Carboniferous Flora and Vertebrate Track

[Rockin' Ric]

Howdy Y'all! Third time isn't the charm in my case but I'm grateful that I got to go on a fossil hunt last Saturday morning when I don't get Saturday's off because of work. I went with a group of fossil collectors to our state's premier trace fossil site near my home thinking I'm going to add some trace fossils to my growing collection and practicing 'social distancing'. There definitely was a lot of real estate to cover and we did well keeping distance. Two weeks prior, the state came in and turned over the property with a big dozer coupled with rain made the site easy pickings with new stone. Searched and split to no avail, only feeding traces found although other folks had luck on their side including my hunting buddy Glen. He found a foot print of an Carboniferous Period Attenosaurus...what a cool print! I got back in my mode of finding Carboniferous flora consisting of ferns and other plant material. Ya gotta love those ferns! I came away from the site happy that I found ferns and not so much for the trace fossils. But that was about to change when we visited another site a friend who doesn't hunt fossils told me about. Ya gotta love those friends too!

 

Pic#1- Reclaimed mine spoil piles

Pic#2-4- Mariopteris Hash plates and frond

Pic#5&6- Alethopteris

Pic#7&8- Lepidodendron bark impressions

Pic#9- Lepidostobophyllum

Pic#10- Lycopodiates

Pic#11- Attenosaurus footprint

 

[Archie]

Beautiful plants and that prints totally awesome!!

[Monica]

Beautiful finds!!!  I especially like the bark impressions, in particular the first one pictured - what great detail!