Southeastern Ohio Plant Fossils

[AHoffman]

I’ve been running into some cool fossils at my study site in southeastern Ohio recently and thought I’d share some photos. This is deep in the hills of southeastern Ohio and most fossils I’ve seen in the area are weathered sandstone casts/impressions of Lepidodendron/Sigillaria trunks/bark in stream beds. Interestingly, these fossils seem to be clustered in 20-50 meter stream stretches.

 

Pictures below are from one such stream stretch in the lower lying part of the ravine where some chert and limestone start showing up with the sandstone. I would love any additional information folks can provide on these rocks as many are too worn/indistinct. Also, does chert/flint ever contain fossils? The last picture is of a big chunk of chert (I think) that looked like petrified wood sort of to me.

 

I will get around to posting some other/better ones from this area later!

 

image2 by Andrew Hoffman, on Flickr

 

image3 by Andrew Hoffman, on Flickr

 

image4 by Andrew Hoffman, on Flickr

 

image5 by Andrew Hoffman, on Flickr

 

image6 by Andrew Hoffman, on Flickr

 

image1 by Andrew Hoffman, on Flickr

 

 

 

[Darktooth]

Nice specimens, I really like the colors!

[JohnBrian]

Nice finds!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Some nice pieces. 

That last one does look a lot like petrified wood.

Chert and flint nodules do sometimes contain fossils inside. 

Bash them open and see! 

[snakebite6769]

The last picture most likely is petrified wood. What is the stone you were stepping on as from the picture it looks convex and large almost like some sort of vertabrae. Cool finds either way, thanks for sharing! 

[MeargleSchmeargl]

Neat vegetable assortment! 

[goatinformationist]

Please keep us updated on this site.

Why is the stone on this site so broken up?  Is it tailings from mining or earth moving.

[AHoffman]

Thanks all!

 

This area is mostly sandstone bedrock and, though upstream portions at this site were strip mined a little, the rock in the photo is just naturally fragile, thin sandstone prone to fracturing. I wish that rock my foot is on was a vertebrae, but sadly no; just a chunk of sandstone. Lepidodendron fossils are incredibly abundant, but due to weathering and the fragile sandstone many chunks of rock that are likely fossils are difficult to identify with certainty (lots of trunk/bark-shaped rocks with faint striations).

 

Ive been paying attention to and mapping where different rock types and fossil clusters are throughout steams in this area to see if I can nail down layers/elevations which are consistently fossiliferous. Interestingly, I’ve found some outcrops/rockhouses you can look back up into to see a ceiling covered in plant impressions! So far, I’ve seen faint/weathered Lepidodendron (and maybe Calamites) preserved in that thin white-gray sandstone (both in cliffs and in the stream bed), thicker casts/chunks of Lepidodendron bark/Stigmaria, thin crumbly layers of fossiliferous shale/clay with smashed pieces-parts of stems/fern leaves, and one area to the north with large chunks of chert (I think) full of Macroneuropteris leaves. No trace of animal fossils, but all the different plant preservations are really cool! Will post more over the weekend.

[KimTexan]

Sounds very cool. I’d love to take a hike through there if I lived in the area.

[DevonianDigger]

Very cool! Looks like an awesome spot, thanks for sharing!

[Ludwigia]

4 hours ago, AHoffman said:

Thanks all!

 

This area is mostly sandstone bedrock and, though upstream portions at this site were strip mined a little, the rock in the photo is just naturally fragile, thin sandstone prone to fracturing. I wish that rock my foot is on was a vertebrae, but sadly no; just a chunk of sandstone. Lepidodendron fossils are incredibly abundant, but due to weathering and the fragile sandstone many chunks of rock that are likely fossils are difficult to identify with certainty (lots of trunk/bark-shaped rocks with faint striations).

 

Ive been paying attention to and mapping where different rock types and fossil clusters are throughout steams in this area to see if I can nail down layers/elevations which are consistently fossiliferous. Interestingly, I’ve found some outcrops/rockhouses you can look back up into to see a ceiling covered in plant impressions! So far, I’ve seen faint/weathered Lepidodendron (and maybe Calamites) preserved in that thin white-gray sandstone (both in cliffs and in the stream bed), thicker casts/chunks of Lepidodendron bark/Stigmaria, thin crumbly layers of fossiliferous shale/clay with smashed pieces-parts of stems/fern leaves, and one area to the north with large chunks of chert (I think) full of Macroneuropteris leaves. No trace of animal fossils, but all the different plant preservations are really cool! Will post more over the weekend.

I have no direct experience with these exposures, but a quick search tells me that you are in the Carboniferous. The sandstone and the plant fossils point to Pennsylvanian although the limestone at the bottom of the ravine could also be from the late Mississippian. You would have to pinpoint your location and make notes on the lithology above and below the "ceiling" at the exposures that you mentioned in order to help determine which Formation this is. Perhaps you could try to contact a geologist at the Ohio Geological Survey who could help you. But maybe there's still someone here in the forum who could give you some more precise information.

As to chert, it's not uncommon to find fossils in it. See Rhynie chert for example. Chert is an ideal rock for preserving particularly microfossils due to its ability to resist weathering, although macrofossils can be abundant especially in cretaceous chalk.   

                    

[AHoffman]

Thanks again all,

 

I appreciate the advice @Ludwigia, I did some poking around for old published documents that might details some of the rock layers in the area and had some luck, but had a major realization that I have been misidentifying large beds of shale as just really flat and sheet-like sandstone deposits 

 

Given this, I believe most of the fossiliferous layers are in shale, but some of the larger pieces may be sandstone (or some kind of mix?) Iron deposits are also sporadically present, as are coal beds, chert, and some other weird stuff I can't identify. As stated previously, limestone is only present in the lowest and largest streams and is pretty limited there. I need a basic geology course!

 

Regardless, it seems clear these fossils are mid-Pennsylvanian and from the Allegheny Group. Can't narrow it down any more at this point, but that satisfies me for the moment!

[minnbuckeye]

 

@AHoffman, great finds for venturing out from Columbus!!!.  I always head SW of town to look for fossils, when visiting my son. May have to try plants sometime based on the results of your finds!! Were you anywhere close to Linton, in Jefferson County. I know many nice insect and amphibian fossils are found there. Look hard and you may be rewarded. I believe it is  the same rock strata that you are finding these plants in.

 

Around this time, Pennsylvania was approximately located 5 degrees south of the equator, in a tropical rain forest type climate with very little seasonal fluctuation. Also, at this time, the Earth had much higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This was very conducive to the growth of plants. Hence, in these flood deltas, large, swampy forests grew. However, the plants in these forests were far different than plants of the present day.

Flowering plants, or deciduous plants of any kind had not yet evolved. Instead, there were very large, simple, fernlike plants, such as Calamities (a giant horse tail), Lycopods (which grew up to 100 feet) seed ferns and herbaceous ferns (that grew up to 50 feet). However, at the end of the Pennsylvanian, most of these strange plants became extinct, and deciduous plants eventually evolved. Much of these forested areas became buried and now create the carboniferous coal beds that are mined today throughout the eastern United States and Europe. Because of this, these swampy forests are often called coal swamps and coal fore

 

In these forests, new insect life also flourished, such as dragonflies, mayflies, millipedes, scorpions, and spiders. However, these were not normal insects, they were giant man eating creatures. Well, the may not have been man eating, however some dragonflies had wingspans of 2.5 feet, cockroaches were a whopping 4 inches, and flies needed extra large fly swatters. Unfortunately, these fragile insects did not readily survive fossilization in the coal swamps, and only rarely can be found as fossils.

[Malone]

Very cool! As mentioned before the colors are great! What an exciting place!

[Plantguy]

Looks like you're having some fun with determining the stratigraphy there and you are finding some neat fossil material. I wish you continued success. Keep us posted. 

 

Regards, Chris