hitekmastr Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 Trigonocarpus (Seed) from St. Clair PA This is a walnut shaped fossil discovered Aug. 30 at the St. Clair, PA Carboniferous fern site. This was found by Nan while she was looking for insects/traces - assume it is a fern seed (trigonocarpus is the morphologic genus given to fern seeds) but we haven't seen this one before. It is about 3 1/2 centimeters long: Here are some closeups: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgrilusHunter Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 Yup! Looks like a tree fern seed to me. Nice one too! "They ... savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things." -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmerlin Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 Trigonocarpus (Seed) from St. Clair PA This is a walnut shaped fossil discovered Aug. 30 at the St. Clair, PA Carboniferous fern site. This was found by Nan while she was looking for insects/traces - assume it is a fern seed (trigonocarpus is the morphologic genus given to fern seeds) but we haven't seen this one before. It is about 3 1/2 centimeters long: Trigonocarpus St Clair 30 Aug 2013 (5)_sm.jpg Trigonocarpus St Clair 30 Aug 2013 (4)_sm.jpg Trigonocarpus St Clair 30 Aug 2013 (2)_sm.jpg Here are some closeups: Trigonocarpus Closeup 1_St Clair 30 Aug 2013sm_.jpg Trigonocarpus Closeup 2_St Clair 30 Aug 2013sm_.jpg Trigonocarpus Closeup 3_St Clair 30 Aug 2013sm_.jpg Hi Hitekmaster yes certainly looks like fern seed Triganocarpus maybe this link may help http://www.georgesbasement.com/LesquereuxAtlasP/Vol-III-Plate110.htm best regards Chris "A man who stares at a rock must have a lot on his mind... or nothing at all' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 I agree with Chris, looks like a Trigonocarpus to me. Great find, Michael. Regards, Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 It looks like there have been some updates since Lesquereux. The multiple meridional grooves (sulci) appear to match better with Holcospermum. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 On 9/2/2013 at 9:43 AM, piranha said: It looks like there have been some updates since Lesquereux. The multiple meridional grooves (sulci) appear to match better with Holcospermum. I found another specimen of Holcospermum that really matches well with the posted example. DiMichele, W.A., Phillips, T.L., & McBrinn, G.E. (1991) Quantitative analysis and paleoecology of the Secor coal and roof-shale floras (Middle Pennsylvanian, Oklahoma). PALAIOS 6(4):390-409 PDF LINK 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paleoflor Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 (edited) Like Scott already mentions, this is a Holcospermum seed. Given the overall size (~35mm), I wonder how many longitudinal ribs the specimen has. If there are 8 of these ribs, and no striae are visible between them, then H. multistriatum comes to mind (in line with the obtuse apex). If there are more ribs (say 9 or 10), and if you can distinguish fine striae between them, this could be H. sulcatum, though then it would be a large one ("< 35 mm" in Cleal and Thomas 1994)... Another option is, of course, that this is some American species, yet unknown to me. Edited September 2, 2013 by paleoflor 1 Searching for green in the dark grey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hitekmastr Posted September 3, 2013 Author Share Posted September 3, 2013 Thanks for the very thoughtful input, and research to find similar examples. Much appreciated. Having an international network to consult on these ID's is terrific. I haven't done much prepping and don't have sophisticated equipment - just a Dremel - but it would seem that more prep work on this might reveal more details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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