Beyond Orange Ferns - Third St. Clair Trip - Fern Seeds Etc.

[hitekmastr]

On our third half-day trip to the St. Clair fossil fern pits, we changed our goals from display quality and size fossils, to exploring for rare and scarce fossils, which produced fewer specimens and took more time and patience, but resulted in some really cool finds (some of them are included in the images below).

We recommend these St. Clair Collecting Strategies: We should mention that there are several strategies for exploring St. Clair. Strategy 1) You can whack away at the formations in the ground including pits left by previous collectors - this usually results in large piles of fragments and a few fossils worth keeping and is often wasteful. If you do this, focus on trying to extract large sheets or plate rather than destroying 100 fossils to get one you can keep. Strategy 2) Inspect the pieces left behind by pit excavators - there are piles around every pit - this trip we sorted through hundreds of discarded pieces and cracked open the thicker pieces to reveal some really exciting finds - some of our finds came from simply turning over rocks left scattered on the ground. Strategy 3) Find some large rocks or formations you can extract, then patiently crack them apart, one layer at a time - this is the "Cracker Jack" strategy we have favored in the past and gave us our largest and most attractive display fossils. Strategy 4) Read about the fossils you can find in the Pennsylvanian period - what kinds of exotic extinct plants and trees grew in the Carboniferous swamps including the exotic patterns of bark on fern trees as well as fern leaves, seeds, and patterns - then, with those images in your mind, inspect the piles of discards for rare specimens (which, we have discovered, many collectors toss away because they focus mostly on "traditional" fern leaves). These strategies apply to many "fossil-rich" sites.

The RESULTS can be fascinating. Here are just a few examples of the "Strategy 4" discoveries we made on our August 11, 2012 visit which was our 3rd trip to the site.

I should mention that we saw no bears or bear signs but I did see a very large 6-7 foot black snake (not poisonous) on the side of the trail leading to the site. It was curled up like a cobra but not aggressive, but disappeared when we approached. It probably came down to drink from the pools of water that had formed on the trail after a rain.

One of our goals was to find better articulated fern seeds which are somewhat rare. The fossil seeds we found so far were obviously seeds but not well defined - as usual, Nancy turned up some terrific seeds (I found one) - including a really amazing seed with the seed stem attached to the fern! This is especially cool because I read recently in a book from the 1870s that reported that "no Alethopteris fern seed had been found that was actually attached to the fern" - only a century ago, paleobotanists were still looking for this exact type of sample (seed attached to Alethopteris fern). Of course our sample is not a discovery but it is somewhat rare and as you can see, we accomplished this goal for our trip, finding several good seed fossils.

We were also looking for an Odontopteris fern which we had not discovered yet and examples are included here.

One of the most impressive finds was an iridescent section of Calamites bark which shimmers in different colors including blue - nearby was another sample that has a coppery color and shimmer. Hard to capture with a camera but I think you can see the effect in the photos.

We won't get back to St. Clair for awhile, maybe not again this year - but we were VERY pleased with the results of focusing on just a few hard to find targets, settling for fewer fossils but better quality. We are AMAZED how many different species are included at this site, almost every major type of Pennsylvanian plant fossil in the major fossil books are found in this fossil pit, all very close to each other. This area must have been tremendously diverse.

Also, if you're seeking to identify your fern fossils, Monte Hieb has created an EXCELLENT site on the plant fossils of West Virginia that provides photos and details on identification for each species - great site, highly recommended: http://www.geocraft....ableOfCont.html

On this trip, we came away with an important lesson. It's not the quantity of the fossils from St. Clair, it's the quality that counts. Many rare species are found in the cast-offs around the dug-out pits scattered around the site. It helps to have a hammer and chisel because fracturing open even the smaller pieces can reveal lots of exciting surprises. Nancy's best seed (the one with the stem) came from "fracking open" a piece of shale (see Alethopteris 1c below).

We are now examining our St. Clair fossils with a closeup camera lens, inspecting smaller pieces to see what we have. This morning Nancy pointed out a very small cone-shaped fossil on the edge of a larger piece of shale that she says "looks like a fish tooth" - it's probably just a small branch or stem but it does have some intriguing qualities that pose some ID challenges - I'll post several views in the Fossil ID section and see what the site experts have to say.

As you can see if you've read our previous posts, we're really having fun with this and in addition to displaying our finds, we hope to do something one day either in a small e-book guide for new fossil hunters, or on a website, or both - maybe in a year or so when we have enough samples and knowledge. We're finally starting to zone in on how to quickly identify fern leaves and hopefully can share what we learn in the future when we get more organized.

Our most important insight I think is this: we never imagined that plant fossils could be so interesting!

Edited August 19, 2012 by hitekmastr

[Auspex]

Carefully considered goals, a little research, and planning based on previous experience wins the fossil lotto!

(Helps to have a partner with great eyes, too). Your seeds in particular are wonderful!

[hitekmastr]

Carefully considered goals, a little research, and planning based on previous experience wins the fossil lotto!

(Helps to have a partner with great eyes, too). Your seeds in particular are wonderful!

The coolest part was planning in advance to find some seeds, then doing it! We had no idea this would be possible, really. It was just something we came up with because we like to have a goal for every trip. Of course Nancy has eagle eyes and we had a LOT of luck cracking open shale pieces. We're both getting pretty good at cracking open pieces of shale that other collectors have discarded.

[PrimitivePast]

Great photos...Beautiful fossils. Looks like it was an excellent trip.

[Fossildude19]

Very nice write up, Michael!

Thanks for posting this.

Nice to see your spectacular finds, as well.

Regards,

[mzkleen]

You and Nancy are quite the team!! Very nice specimens!! Congrats on these finds!!

I won't be able to go back there until sometime in September when it will be hopefully just a little cooler. I'm planning an all day hunt with a friend of mine that wants to go. I want to try to borrow an ATV or Quad from my oldest daughter's boyfriend. They live in White Haven which isn't too far away from St, Clair.

[hitekmastr]

You and Nancy are quite the team!! Very nice specimens!! Congrats on these finds!!

I won't be able to go back there until sometime in September when it will be hopefully just a little cooler. I'm planning an all day hunt with a friend of mine that wants to go. I want to try to borrow an ATV or Quad from my oldest daughter's boyfriend. They live in White Haven which isn't too far away from St, Clair.

An ATV sounds like a great idea. We probably won't get back until September, also. No one was there on Saturday so we had the entire site to ourselves. The most productive samples came from cracking open pieces discarded around some of the more interesting excavation pits. We're really surprised that virtually every major species of Pennsylvanian plant life seems to be present at this one site - we add new species to our collection on every trip! Our next goal will be to find a nice lepidendron (trunk fossil).

[hitekmastr]

Visited The fern site Aug.13th and not a soul came around. Recon mission to my favorite layer yielded nice ferns that were beautifully laid out, but were smudgy in funky soft shale. Disappointed.

The big dig pit is too big and over worked. Didn't want to be a party to that. It's on the verge of dangerous and destructive. The next day was literally a wash with heavy T-storms. Skedaddled back to NY with one day's finds. I had visions of a better fern fix. Maybe next time.

Sorry you had a stormy visit. The site is changing from our first visits. We agree that overcollecting in some pits are diminishing the clear articulated specimens - as you observed, some pits are getting deep and some people have been digging under tree roots. For some reason, the rains in the past week have smudged some of the fossils and penetrated some layers around the pits. I think it's easier to find pieces on the ground and also to identify fossil-dense layers in the pits after a dry spell because the fossils are easier to see, and clearer.

On our last (3rd) visit (Aug. 11), we encountered the same wet conditions you did so avoided the pits which were wet and "crumbly" - so instead of looking for large "display quality" pieces we did the targeted search we discussed earlier with good results (chipping open larger cast-off pieces). It's getting harder to find fully shaped sprigs in the cast-off piles but there are still lots of nice fragments. I think this site yields more after a dry spell. The water seems to penetrate and "smudge" the fossil layers close to the surface.

The site is still pretty deserted, at least when we were there on Saturdays. During our visits, either no one was there, or just a couple of people who only stayed an hour or so - but the pits are getting bigger and deeper and the shale is brittle and fragmented in many places which causes it to fragment easily - requires a lot of patience and care to extract larger sections. The site is still dense with ferns in many places as you know - I'm sure there are better collecting days ahead, but you may have to adjust your strategy, as we did. The site has been popular for decades, but in 3 visits we found most of the fern species (leaves, seeds and trunks/stems) listed in some of the Pennsylvania fossil books - there is so much diversity here! This must have been an amazing ecosystem 300 mya!

[Missourian]

Nice haul, especially the attached seed in pic 3.

[hitekmastr]

Nice haul, especially the attached seed in pic 3.

There is some question about whether it's really attached or not, or if it is a coincidental placement that makes it look like it's attached. To me it looks attached. I looked very closely - it is exactly placed where a leaf should be, so is it laying on top of a leaf (which makes the leaf look like a stem) or is it a stem? It is an odd placement since the stem would be coming out exactly where a leaf normally comes out. Is this the way Alethopteris seeds grow on stems? Does anyone know for sure? Interesting question!!

[Missourian]

There is some question about whether it's really attached or not, or if it is a coincidental placement that makes it look like it's attached. To me it looks attached. I looked very closely - it is exactly placed where a leaf should be, so is it laying on top of a leaf (which makes the leaf look like a stem) or is it a stem? It is an odd placement since the stem would be coming out exactly where a leaf normally comes out. Is this the way Alethopteris seeds grow on stems? Does anyone know for sure? Interesting question!!

The only way to be sure is to find more examples.

Also, chance arrangement can be almost as cool as physical association.... almost. Kind of like this:

Edited August 17, 2012 by Missourian

[hitekmastr]

This is a drawing from a fossil website at UC-Berkeley - it is accompanied by a caption that says they have to use an illustration because the actual fossils showing this connection are rare - I believe our attached seed sample is exactly this, as illustrated on the Berkeley site...