Fossils are very common throughout much of the state of Pennsylvania. And Northeastern Pennsylvania offers some of the most unusual , and beautiful fossils from the Pennsylvania Period (approximately 300,000,000 years ago !!)
These coal-related fossils are also found in other coal - producing areas of the world. These consist largely of remnants of giant ferns (like our present-day trees), and other plants that fell to the muddy swamp floor and were covered quickly with mud and/or other sediments.
The imprint that results is that made by the plant in the mud, though the plant material itself no longer exists. You might find a leaf, a frond, a stem, a root, a tree branch or tree trunk, or a portion of any of the above-mentioned plants or plant parts. The imprint is almost always a black imprint or outline of the plant.
But in Pennsylvania a rare phenomena occured, one of the only places in the world where such an event took place. In the Pottsvillian coal seams, a white mineral, "Pyrophyllite" (aluminum silicate) replaced other minerals that previously already replaced the plant material, preserving the imprint in a unique way --- a White imprint on the black shale! Species most commonly found, and here are the following species: Alethopteris, Pecopteris, Neuropteris, Shenophyllum, along with some fructifications (seeds) and rootlets.
Outside of a limited amount of the pyrophyllite specimens, we have many of the mentioned specimens, or we have access to them.
Already on hand are numerous specimens of
such fossils as : Lepidodendron (the beautiful diamond-patterned impressions of the bark of the
"scale-tree" , Calamites, another tree, sometimes found as cylindrical, segmented fossils, Neuropteris,a fern or fern pinnule, Pecopteris, a fern, and more.
Also, some cones and even individual
cone scales are among the representative samples that we have.
For communicating, please use our E-Mail: Brustv1@uofs.edu
Or call us at (717) 489-3111 ; or at (717) 383-0663
You can write at snailmail, Vince Brust, 609 E. Scott Street, Olyphant, Pa. 18447 But please do not expect return snailmail, unless fossils are wanted.