I found a fossil during a recent outing in Southwestern PA, where late Carboniferous/early Permian plant fossils are pretty plentiful. With the usual fern fossil finds, one in paticular contained something I haven't found before. I used a chisel to crack open a rock and inside found part of a leaf stem and vein. I expected that it would just be carbon powder at this point, and blow away, but it appears the specimen is more intact. The specimen is a reddish brown color, is still pliable, texture like leather, and it does not appear to have transitioned to mineral composition.
It is circled in the attached picture. There is a fossil of a fern to the left of the specimen, not a particularly amazing one, but I'm wondering if anyone else has found something similar, if this might actually be preserved soft tissue and if the leaf stem and vein might serve a better purpose in the hands of a researcher - anyone know if this might be something that would be worthwhile contacting some of the local college geology departments about donating or some other entity with tools and an interest in its study? I'm not sure how common or uncommon a find like this would be.