My Best Carboniferous Finds

[Petalodus12]

[Petalodus12]

New find from the Duquesne Shale horizon. It’s a chunk of bone (pretty rare for the Carboniferous) that I found a few days ago. @jdp suggested that it could possibly be Tetrapod. I’ll probably just label it Chunkosaurus indet.

[Petalodus12]

[jdp]

Any way to give us a look at the other side of that element? I'm wondering if maybe you can see evidence of teeth or tooth sockets.

[Petalodus12]

39 minutes ago, jdp said:

Any way to give us a look at the other side of that element? I'm wondering if maybe you can see evidence of teeth or tooth sockets.

I can post the other side but at least from what I observed it seems as though it is lacking in structures similar to that of a jaw

[Petalodus12]

[jdp]

Hm. Hard to tell. Might need more prep, or CT imaging.

[Petalodus12]

Hi all,

On Sunday I was exploring a well known upper Conemaugh (Connelsville/Clarksburg Sandstone) plant locality southwest of Pittsburgh.  I had planned to visit it one last time before classes started, but got distracted by collecting at spoil piles nearby and did not get to this location until about mid day. By then other families had come and because of COVID I decided to give them their space and explore elsewhere. I tried to prospect a more overgrown area of the slope but because the scree wasn’t consolidated I ended up sliding down the pile into a dead rose bush. Scratched up and disappointed I crawled down the hillside and back to the trails to try to find another site to collect.

 

I then noted a small valley that cut right through the formation that I was looking for but unfortunately it was filled with sediment. I did, however, note the presence of a black shale/freshwater limestone facies, and collected a few chunks to break apart at home. This valley begins at the spoil piles and thus I assumed the shale was the same that was present in the spoil piles, so there was not much hope for nice vertebrate fossils. 

Upon returning home I broke apart the shale and was surprised with what I saw. It was much more fossiliferous than I had previously imagined, and almost identical in faunal makeup to the black shale above the Duquesne Limestone. The only difference was that this shale possessed a foul organic smell when it was split. These two layers are only separated by a single Sandstone and shale facies so it is not surprising that their lithology is so similar.

 

Anyway, the whole reason why I’m writing this post up is because within the shale I discovered a single tooth of the fish Progyrolepis, which was a predatory actinopterygian from the Late Carboniferous. Their teeth are very rare in comparison to the teeth of other fish (I’ve found hundreds of small actinopt. teeth but only 4 Progyrolepis teeth. They can be distinguished from other fish teeth by their large size (1/2 cm vs 1-2 mm) and the ribbed ornamentation that they possess. 
 

Progyrolepis (possibly P. speciosus)

Stratigraphy:

Clarksburg member

Casselman Formation

Conemaugh Group

Age: Virgilian stage of the Late Pennsylvanian (303 MYA)

 

[Petalodus12]

[deutscheben]

Very cool tooth!

[Petalodus12]

3 hours ago, deutscheben said:

Very cool tooth!

Thank you!

[Tidgy's Dad]

That Progyrolepsis is amazing. 

[Petalodus12]

12 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

That Progyrolepsis is amazing. 

Thanks!!

[Petalodus12]

On 5/24/2020 at 6:03 PM, Petalodus12 said:

Hi all,

Some more Carboniferous plants for you today. The first is, I think, a species of Mariopteris? I’m not that great at IDing a Carboniferous plants so if I’m wrong please correct me. The second I’m almost sure is Mariopteris, possibly M. nervosa. The third is a nice example of Annularia, but unfortunately it’s only half. The last one is Neuropteris. Neuropteris is, by far, the most common seed fern at this locality. These were all collected from the same sandstone lens. It seems that at this locality the plants are often concentrated in certain lenses, which probably reflects localized variation between swamp deposits and riverine deposits. All in all a very good day to be out in nature and collecting. No vertebrate fossils today (they are very rare at this locality, and are limited to lungfish bones), but I did have a little American toad come and visit me while I was collecting.

Today I realized that this is in fact a specimen of Pecopteris polymorpha, and not Mariopteris. Paleobotany is not my strong suit

[Petalodus12]

Hi all,

Here's a nice association between an Annularia stellata specimen and a Pecopteris arborescens. It was discovered in the Upper Conemaugh formation, in the Connelsville Sandstone. Luckily this one was collected directly from the exposure, as for whatever reason the Annularia specimens from this site seem to develop a plane of weakness right along the central stem so they are often found as only halves. The preservation and retention of the carbon film is quite good on this specimen. 

As always:

Stratigraphy: Connelsvile Sandstone

                       Casselman Formation

                       Conemaugh Group

Age: Late Pennsylvanian, ~302 MYA

 

 

 

 

 

[Petalodus12]

Hi all,

I feel as though I have not given enough credit to coprolites in this thread, so this post shall be dedicated to them, in all of their, er, coprolitic glory. All jokes aside, coprolites are one of the most abundant fossils that I find in the exposures of the Conemaugh group that I so often hunt, at least in certain locations. In beds of shale that overly coal seams, coprolites can be incredibly common. They can readily be identified and distinguished by the way they present (bumps in shale) and their phosphatic makeup that distinguishes them from concretions. They can be great indicators of predator prey interactions, too. Oftentimes they will contain scales and teeth of bony fish, indicating that one fish had a nice lunch, and another had an unfortunate day. They cannot be identified to a specific group though, as back during the structure of fish and shark guts had not diverged significantly (they all had spiral guts, and the coprolites are spiral-like). We still see this today in the spiral like guts of gars. Also, barely any research has been done on these coprofaunas, so only educated guesses can be made. A comprehensive review of the vertebrate fauna of Western PA by Romer in the 50s identified coprolites as common fossils, but did not attemHowever, due to their makeup, it is likely that they are Xenacanthus coprolites, as it was one of the only predatory fish present in this deposit. Or they could possibly be from the rare Progyrolepis, a large Paleoniscoid. We will never know for certain. Some coprolites, though, lack the characteristic spiral, indicating that another animal, possibly a tetrapod, was the maker of the coprolite. 

Here are some pictures. 

Stratigraphy:

Duquesne Shale, Casselman Formation, Conemaugh group

Age: Late Pennsylvanian, 303 MYA

 

My entire collection:

 

 

 

 

 

An interesting elongated coprolite, differing from the common theme. Still from a fish, though

 

 

 

 

Abnormal coprolite that distinctly lacks any spiraling, possibly tetrapod or something else:

 

 

 

 

Two inclusions, the top being a scale and the bottom being a tooth. Both are viewed at 4X magnification and both are of Paleoniscoid origin. Again, these fish had a really, really bad day.

 

 

 

[Petalodus12]

Looks like the tooth did not post. Here it is

[Petalodus12]

I wanted to make a quick post amending some of my stratigraphic information. For certain fossils I have them identified as coming from the Mahoning Shale, and they should be identified as coming from the Mason shale/coal. The paucity of the information surrounding this interval along with similarity of this interval to the better known Mahoning, plus some issues with misidentified place-names in the literature caused me to make this misidentification. Always learning I suppose!

[Petalodus12]

On 5/19/2020 at 11:46 AM, Petalodus12 said:

Hi all,

Here’s a nice find that I seemed to have forgotten to post. It’s my largest Asterophyllites, and although it does not have the best preservation it still shows the morphology that is characteristic of this genus.

 

Stratigraphy:

Mahoning Shale, Glenshaw fm. of the Conemaugh Group

Age:

Late Pennsylvanian, ~305 MYA

 

Specifically, this is one I have misidentified. 

[Petalodus12]

On 2/3/2020 at 10:15 AM, Petalodus12 said:

Here is a better picture with both of the cusps more uncovered 

And this tooth should be labeled as coming from the Mason Coal, too 

[Petalodus12]

Hi all, 

This is just a quick post but hopefully you enjoy it! 
Due to the semester having ended, I now have ample amounts of time to collect fossils and organize my collection. As I was going through a box that I put together a few years back I found a chunk of black shale that I had collected from my backyard and never opened. It turned out to be a goldmine, as being only a fist sized chunk it contained coprolites, fish scales, fish teeth, tiny Xenacanthus teeth and fish skull bones. 
The most interesting find was a Paleoniscoid dentary bone. Even though it’s not much longer than 2 mm, it still was identifiable to being a dentary and therefore was my first! The scale that is preserved with the bone is most likely not associated.

 

Skull bones are quite rare in this deposit, and due to the fragmentary nature of the deposit in my backyard I have only found a precious few. Many of the bones have confusing Morphologies and I cannot place them in any anatomical position nor can I identify them to species or genus. This was the first bone that I have discovered that I could confidently ID. Although it is not identifiable to genus, due to its small size and the morphology of the teeth I can say that it came from a small, most likely carnivorous fish. These must have been abundant in this lake ecosystem, as their remains are quite common and their probable food source, clam shrimp/ostracods are extremely abundant. 

I had always wanted to find either a dentary or maxilla of one of these fish, so this was a welcome find!

 

Stratigraphy:

 

Duquesne Shale, Casselman Formation, Conemaugh Group

Age:Stephanian (302 MYA)
 

[minnbuckeye]

Your collection is VERY IMPRESSIVE! Unfortunately until today, I have missed your posts. My most enjoyable hunting this year has been for Shark teeth in Iowa's Mississippian. So your finds intrigue me as a casual collector. 

I have visited Ambridge twice for ferns, but on my next trip to the area, the Duquesne Shale will be my goal!! Look forward to future finds. 

 

 Mike

 

 

[Petalodus12]

2 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

Your collection is VERY IMPRESSIVE! Unfortunately until today, I have missed your posts. My most enjoyable hunting this year has been for Shark teeth in Iowa's Mississippian. So your finds intrigue me as a casual collector. 

I have visited Ambridge twice for ferns, but on my next trip to the area, the Duquesne Shale will be my goal!! Look forward to future finds. 

 

 Mike

 

 

Thank you! I’ve been intensely collecting this layer for two years, so I’m quite happy that it has produced what it has! Having this layer exposed in my backyard has definitely helped me form this collection. Good luck on your next trip!

[Petalodus12]

Another random chunk of fish skull today. This is probably the parasphenoid bone of a small paleoniscoid fish. From what I gleaned from a quick google search, the parasphenoid is a an unpaired bone found in the roof of the mouth of amphibians and fish. It’s quite different from the other bones that I have found as it lacks the characteristic dentine (or ganoine) coating that other bones from these fish have. I collected this about 2 years ago but only now realized it’s provenance, as I have started to organize my collection.  I doubt the other scales present are associated. 

[Petalodus12]

Hi all,

I've been away from the Forum for awhile, as I am quite busy with classes. 

However, with the warmer weather in my area I have been able to collect a good bit at my backyard site. Last week, while cleaning off the rocks that I had collected before splitting them, I recognized an unusual piece of fish bone sticking out from under the matrix. I quickly washed it off and realized that it could possibly be an articulated skull roof from an actinopterygian, which would make it the first truly articulated material I had found at my backyard site, and a possibly scientifically important find. @jdp was very helpful and confirmed my suspicions. This is an important find because articulated material is quite rare from the formation in which I hunt (Casselman) and research in that area is rather lacking.  It is also a great find for me personally, as I have always wanted to find something important on my own property. It should not be understated that this is quite the accomplishment for me, as I have been working this deposit on almost every day with good weather for 3 years now. I am not sure if I have mentioned it beforehand, but the state of this deposit makes it exceptionally hard to collect from. There are virtually no surface exposures of the layer I collect from, and the rocks that I do find are often severely weathered by roots and frost. Needless to say this makes finding rarer material nearly impossible in this deposit, but fortunately I got lucky. 

 

Because of the COVID-19 situation it will probably be a long while before I donate this specimen- all of the researchers for the Carnegie Museum work remotely now, and so much of their activity is on hold. I am an employee there in education and know the staff in the Vertebrate Paleontology department, so once things go back to normal this specimen will be in their collections.  I will post on this thread with any updates. For now, the specimen is safely packed away in a small, padded box. 

 

Stratigraphy of the site:

 Duquesne Shale

Casselman Formation

Conemaugh Group

Age: Missourian (~303 MYA)