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Pennsylvanian Plants near Centralia, PA


historianmichael

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My dad and I recently took a trip to collect plant fossils at two locales near Centralia, PA. Given that St. Clair is no longer accessible to collecting, we found that this area offered the next best option for collecting similar fossil ferns. We came away with a lot of large samples of Calamites sp., including several pith casts that just fell out of the rock. We also found a fair amount of Annularia, Neuropteris, and Pecopteris. Here are only a few of our best finds. I hope you enjoy. If you disagree on an identification, please let me know; I am still trying to identify everything.

 

Some Neuropteris from Centralia

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What looks to be the bark of Sigillaria

IMG_4956.thumb.jpg.5938181b47afbdbaf1225f96f9e79020.jpg

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Follow me on Instagram (@fossil_mike) to check out my personal collection of fossils collected and acquired over more than 15 years of fossil hunting!

 

 

 

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Sphenophyllum

IMG_4972.thumb.JPG.31d0807d04f23ccfa65c9ebbb1dea5fa.JPG

 

Annularia

IMG_4960.thumb.jpg.b20a201150b77b7832f3ab9f436b4063.jpgIMG_4974.thumb.jpg.3c25597608092fd6021734fff665d777.jpgIMG_4975.thumb.jpg.811b3a88732258c9231c7e51fb862133.jpg

 

A mix of Pecopteris and Neuropteris from the second site

IMG_4978.thumb.jpg.51f35d30808e1e69afddf586f384f3df.jpgIMG_4980.thumb.jpg.3ea0f6e02f6063ae79828f62ca46224f.jpg

 

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Follow me on Instagram (@fossil_mike) to check out my personal collection of fossils collected and acquired over more than 15 years of fossil hunting!

 

 

 

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A nice Neuropteris

IMG_4979.thumb.jpg.2a425b3f59daffa48205b378074bfe33.jpg

 

A larger sample. Unfortunately the fossil is very light on the shale. If someone knows how to highlight the fossil in the material, please let us know.

IMG_4959.thumb.jpg.bf4edfd50c2ddf39bdb9edfe48880ab8.jpg

 

 

Two types of Calamites sp.

IMG_4964.thumb.JPG.e0f9b4305a61f43f2825de07e30612e7.JPG

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Including these pith casts

IMG_4961.thumb.JPG.0dd21a3c8215962d7daa03eba2de0fc5.JPGIMG_4963.thumb.JPG.680af641b329ad33cc5f548f8e8bd71d.JPG

IMG_4965.thumb.JPG.ab901d3d713d575e78e8c9977aab3cd2.JPG

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Follow me on Instagram (@fossil_mike) to check out my personal collection of fossils collected and acquired over more than 15 years of fossil hunting!

 

 

 

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And what is maybe a branch of Calamites

IMG_4971.thumb.jpg.336ed4f03bffc989630d8f01a8bd8885.jpg

 

We also found these unknown leaves. If anyone knows what they might be, please help.

 

IMG_4969.thumb.jpg.bcbb43d0e2bcb65fae7140351453272c.jpg

 

 

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Follow me on Instagram (@fossil_mike) to check out my personal collection of fossils collected and acquired over more than 15 years of fossil hunting!

 

 

 

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You and pops got some really nice pieces. Congrates on your honeyhole location. :dinothumb:

 

 

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Some very beautifull plant fossils! Congratulations and thanks for sharing!

Did you discover this site yourself? What type is the site (coal mine dump, river bank, construction site... ?)

Thanks!
Franz Bernhard

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Very cool finds. Here are some possible ID's

 

IMG_4978.thumb.jpg.51f35d30808e1e69afddf586f384f3df.jpg    

 

DifBTWNFSLPLants.JPG

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    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

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"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
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Lovely finds and lots of them! 

What a great location you have found. :)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

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6 hours ago, FranzBernhard said:

Some very beautifull plant fossils! Congratulations and thanks for sharing!

Did you discover this site yourself? What type is the site (coal mine dump, river bank, construction site... ?)

Thanks!
Franz Bernhard

 

Thank you! These were two sites shown to us by the NYPS. They are kinda hole-in-the-wall coal mine dumps. 

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Follow me on Instagram (@fossil_mike) to check out my personal collection of fossils collected and acquired over more than 15 years of fossil hunting!

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, historianmichael said:

These were two sites shown to us by the NYPS. They are kinda hole-in-the-wall coal mine dumps.

Thanks for the infos!
Franz Bernhard

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Wow !:envy:

theme-celtique.png.bbc4d5765974b5daba0607d157eecfed.png.7c09081f292875c94595c562a862958c.png

"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

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Those are some excellent plants- it's wonderful how clear many of them are. It's also quite nice that so many are distinct  single plants- so often Pennsylvanian compression plant fossils like this are a mish-mash. 

 

The broad "leaves" are actually separated bracts from a cone- they are called Lepidostrobophyllum, while the complete cone is Lepidostrobus. 

 

 

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Great collection of material! I especially like the cone bract examples that deutcheben pointed out.  Very nice. Thanks for showing us. Regards, Chris 

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Beautiful plant fossils! Never seen any from Centralia before. The second of your two types of Calamites is most probably C. suckowii. The others are difficult to see on my phone...

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Searching for green in the dark grey.

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Your "unkown leafs" are lepidostrobophylla.

 

EDIT: Oops, just noticed deutscheben already provided this ID. Blaming small screen here... 

Edited by paleoflor
Stupidity and not reading all previous replies
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Searching for green in the dark grey.

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  • 1 year later...
On 8/18/2018 at 11:28 PM, historianmichael said:

IMG_4969.thumb.jpg.bcbb43d0e2bcb65fae7140351453272c.jpg

Possibly Lepidostrobophyllum lanceolatum.

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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Great finds @historianmichael, especially so in that they are from a local site to me :D. Centralia is about a half hour from here.  I was just talking to a coworker about checking out that area earlier this week.  Now I guess I have some incentive to go exploring. 

 

I love the annularia. Congratulations on a great day 

 

 

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