Fossilized plant remains from Yellowstone National Park

[wildtrout]

Greetings. Attached is a photo of a (apparently sandstone) river rock I found along the Lamar River, Lamar Valley, northeastern corner of Yellowstone National Park a few days back. The stone broke apart in my hand to reveal what you see.

I tried to identify the leaf to the right with a leaf identification manual, but did not have enough data -- and of course I'm not even sure the tree from which it came is even still around. The item to the left appears to my highly untrained eye to be a seed pod of some sort.

Whatcha think? Let me know if you need more or different photos.

Thanks in advance.

Jim Swayze

Dallas, Texas

[Fossildude19]

Welcome to the Forum.

Glad that you thought to take pictures of it at the time, ... as removing/collecting any natural resource from Yellowstone is illegal.

LINK

The leaf looks similar to some elm leaves, and the other item sure looks like a conifer cone, to me.

Probably Eocene, in age.

Neat find.

Regards,

[wildtrout]

Hi Tim and thanks much. I am a very frequent visitor to the park and know the law well. But I appreciate the reminder, sir.

[Anchiornis]

Looks very well preserved. Did you contact the park authorities, and tell them the fossil's location?

[wildtrout]

The photo was taken from the desk of a park authority and I'm told there is currently an expert reviewing the find. Just thought it was pretty cool and there might be someone here with interest in fossilized flora who could help me narrow down what it might be in advance of hearing back.

Will let you know what I find out. Thanks.