Latest Paleo-Botanical Addition

[Tennessees Pride]

This paleo-botanic was recovered on April 6th 2014, i've just now been able to get to it & unwrap it, give a small prep, and am now waiting on it to cure a bit, then it will all be preserved and ready. This specimen is rather large. I'm pretty sure this is listed in prof. Berry's books, but there seem to be several there that are similar to one another, so, thought i'd put it in the i.d. section and see what you all think it is. It's Late Cretaceous material

Edited April 22, 2014 by Tennessees Pride

[Plax]

very nice specimen, I don't have a name for it but would recommend you read Berry's biography to learn more about the man if you haven't already. He was a prolific writer and fascinating character. have a few of his papers and wish I had them all.

[Wrangellian]

Is that glue or water on it?

[fossilized6s]

Very nice piece!

Joshua at the rate you find some of your treasures you could enter and maybe even win the FOTM every month!

[Tennessees Pride]

very nice specimen, I don't have a name for it but would recommend you read Berry's biography to learn more about the man if you haven't already. He was a prolific writer and fascinating character. have a few of his papers and wish I had them all.

Plax, it appears you are just as big of a fan of Mr. Berry as myself, oh yes, i read everything of Berry's i can get my hands ahold of! Have many of his works...but most are pdf's...tragic...wish i had the books! Have read something like a biography of his, think it was wrote by the Pink Palace Museum...that might not be what you're talking about, but it was a good work. He is somewhat of a Hero to me...there were more than several things he wasn't correct in, but if we were to put ourselves in his world, in his time, and then think about all he was right in, to me it's nothing short of remarkable what all he accomplished. Though there were others before him, in my mind, he'll always be the Father of American Paleobotanics.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Tennessees Pride

[ashcraft]

We have similar appearing in late Cretaceous material, they are attributed to the genus Banksia by Dr. Stinchcomb.

fkaa

[Tennessees Pride]

Is that glue or water on it?

It was just a bit of water i put on there before taking the photo...just to add more definition to the specimen, as it has been coalified, and looked alittle dull...after the clay cures, i usually treat w/ a preservitive that makes it have the wet look though.

[Tennessees Pride]

We have similar appearing in late Cretaceous material, they are attributed to the genus Banksia by Dr. Stinchcomb.

fkaa

Excellent ashcraft, i will check that out sir!

[Tennessees Pride]

Very nice piece!

Joshua at the rate you find some of your treasures you could enter and maybe even win the FOTM every month!

Thank you sir. & that sure would be nice, but this Forum has some real serious collectors too...it's real hard to top the great finds others are pulling in. If you ever get down this way Charlie, we'll go bang-out some clay together.

[Tennessees Pride]

Sir, i googled the genus and looked@ about 100 pics before reading up on it, there's alot of species in that genus...about 170, it'll take some digging, you wouldn't happen to know what species would you? The closest match i can think of so far is Myrcia.Havanensis.....or some type of Eucalyptus....

[Wrangellian]

It was just a bit of water i put on there before taking the photo...just to add more definition to the specimen, as it has been coalified, and looked alittle dull...after the clay cures, i usually treat w/ a preservitive that makes it have the wet look though.

If there is any detail on the specimen, any wet/glossy coating will make it difficult to photograph.

[Tennessees Pride]

Here's some shots of Eucalyptus species, i was thinking they resembled that paleo-botanical pretty closely, but i don't know...maybe it's something else....but, i have noticed, when i run up on that type botanical in the clay, it almost always has that turn-shape so charateristic of a Eucalyptus leaf....

Edited April 24, 2014 by Tennessees Pride

[Tennessees Pride]

@ first, just thought the turn-shape was just the way the leaf settled in the mud, but it's making me wonder...

[Tennessees Pride]

If there is any detail on the specimen, any wet/glossy coating will make it difficult to photograph.

Yes sir,i won't do that from now on, hope it hasn't messed up the i.d. potential here.

[Wrangellian]

If your specimen has any venation preserved, that is the kind of thing that is obscured by coatings. I can't tell if yours has any, but to get species-level ID you usually need more than just the overall leaf shape - you need to see the fine venation, and not just the primary and secondary, but the tertiary, quaternary, etc.

[Tennessees Pride]

If your specimen has any venation preserved, that is the kind of thing that is obscured by coatings. I can't tell if yours has any, but to get species-level ID you usually need more than just the overall leaf shape - you need to see the fine venation, and not just the primary and secondary, but the tertiary, quaternary, etc.

It's Late Cretaceous, likely Campanian. Here's a close up dry, but i'm not really seeing a good venation.

[Wrangellian]

I meant the primary, secondary (etc) venation. There may not be much there but I can already see more than I could with the water on it! Anyway probably not enough for a species ID unless you're lucky and someone has already done the work of ID'ing better specimens from that formation and has put out a paper or guidebook by which you can ID yours...

[ashcraft]

That leaf shape is typical of many plants, particularly the "drip point", that are found in tropical rain forest environments. I believe that shape is an adaptation to shedding water.

fkaa

[Plax]

Plax, it appears you are just as big of a fan of Mr. Berry as myself, oh yes, i read everything of Berry's i can get my hands ahold of! Have many of his works...but most are pdf's...tragic...wish i had the books! Have read something like a biography of his, think it was wrote by the Pink Palace Museum...that might not be what you're talking about, but it was a good work. He is somewhat of a Hero to me...there were more than several things he wasn't correct in, but if we were to put ourselves in his world, in his time, and then think about all he was right in, to me it's nothing short of remarkable what all he accomplished. Though there were others before him, in my mind, he'll always be the Father of American Paleobotanics.

One of the things that Berry was alleged to be wrong about was the Maastrichtian age of the Middendorff plant fossils from SC. The Middendorff type section has been recently proven (paper was in SE Geology) to be a landward stage of the Maastrichtian Peedee Formation! So Berry was correct all along. He was a prolific writer and elevated to high position in the paleontological community despite his lack of formal education. Believe the biography I read was by LW Stephenson.