure I don't cause any disturbance to wildlife, I don't do any hammering at the site. Instead, I collect promising shale samples and split them at home in search of fossils. When choosing which shale samples to collect, I look for shale samples with a relatively high grain size. I have not split the shale samples yet, but the following posts will contain photos of the site, and two fossils I found at the site today. If I find any good fossils in the samples, I will post pictures on here.
- 23 replies
-
- 3
-
-
- yorkshire
- carboniferous
- (and 1 more)
-
Hello dear members, In this post I want to show you my Mazon Creek Fauna collection. I have only 6 specimens, that I’ve acquired over a long period of time in shows and online. Mazon Creek is definetely my favourite fossil assemblage and I dream, one day, to be able to collect fossils there myself! My specimens are not museum-quality, I’m aware of that, but still can help to give an idea of what a 309 million-year-old soft-bodied biota looked like! Let’s start with the most abundant species of the Essex assemblage: the jellyfish “Essexella asherae”. Known from thousands of concretions, in mine the preservation is fairly good: you can distinguish the bell and the membranous skirt that encloses the tentacles, except their end. Moving on to arthropods, another abundant species is the cycloid “Cyclus americanus”. It is carachterized by a round body, long straight antennae and, at the posterior, two short processes. In my specimen, one antenna and one process can be easily-distinguished. In the echinodermata phylum, there’s only one species described so far: the holoturian (or sea cucumber) “Achistrum sp.”. It has a cylindrical, sack-like body: during preservation it dries, leaving dessication cracks that are replaced whit calcite and are very evident in my specimen. Also clear is the mouth, bearing 15 calcareous plate. The acorn worms (class Enteropneutsa) are hemicordate organisms and their closest relative are echinoderms. These animals have a body that is made up of three main parts: an acorn-shaped proboscis, a short fleshy collar that lies behind it, and a long, worm-like trunk. Mazon Creek’s species “Mazoglossus ramsdelli” is extemely similar to extant species. Finally, I posses two species of bristle worms (Class Polychaeta). The first one is “Astreptoscolex anasillosus”: I’m not 100% sure that the ID is correct, so if you have any suggestion, they are welcome! Anyway, it is a stout worm with the body tapering towards the tail. An eversible proboscis is usually preserved and I think that my specimen features it. The other worm is “Esconites zelus”: it has a long, narrow outline with prominent bristles on its segments. The head has projecting antennae and the jaw apparatus shows wing-like mandibles. In my specimes they are partially preserved, even though not visible in the picture. All right, this is my collection! I know it nothing special, but I hope that it can be appreciated by both Mazon Creek collectors and people who like soft-bodied fossils!
- 10 replies
-
- 7
-
-
- mazon creek
- carboniferous
- (and 1 more)
-
IMG_0211.HEIC IMG_0212.HEIC Positive and negative imprint of a fossil found in the shale at Cory's Lane. Vaguely appears to be a pinecone but not sure. What does everyone thinks?
-
The strange creatures that lived in Ireland millions of years ago, RTE Radio, Wednesday, 13 Nov 2019 https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/1113/1090543-the-strange-creatures-that-lived-in-ireland-millions-of-years-ago/ 385-million-year-old footprints in Co Kerry represent turning point in evolution, Michael Dorgan, Irish Central, June 7, 2019 https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/valentia-island-tetrapod-footprints Yours, Paul H.
-
- 1
-
-
- ireland
- carboniferous
- (and 5 more)
-
I was able to stop at the beach on Corys Lane in Portsmouth Rhode Island for about an hour yesterday. The tide was too high to reach the area I prefer, but there was enough beach to expose a bit of gravel and beach-tumbled shale I could dig in. It was far from ideal and I didn't have much success but it was enjoyable nonetheless. My wife and I were staying only a half hour away but tide and time weren't on our side. Weather made for an interesting day or two as well, contributing to the spectacle along the coast on the way up to the site. In the past I've found some rather nice ferns at this pleasant site, after locating the productive layers of hard, dark gray shale. Those layers weren't available to me yesterday, though I did make an attempt to uncover a new one in the limited space I had. I settled for some soft shale with a few very poorly preserved ferns, and a chunk of shale that may or may not be showing distorted Cordaites stems or leaves. While I tend to burrow underground or smash things with a hammer in search of my fossil finds, my wife tends to sit, and wander and scan the surface intently wherever we may be. She is usually the more successful member of our duo. She came across this find on a short hike along the narrow beach. It looks like distorted Lepidodendron bark to me, but I'm not certain. I would be glad to hear your opinions. My back is aching, my hip is stuck and I'm still removing graphite from my fingernails, but I'm grateful for the short time we spent together, yesterday, at the edge of the sea.
- 7 replies
-
- 7
-
-
- carboniferous
- corys lane
- (and 1 more)
-
Hey everybody, here are some photos of large Diplichnites trails I found in Nova Scotia. These would have been made my a giant millipede like creature known as Arthropluera. The Nova Scotia Museum has been notified of this discovery, as with all the other fossils found at this site (see my previous post of the tetrapod tracks) as the collection of fossils is illegal in the province. These are absolutely outstanding to view in person and to actually walk next to the tracks on the surface they were once imprinted on is outstanding. Expect to see more from this site in upcoming posts, and I hope you find these fossils as fascinating as I do! ps. There are approximately 27 trails on this surface (many are quite faded by the tidal action) - FossilsNS
- 21 replies
-
- 23
-
-
- arthropluera
- diplichnites
- (and 3 more)
-
Hello everyone, I have been spending a lot of time searching for Carboniferous fossils near my cottage in Nova Scotia. Here are a few photos from my summer "expeditions" in which I found many ichnofossils. However, this post will just be focusing on the tetrapod trackways . I would like to state that the collection of fossils in Nova Scotia is illegal, and all the fossils I found were brought to the attention of the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History. Hope you enjoy and stay tuned for more! Note: All of these footprints have been preliminary identified as Limnopus, but I would still like to hear your opinions.
- 18 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- carboniferous
- ichnology
- (and 2 more)
-
I found this in South Yorkshire, UK today in the coal measures (upper Carboniferous). I suspect it may be an arachnid though I am not sure. Please can anyone confirm if it is or isn’t an arachnid? Plant fossils are abundant at the site where this was found. Thanks, Daniel
-
I went today for a new carboniferous hunt,a lot of water but no rain,very nice day! A carboniferous heart?
- 28 replies
-
- 7
-
-
- plants
- carboniferous
- (and 1 more)
-
Hi all. I was wondering if I could get some sort of specific ID on a possible insect wing that I found in the roof shales of a thin coal that is dated to the Late Pennsylvanian or Kasimovian. Fossil plants and some vertebrate material can be found in the same shale. Stratigraphic information: From a roof shale of a thin coal roughly 30 feet below the Brush Creek Limestone of the Glenshaw Formation in the Conemaugh Group. Discovered in the suburbs outside of Pittsburgh.
-
On my way out of town after a family gathering at Starved Rock State Park (it was packed like crazy with people, but I was still able to get a quiet hike in early Sunday morning with my mom. The food at the Lodge is not bad at all, also!) I made time to stop by one of my favorite sites, a roadcut near Oglesby, IL. This steep, talus-covered slope is known to produce generous quantities of brachiopods, as well as rarer shark teeth, cephalopods, echinoderms, trilobites and coral, among other things, primarily from the Pennsylvanian La Salle Limestone Member of the Bond Formation. With the wet weather this year plants had grown wildly over the slope, but there was still plenty of rock to explore. I got out of my car, jumped over the little brook running through the ditch, and made my way up the slope. As erosion slowly eats away at the bluff, fresh boulders fall away and expose new things. A large section had fallen last year, and at the top of the slope I saw another section perilously close to breaking away, so I steered well clear of it. Caution is definitely required at this site, especially because of the risk of rock fall near the overhang, but also the danger of slipping on loose rock and falling- a good sense of balance is very helpful! Working my way carefully along the cut I began to find some interesting things. First up was this hash plate- it doesn't look like much here covered in mud, but in the middle are some Archaeocidaris sea urchin spines, and it also features a number of crushed brachiopods, including some with spines, as well as crinoid stem pieces and other bits. I have started cleaning it up, so I will need to take a picture of it after I'm done.
-
So we have yet another unidentified mazon creek fossil. I see two possible specimens here but I’m not convinced either are proper fossils or even what they could be. The larger one looks like wood to me, and the smaller one looks darker and oddly shaped. I first thought maybe a flat worn?
-
Hey guys! I’ve got some items here from Mazon Creek, IL, and I need a little help IDing them. The first one looks like a jellyfish to me, but I’m no expert. The second two... honestly I don’t even know if they’re fossils at all. The last one makes me think it might be because the center of the inside is dark and glossy and looks a little like a crunches up jelly, but I really can’t say. Any thoughts?
- 10 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- carboniferous
- jellyfish
- (and 1 more)
-
This tiny guy just popped in the freezer today. I apologize if the pictures aren’t the best – the nodule is barely a centimeter at its widest point, so my phone is having a tough time focusing. If they’re not good enough let me know and I’ll try again. Anyways, I have no idea what this is! Maybe some kind of bark?
- 15 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- id
- carboniferous
- (and 1 more)
-
Hi all, This specimen was found in a black shale layer that lays directly and uncomfortably upon the Duquesne Limestone, which is Late Pennsylvanian age. It was found in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Both the shale and limestone are filled with vertebrate fossils, especially the scales, teeth and spines of paleoniscoid fish. As far as I know there is no species list from the shale but Elonichthys has been reported. I know skull roofs can be very diagnostic so any rough estimates of genus would be very helpful! I apologize for the picture quality, my phone is a brick.
