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Well, I'm in my new habitat out here in Colorado, and while I miss dearly a good paddle on the river and my fossil hunts in the mud and sand, I had to make a trip out to our local spot at the Florissant Fossil Quarry. The kids seemed to dig smashing shale (it lasted about an hour), and the technique actually yielded our first decent leaf fossil. The shale smasher .. in disguise !! Dad, wanted to take a lighter approach and we did come home with a large bag of shale and some plant and insect specimens. I'll post some of those in this thread, eventually when I scan them. Splitting the shale you will often come upon Reaaaaly tiny insects that my failing vision has a hard time catching. This winged insect (a mosquito ?!) had bits on each side of the rock so I scanned and composited him in Photoshop. Didn't turn out too bad. I'll let you know what else I find. Raw Scans: Composite: Cheers, Brett

Part II- this is what appears to be a fossil plant in light colored shale-the only fossil found in many many "looks"-found in Kansas City road cut but the only "layer" is the very top of the road cut- I know its above some winterset limestone, but that's as good as I can say- the second is in a different layer, darker shale? and maybe calamites if I compare to my other ones? thanks again for looking! Bone and the second.

Good morning all!. Finally spring here in Kansas City!. Went out over lunch to a road cut yesterday and found the following smaller "plant" remnants (in three posts). Added my most recent "petrified wood" at the end of this as well- a large, 13lb piece- heavier than the larger one I will place in an album on the forum soon! Need some help (as usual ) on these. They are all Pennsylvanian, but they come from three layers, that unfortunately I don't know-new road cut. The first, and most interesting, is the "branch" that has a cobblestone appearance- whether this is the plant or something that was growing on it? Very close, or "on it" are some shell fragments, so I believe it's likely oceanic in origin? On the backside though it is more interesting, as there is a separate fossil with rounded overlapping "flakes" similar to scales or some of the "burrows" that I've seen on the posts- the edge though is linear striations-so any thoughts welcomed! -maybe just a different crystalline formation even? Bone And on the backside-these images of something else?

I found that one today at the beach close to Heiligendamm (54.144880, 11.829559). Actually it doesn't looks like a ophiomorpha (Google image search also says so ).At least one thing i know for sure. The white stuff is lime Apart from that the inner side (picture no. 3) looks also very interesting to me.

Hey TFF Members! Here's something a little different! Cris and I wanted to change the pace a bit, so we decided to try our hand at finding fossil sea grass here in Florida! We read some old geologic publications from the 1960's with information about where to find this fossil sea grass. Not only are plant fossils very rare from Florida, but these particular fossils are in the oldest exposed formation here in Florida! The middle Eocene Avon Park Formation. We had an awesome time searching for this stuff, and finding it! They might not be the "coolest" looking fossils, but holding some of the oldest fossils that can be found in Florida is such a cool feeling! Hope you can check out the video of our adventure when you get a chance!

Dear TFF Members, I would like to ask your help with identification of my recent Carboniferous finds: 1 2 3 4 5

https://www.novinite.com/articles/194887/Bulgarian+Researchers+Discover+Five+New+Plant+Fossils+on+Antarctica

Hi all, new to the group. I have had these fossil plants for about 4 years and we at first thought that this first one was a Cordaite, but now I am not so sure. Sorry that there is noting in the pictures to give a size reference, but the entire slab is approx. 8" x 9", with the fossil plant itself being approx. 7 3/4" long and 1/2" wide. The reason I am questioning the cordaite is that being as it is as long as it is, shouldn't there be some joint nodes? The examples I saw at the local museum show joint nodes (as they refer to them) every couple inches, sort of like one would see in bamboo, but my fossil shows nothing like that. The first picture shows the entire slab, and you can see the fossil plant running the length of the slab top to bottom. The second picture shows a close up of the texture of the fossil. The paleobotonist is retired and comes in once a week, and it is hard for me to get into the museum when he is there due to my having to be at work, so any help you can give would be great. I have 2 other fossil plants to identify also, so will post them seperate.

Last Wednesday was a sweltering 94 degree high humidity day. I had an appointment in the area and couldn't help checking out a favorite site; the Dave Elliot bed on Route 209 just west of Kingston, NY. The bed is highly fossiliferous silty sandstone, just a few inches thick in an exposure that's 30 to 40 feet high. The bed is Middle Devonian age with tiny bivalves and cephalopods dominant. I spent a total of three hours chipping away hunks of rock from the crumbly cliff and had my best day there so far: seven complete or nearly complete goniatite ammonoids, Tornoceras mesopleuron. a three and a half inch nearly complete straight-shelled nautiloid, Michelinoceras sp.?, five Eumetabolotoechia brachiopods (normally I just find one or two per day), a tiny spiriferoid brachiopod (unidentified) I've never found at this site before, bivalves, Nuculites sp.?, the twig of a fossil plant, and two other unidentified fossils. The day was well worth it, despite the heat. The unidentified fossils I'll show Dr. Bartholomew, professor of paleontology and stratigraphy at the State University near where I live. Dr. Bartholomew is doing an extensive study of the Dave Elliot Bed in eastern New York. The Dave Elliot fauna here in Kingston is similar to the fossils from Hannacroix Ravine except that brachiopods are rarer at Hannacroix. The presence of well preserved fossil plants in marine sediments would suggest the presence of a nearby river that carried their remains from some terrestrial habitat. The absence of corals and relatively low species diversity also suggests the water contained a large ammount of sediment making it hospitable to only those creatures who could adapt to this cloudy environment. Finding fossils, especially cephalopods, and speculating on what the prehistoric environment was like is a great source of fascination for me. I try to get there whenever I have a chance. Less than a mile north of here, also on Route 209 is another even older Middle Devonian fossil bed that produces abundant spiriferoid brachiopods and rugose corals, and about a mile and half west is a site where spirifers and occasional bivales and cephalopods can be found.

Asolanus camptotaenia Wood, 1860 Calamites goepperti Calamites (Crucicalamites) multiramis Palaeostachia Devonian petrified wood Lepidophloios laricinus

I've been pondering this fossil from St. Clair and it looks like a "cupule" that encloses a seed or spore and I'm thinking that it might be cupules at the end of a node - maybe archaeopteris. Is anyone familiar with these fossil plant cupules who might shed some light on this? One of the very surprising things we're learning about fossil plants (Pennsylvanian) is that many of the ferns and horsetails had different shaped leaves or leaf configurations on the same plant, such as the microphylls on the trunk, cupules that enclosed seeds, and young round leaves versus older elongated leaves (neuropteris for example). Still learning about paleobotany at St. Clair where we've been collecting - fascinating.

Calamites