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I've spent some time gathering at the plant layer locally. I was able to pry behind the layered shale and pull out some larger pieces unbroken, and also split them. The layer is a delight, just about any piece I recover has some sort of plant impression on it. Immediately below the layered shale there is a more nodular type of rock that no longer breaks apart in neat and tidy planes. So whatever environmental change happened, it happened right at this layer.

 

The first one was a really long and well defined fern frond. The carbon is all still in place. I want to create a parallel cut to remove this part of the specimen, then catalog and store it. I am hoping I can do so in a way that won't dust over the carbon and degrade it. The rock that covered this was a physical impression of these leaves in the rock. It appears more could be exposed at the bottom, but it's not easy to do.

 

ferns-001.jpg

 

 

The second specimen is a preserved fern frond with very tiny leaves. The larger leaves stick out, but a more complete arrangement like this is very pleasing to look at. The iron staining at the bottom creates almost a work of art.

 

ferns-002.jpg

 

This specimen has a small root or similar structure at the bottom right of the photo. There are repeating points towards the bottom with larger circular structures at the top.

 

ferns-003.jpg

 

These huge fern leaves showed up right before I was done searching during this particular session. Both sides are shown. It would be interesting to know if it continues on in the other direction.

 

ferns-004.jpg

 

 

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As a quick follow to this, I went out again over lunch as the warm weather will be gone tomorrow. I found a few interesting things, including one that I have never found here yet (Annularia!).

 

First, the Calamites. These can range from being very flat to dimensional. This one certainly has a bit of dimension to it, and two squared off breaks. The

 

calamites-001.jpg

 

A second Calamites. Less impressive in a photograph, the node on this one was very prominent. Note that it was thick enough to basically preserve itself as a bit of coal.

 

calamites-002.jpg

 

With Calamites nearby, you should be able to find Annularia. But I've never seen any, until today! Like many fossil plants, these different genera are really just two parts of the same plant. Perhaps one day that will get all sorted out, or they will be separate genera forever.

 

Both sides of the specimen, Annularia sp.

 

plants-001.jpg

 

Close up of the impression on the right side:

 

plants-001b.jpg

 

And last, a very nice plate of ferns. Both the negative & positive side are shown.

 

ferns-005.jpg

 

ferns-005b.jpg

 

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Sweet Annularia! They can get really pretty when you find a few associated pinwheels all in a row.

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Follow me on Instagram (@fossil_mike) to check out my personal collection of fossils collected and acquired over more than 15 years of fossil hunting!

 

 

 

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On 10/21/2021 at 9:18 PM, cngodles said:

With Calamites nearby, you should be able to find Annularia. But I've never seen any, until today! Like many fossil plants, these different genera are really just two parts of the same plant. Perhaps one day that will get all sorted out, or they will be separate genera forever.

 

Both sides of the specimen, Annularia sp.

 

Hope I'm not raining on your parade, but the specimen you show looks more like Asterophyllites to me (different layout of the whorl of leaflets).

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Searching for green in the dark grey.

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On 10/21/2021 at 5:10 PM, cngodles said:

This specimen has a small root or similar structure at the bottom right of the photo. There are repeating points towards the bottom with larger circular structures at the top.

 

Cool specimen! Looks interesting. Would it be possible to post a few close-ups of this one?

Searching for green in the dark grey.

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On 10/21/2021 at 8:10 AM, cngodles said:

The first one was a really long and well defined fern frond. The carbon is all still in place. I want to create a parallel cut to remove this part of the specimen, then catalog and store it. I am hoping I can do so in a way that won't dust over the carbon and degrade it. The rock that covered this was a physical impression of these leaves in the rock. It appears more could be exposed at the bottom, but it's not easy to do.

 

ferns-001.jpg

 

 

 

Does this one really need to be trimmed? I can't see the rest of it that is outside the picture but what I can see looks good!

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14 hours ago, paleoflor said:

the specimen you show looks more like Asterophyllites to me

 

I'm way more concerned about being correct than getting it right myself. :) I do agree after looking at some Asterophyllites that I need to change the ID. Thank you.

 

4 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

 

Does this one really need to be trimmed? I can't see the rest of it that is outside the picture but what I can see looks good!

 

It's more about storage space for me. I left 3-4 times as many pieces like this back on the site. I try to get larger identifiable specimens that I can assign a genus to, and to save some space.

 

14 hours ago, paleoflor said:

Would it be possible to post a few close-ups of this one?

 

For sure! 3 sets of a total of 24 additional photos, photo stacked.

 

First photo is from the bottom, where the circular structures were more like points.

 

ferns-003-closer-001.jpg

 

And here was the top. The centers of the circles have sort of a striped appearance.

 

ferns-003-closer-002.jpg

 

And zoomed in a bit more. The circle center structures are more visible. And perhaps some bornite makes up the golden portions.

 

ferns-003-closer-003.jpg

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for the close-ups! The little spirals covering the specimen are probably microconchida (sometimes called "spirorbis"). You have a few isolated ones at the "bottom end" as well, look in between the "circular" structures that belong to the plant. At the "top end" of the specimen, the little beasties completely cover the plant, probably obscuring any "circular" structures underneath.

 

For more info on microconchida, see for example:

https://steurh.home.xs4all.nl/engdier/espirorb.html

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Searching for green in the dark grey.

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4 hours ago, cngodles said:

It's more about storage space for me. I left 3-4 times as many pieces like this back on the site. I try to get larger identifiable specimens that I can assign a genus to, and to save some space.

Ah, the perennial problem of storage space. I like the association of the smaller fronds with the main one, otherwise I would probably trim it too.

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Thank you. There are so many more over at that location. I want to perhaps improve my shale splitting technique. I'm using a rock hammer and a small, narrow chisel. I still can't split pieces too narrow. I watched an interesting piece in Science Magazine where they were working on the Burgess Shale, with gas powered concrete saws and sharp wide pieces of metal to split them. I'm sure all shale is different. And maybe theirs is more fissile with an extra 200 million years of age on it. :)

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On 10/24/2021 at 6:41 PM, cngodles said:

Thank you. There are so many more over at that location. I want to perhaps improve my shale splitting technique. I'm using a rock hammer and a small, narrow chisel. I still can't split pieces too narrow. I watched an interesting piece in Science Magazine where they were working on the Burgess Shale, with gas powered concrete saws and sharp wide pieces of metal to split them. I'm sure all shale is different. And maybe theirs is more fissile with an extra 200 million years of age on it. :)

The Burgess stuff is almost a slate. I would guess the pressure of deep burial or other factors affect the splitting quality more than age. I've seen other Peleozoic shale deposits that behave almost identically with my local Late Cretaceous shale/mudstone which fragments more haphazardly and is not so easily splittable into layers. I wish it were... Your stuff looks fun to split, but maybe frustrating at times?

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11 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

fun to split, but maybe frustrating at times?

 

That's it basically. There are rounded edges at times. You'll find a really nice squared off edge you can split, only to have the chisel fly off to the side as the triangular wedge comes off. It's not exactly slate, but was perhaps on it's way to being so before the Allegheny Plateau lifted in this area and started to remove the mass and weight. The stream locally has some wide areas that are washed out showing flat shale, with parallel ridges through, probably stress fractures due to uplift, shifting over 300 million years.

 

This particular dig is located at a margin where the bottom is chunky mud-stone, and a much more flat layered shale layer abruptly starts and continues upward. 15-30 feet or so above that, the Brush Creek limestone occurs.

 

Bottom to Top:

  • Chunky mud-stone/shale, no quickly visible plant fossils.
  • Fissile gray shale with iron staining and covered with plants.
  • More shale. Plants taper off as you get higher. 3 feet up, might not find much.
  • Brush Creek limestone, 1 foot in vertical length. Numerous marine fossils.
  • Marine shale above, gastropods and occasional fish spines.
  • Mud-stones with brachiopod impressions. (Orthotetes, etc).
  • More shale. Some small plant pieces, but no ferns.
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Fossils of Parks Township - ResearchCatalog | How-to Make High-Contrast Photos

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  • 3 weeks later...

I dug around this pit again today, we had some sun and warmer weather. My favorite find was this golden fern that shimmered in the sun. I wonder if this will start to tarnish later.

0037AE0F-80FB-42DE-AC2D-090DD3E642E4.jpeg

 

7C311ABD-089C-467A-91A8-F12D20A87989.jpeg

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Fossils of Parks Township - ResearchCatalog | How-to Make High-Contrast Photos

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