Leaf Fossil Options

[swizz]

Hi all,
I went fishing today and worked one of my fossil layers in the canyon on the way home (NF) to complete my day.
Most of the fauna fossils I find from this location are severely fragmented (not specimen grade) and the matrix is fairly brittle.
This one is nearly a complete leaf (unknown species) in a decent matrix... so I made a keeper out of it. Fun!

[traddoerr]

that is a great find! we to can't seem to find a complete specimen either. Yours will make for a nice display.

[russau]

about 42 years ago,when i was in the Army in Europe ,i was out walking with my camara and came upon a hillsdie covered with larger limestone boulders to hold the soil back. i started to take a "shortcut" up them ole rocks when i was about 2/3 the way up i slipped on one of the smaller rocks and banged my knee,and it hurt like......... well it just hurt! as i sat rubbing my knee, i watched that ole rock ,that i slipped on, tumbell down the hillside. i thought to myself,"self,go get that rock and teach it a lesson", so i proceeded back down that hill to "capture" that rock and i was going to throw it to teach it a lesson. well just before i threw it i glanced it over and low and behold it was a perfect slice of a 5 1/2 diameter snail.i forgot its rotation, but i kept it and carried it all darn day in my travels. i kept this ole rock on my shelf forever and for some reason (in all of my moves) i cant find it anymore.maybe it finnaly snuck off???

[swizz]

Good story russ!

I did a repeat of my last adventure yesterday with good results again. This time I took a friend and we spent about an hour working the layer on the way back from fishing.

This was my only keeper. Very good leaf with sawtooth edges, which can reveal some climate conditions from that period.


This is one of my friend's keepers and it is the first I've seen. It appears to be a fossilized twig from a Spruce tree of some kind. Very interesting and also can reveal climate conditions from the period. I was jealous of this one, find of the day!


These last two pics show the type of material we were working. As you can see it is very rich in fossilization. This is a fairly thick set of layers and just keeps on giving (easy to split). Eventually I hope to find an insect fossil hiding in these layers.... never know. For now I'm happy exploring the ancient plant life.

[Kevin In Centenn...]

(like!)

[Mrs.CP]

I really like the first one you posted, great finds Swizz!

[swizz]

Thanks my fellow nerds Kev and Denise.

More fishing and fossil hunting again tomorrow... hopefully I'll find another keeper.
really really want to find an insect fossil though

[Mrs.CP]

Have a great time tomorrow!

With your luck you will do even better than that........You will probably find an insect on a leaf!

[swizz]

Today I started on this wedge of layers


This is a few layers into it.... lots of fossilization in each layer




Here's my keeper for the day. It's a raised fossil of a twig with a couple branches. Not many people can get excited about finding a twig, it's a good find though.

[Woody]

That is some good looking stuff you got going there Chris. I am going to try and "strong arm" you someday and a see if we can't rake up some of those leaves together. Maybe someday we can make a road trip from north to south. Take a couple days off and go on a fossil hunting expedition. I know a lot of secrets about this great state of ours! Have a good one, Woody.

[swizz]

We can hit this layer anytime on the way to & from the claims. It's along side of the hwy on NFS managed land (unclaimed of course).
Jeep is less than 10ft away from where I'm digging. I would definitely like to come down your way for Shark teeth or Trilobites at some point though!
... and oops - in my initial post I referred to this fossilized area as "fauna". I meant "flora"... have not found any fauna fossilization here yet.

[Mrs.CP]

Awesome finds, especially the branch! That one is definately a keeper!

[CODIVER]

very cool, I have found some great shell fossils in glenwood canyon i will try to get some pics up. Have you found anything els in with the leaves?

[swizz]

Have you found anything else in with the leaves?

Nothing other than flora fossilization so far but the potential is there.

[swizz]

This chunk weighs about 25lbs. It has a lot of clustered leaves in it's layers.


The following two pics are both sides of a palm-sized leaf which opened like a book. It is interesting that there are crystallized dendritic formations showing on the matrix at the tip of the leaf.