Fossil Fern Pecopteris or Alethopteris

Here is another plant fossil that Shamalama found that is very nice. It is taking me a while to read the section on vascular plants in the Fossil of Ohio book. I am guessing this might be a Pecopteris or Alethopteris from the Late Carboniferous or Pennsylvanian period. It was found in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in the Llewellyn Formation.

This frond was preserved in a swamp like environment that allowed its organic parts to be replaced by sulphides (pyrite) over time. Later the pyrite was replaced by aluminum silicate (pyrophyllite) giving it a white like look.

I attached a picture of a modern day fern I took for comparison.

Isotelus Trilobite Fragment

I picked up a rock at one of the eastern Louisville Ordovician road cuts that has a number of fossils in it. I thought this small piece was brachiopod but my cousin told me this is Isotelus trilobite piece that still has some texture. It looks like fingerprint.
Here is a picture of the larger rock that has some buried gastropods that might be Loxoplocus.

Here is a part of branching bryozoan next to trilobite fragment.

This a clam or pelecypod that might be an Ambonychia. It is partially encrusted by an unidentified bryozoan.

Mediospirifer Devonian Brachiopod

Here is a brachiopod fragment from North Vernon formation in Clark County, Indiana. It might be a Mediospirifer from the Devonian period. Normally, one would not post an image of fragment but only whole brachiopods. When turned over this one reveals part of its lophophore that has been broken off. This tube series makes it pretty neat since you get a view of the fossilized inside of the lophophore.

A little dot is visible inside the coil of the lophophore.