Unusual California Land Fossils!

[Geomystic]

Greetings everyone.  I am from Northern California.  All of the mineral specimens and fossils that I dig up come from the same general area.  But it is a complex geological zone, where the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, the Modoc plateau, and the Basin and Range all  sort of come together.  I'm going to be posting a series of sets of photos for your enjoyment, but primarily for my education..  I'm hoping to get some help identifying as many fossils in these photos as possible..  I figured I would start with some challenging ones.  This first set of photos shows what I am ninety-nine percent sure are land living organisms ( the reason I know this is because I find Leaf fossils in the same Rock ( I'll be posting pictures of those in another set of photos).  For size reference, the black objects in these photos are not very large ranging between centimeter or two 2 an inch or so in length...  The host rock is a silica-rich jasper-like material that has a hardness of 7 and breaks with a conchoidal fracture.  I'm looking forward to hearing what you all think about these.  Thanks for your time!

[DPS Ammonite]

Interesting. Is the black plant material hard or is it soft like coal/carbon?  Do you have any idea of the age or formation that they are from? The upper right part of the first photo shows conifer branches. The second, forth and fifth photos show a conifer cones. The last shows a seed or fruit in the middle (sycamore?).They sort of look Eocene to me. The second photo shows a conifer cone. The last shows a seed or fruit in the middle. I note that there is a lot of Eocene plant material from volcanic rich sedimentary rocks in the Sierras.

 

Check out this Eocene sycamore fruit from: http://www.wa-list.com/?p=424

 

Macginicarpa. Fruit of a sycamore. This was found Apr 28, 2007, by Lance Fritts of Riverside, WA.

[abyssunder]

I agree with DPS Ammonite.
The last one is a good match for an individual Macginicarpa globose fruiting head.
For detailed descriptions of the inflorescences/infructescences see these documents :
Steven R Manchester. Vegetative and reproductive morphology of an extinct plane tree ( Platanaceae) from the Eocene of western North America ( USA). Botanical Gazette 147(2):200-226.1986. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280895976_Vegetative_and_reproductive_morphology_of_an_extinct_plane_tree_Platanaceae_from_the_Eocene_of_western_North_America_USA

 

 

Kathleen B Pigg, R. A Stockey. Platanaceous plants from the Paleocene of Alberta, Canada. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 70 (1991): 125-146. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223539580_Platanaceous_plants_from_the_Paleocene_of_Alberta_Canada