Carboniferous Flora and Ichno Fossils

[Rockin' Ric]

It was a gorgeous day to do a lil' fossil hunting with a buddy of mine after I got off work. We had two hours of daylight to hunt on a new site that we scouted last week. There was definitely Carboniferous flora in one section and the other section contained signs of trace fossils. The plant fossil matrix was different in coloration from the standard gray shale in the area. This stone had a gold to red hue to it but the trace fossil matrix was gray. The fern fronds were scattered about on the shale and didn't split evenly like most of the stone do which led me to believe that the flora was covered by water and mud, scattered about randomly? The preservation on some of the leaves and fronds are very detailed as you can see on the specimens! Here are a few of the plant finds from today as well as some of the trace fossils... Carboniferous Alabama, Pottsville Formation.

 

Fern fronds with Rachis.                                                                       Undichna?

.

Calamite stem with pyrite and Fern Rachis.                                             Fern fronds and leaflets.

Fern fronds.                                                                                        Have no idea what created this?

Possible Horseshoe crab claw marks?                                                     Fern Rachis with frond and leaflets.

Lycopodites with fern leaflets.

 

[Fossildude19]

Great finds, Ric!

You do find some of the neatest stuff.  

Thanks for posting these. 

Regards.

[Peat Burns]

Awesome finds.  I especially like that Lycopodites

[EMP]

Yep that's Undichna sp.

 

Second ichno looks like part of some burrow, likely from a worm like creature.

 

Last one I'm not as sure. Could be arthropod marks, or the toe/claw marks from a tetrapod.

[Plantguy]

Ric, thanks for the pics of the latest. Love seeing the traces...wish I could help with an ID...hoping someone more knowledgeable can chime in. 

 

Regards, Chris