Fossil and rock identification

Evo

A number of people have said they are interested in this topic.

Please posts any pictures, information or questions about rocks or fossils here.

I'll start off with some odd formations in rock here from the Pennsylvanian period (318.1 to 299.0 mya).

They appear to be strips of wood, but why do they always appear as strips, no depth? I can't find anything online. I'm dating them by the fossils found in the rock with them.

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Evo

Sorry, I need to upload these to a webhosting site and resize them.

Evo

Ok, more.

This is a block of wood in stone from the same era as above.

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Evo

Small fossils, including what appears to be a fern leaf I found in an ancient river bed.

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DrDu

Interesting thread!
So that is from the period when the variscean orogenesis took place?

Evo

Yes, in Kansas , we had many periods at and below sea level, and we were below the equator at the time.

billiards

Just a note, I know pretty little about fossils, but I believe it is standard practice to put a "scale bar" in to pictures. Rocks can be notoriously 'self-similar', meaning that it can be very difficult at times to know from pictures whether you are looking at an angular pebble, or an angular mountain top! That is, unless of course, there is a sense of scale. A simple coin, or other well known object usually suffices for fossils.

Evo

HEY! *I* know how big they are!

Good idea. Ok, so I just got back from risking my life hanging off the edge of a cliff while holding a camera just so I could place a nickel next to the odd wood-like strips. Ok, I wasn't hanging, but I did have to lean in an awkward position on the boulder and it IS on the edge of an overhang.

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Evo

These "strips" are everywhere, what are they?

turbo

Most of the fossils in this area contain simple bivalves from when this place was under sea-water, however I still have my anti-gravity fossil rock from the Alpha Centauri system.

billiards

*Much* better.

I still don't know what they are though

Evo

This one is a real shame, what a nice brachiopod specimen it would have been.

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Evo

I love your "anti-grav" rock!

austinuni

Do you think they look like these Calamites?

Evo

Some rocks.

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Evo

That's it!! Thank you!!

Evo

This is what I call "swimming yams". Any guesses?

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