Flora of the Clarno Formation

[Huntonia]

Hello fossil friends! I'm a bit late getting to this, I've had some personal complications. Late last month I had the absolute pleasure of going on my first fossil hunt! I'm calling on your assistance for some IDs as I'm extremely new to this part of the fossil world. From my research I was hunting in the oligocene/eocene volcanic deposits of the Clarno Formation.

Here are some of our finds, curious if any of you recognize these or can point me to some good literature. Unfortunately I have very little knowledge of fossil flora in general. 

One of our common finds were these robust orange fern pinna, which from my research I believe may be Dioon sp, or saccoloma Gardneri

We also found a few of these, which seem to also be fern pinna, they are lighter in coloration and seem to have a higher density of pinnules so I believe it's a different species. 

Not sure about this one

[Huntonia]

A nice brown piece, not sure if it's the same species as the orange ones, it came out of a slightly different layer.

And probably the oddball out of our finds. This was our largest piece by a longshot. It is notable that while everything else I've shown were split, this is one of our few surface finds. I think it may be a large worn specimen of the above mentioned orange ferns. 

Thanks in advance for any and all help offered! 

[Praefectus]

Beautiful fossils. Sorry I can't help with the IDs. 

[Huntonia]

1 minute ago, Praefectus said:

Beautiful fossils. Sorry I can't help with the IDs. 

Thanks! I plan on doing a more complete report of my trip as well as well as prep results (which are currently underway) in the near future, so stay tuned! 

[Wrangellian]

I think your ferns are actually Metasequoia. They seem to be plentiful in the Cenozoic lake deposits of the West, as at McAbee where I've collected.

Congrats on the first fossil hunt!

[Huntonia]

5 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

I think your ferns are actually Metasequoia. They seem to be plentiful in the Cenozoic lake deposits of the West, as at McAbee where I've collected.

Congrats on the first fossil hunt!

I'd considered the possibility. I didn't find much about metasequoia from Clarno on the official John Day website but it does look close. I'll wait for more opinions but I'm hopeful, it's be great to have some examples of the state fossil! 

[piranha]

The Metasequoia looks like the specimens found at the Wheeler High School Fossil Beds or equivalent Oligocene strata.

 

This classic monograph will assist further:

 

Meyer, H.W., Manchester, S.R. 1997

The Oligocene Bridge Creek Flora of the John Day Formation, Oregon. University of California Press, 195 pp. 75 plts.  PDF LINK

[jpc]

I also would call the fern-like leaves Metasequoia.  It is pretty common out there.  

 

Question for this discussion... is the layer behind the High School in Fossil called John Day Fm or Clarno Fm?

 

[DPS Ammonite]

31 minutes ago, jpc said:

I also would call the fern-like leaves Metasequoia.  It is pretty common out there.  

 

Question for this discussion... is the layer behind the High School in Fossil called John Day Fm or Clarno Fm?

 

John Day Formation. 
Here is a poster of fossils present at the site.

https://132105f6-396a-1acf-0400-919ba7269001.filesusr.com/ugd/25a2fb_367111be90cd0fa9c9ec7da9e3a0bbda.pdf

[Huntonia]

Thanks everyone, I'm comfortable labeling these as metasequoia. I was actually hunting back behind the Wheeler high school.

1 hour ago, jpc said:

Question for this discussion... is the layer behind the High School in Fossil called John Day Fm or Clarno Fm?

From my research it falls under the John Day/Clarno Terrane Group but is in the Clarno formation. Here's some info pertaining to that adrress found on 

https://gis.dogami.oregon.gov/maps/geologicmap/:

[piranha]

41 minutes ago, Huntonia said:

Thanks everyone, I'm comfortable labeling these as metasequoia. I was actually hunting back behind the Wheeler high school.

From my research it falls under the John Day/Clarno Terrane Group but is in the Clarno formation.

 

 

Wheeler High School is Oligocene John Day Fm / Bridge Creek Flora