lycopod

08-12-vl-lycopod-6153

Lycopod

lycopod

Pennsylvanian

Walker

Alabama

2008-12-06

08-03-vl-lycopod-5951

Lycopod trunk impression

07_08_vl_fossil732

Probably a type of lycopod

August 25, 2007 - Pennsylvanian Fossils, Tuscaloosa Co, AL

A trip to a non-working mine site to explore spoil piles for invertebrate fossils was on the menu for BPS's August field trip. The mining company, headquartered in Tuscaloosa county generously offered us the opportunity to explore at this site. A long, hot day on a moonscape was nevertheless a great trip, yielding some beautiful specimens.

We met with the mining engineer who gave us a quick overview of the mining operations, then let us go onto the piles to do our hunting. We hunted until the heat got to us and it was time to seek air-conditioning.

After cooling off at a Mexican restaurant, we ended the day at the Museum of Natural History at Tuscaloosa with a visit to their superb collections.

(photos courtesy Chris and Vicki Lais)

BPS members listening to lecture on mining operations in the area.

Vast expanse of spoil piles, discarded rubble from the mining operation.

Collecting fossils in spoil piles.

Tailings piles from the mines, brought from hundreds of feet underground.

fern

Fern

More black rock, empty landscape at the collecting site.

stigmaria

Stigmaria, the root system of a lycopod such as Lepidodendron or Sigillaria.

Lepidodendron

Lepidodendron, a type of lycopod.

Lepidodendron

Lepidodendron, a type of lycopod.

stigmaria

Stigmaria, the root system of a lycopod such as Lepidodendron or Sigillaria.

Lepidodendron

Lepidodendron, a type of lycopod.

Becky got dirty - real dirty!

stigmaria

Stigmaria, the root system of a lycopod such as Lepidodendron or Sigillaria.

stigmaria

Stigmaria, the root system of a lycopod such as Lepidodendron or Sigillaria.

sigillaria

Nice sample of Sigillaria

stigmaria

Stigmaria, the root system of a lycopod such as Lepidodendron or Sigillaria.

Lepidodendron, sigillaria, stigmaria

Miscellaneous fossils found by Leisa.

sigillaria

Appears to be sigillaria

sigillaria

Sigillaria

sigillaria

Sigillaria

April 30, 2000 - Pennsylvanian Fossils, Walker Co, AL

Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama

The New River Mine is a surface mine which was spotted by Jim Lacefield in early February this year, and shortly thereafter Jim and I scouted the site out. As expected, the site included plant fossils, but one difference compared to other sites that Jim noticed was an abundance of fossils of Artisia, the pith of the gymnospermous tree known as Cordaites. The only other sites where I have seen Artisia fossils are the Kimberly surface mine (see BPS report for May 29, 1999), and another mine near Eldridge that the BPS visited with Wayne Canis's class in March 1998.

About 20 BPS members and guests attended the formal field trip to the site which we had on this day. The weather was sunny and hot, and once we got inside we all saw that the mine covered a vast area. I show two pictures of the site here. However, Jim and I also noticed that the area where we found fossils in February had been reworked and was largely gone. In spite of the vast area, it was hard finding fossils at this site.

Figure 1 Trip attendees explore the area between two large rock piles.

Figure 2 View of a rock wall roughly on the east side of the site.

Bruce Relihan was the first to find an interesting specimen of Artisia, shown in the picture here. Artisia is characterized by horizontal ridges along the pith, which can be found in cast form as well as impressions, much like a Calamites pith. The specimen Bruce found appears to be either an impression or a highly flattened cast. The ridged area is framed by a larger area obviously affected by the plant. This frame must indicate the true extent of the trunk.

Figure 3 Artisia specimen found by Bruce Relihan.

Other types of fossils found were bark impressions of arborescent lycopods. I show pictures of two different types here. One appears to be of the type Lepidodendron obovatum, with very large leaf scars. I am not certain about the type of the other piece shown, other than it is also likely to be a Lepidodendron.
	Figure 4 Bark impression of Lepidodendron obovatum, with large, distinct leaf scars.

Figure 5 Bark impression of another likely type of Lepidodendron.

The last pieces I illustrate are ones I found in February during my scouting visit with Jim Lacefield. One appears to be a mostly unflattened cast of a branch of Calamites. The piece shows 15 strong, indented nodes, and I must say it resembles a petrified tootsie roll! I am not sure of the species of this Calamites, but I did find a type of Calamites at this site that I was able to identify. I found highly compressed cast pieces of what I think is Calamites suckowi, one of the more common species of this genus.

Figure 6 Cast fossil of a branch of Calamites, with 15 clear nodes.

After a couple of hours of searching with limited results, trip attendees decided to return to Union Chapel Mine, about 30 miles east of the New River site. Union Chapel Mine is so rich that it continues to yield good specimens even though many people have visited the site the past 4 months. It is a good site to fall back on when other sites do not live up to expectations. See the reports for January 23, March 19, and May 28, 2000 for information on this mine.

July 24, 1999 - Pennsylvanian Fossils - Walker Co, AL

Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama

This field trip was a very special one for the BPS. We visited a surface coal mine in Walker County. About 20 BPS members and guests attended the trip, which occurred on one of the hottest and most humid days of the year thus far.

This is one of the largest surface coal mining operations in the state. The area is part of the major Pottsville Formation, and is also known as the Warrior Basin. The BPS was hosted by Mr. Hendon, a mine engineer, who also brought his son along. Mr. Hendon first gave us a basic description of the mine, its history, its extent, and the geology of the area. He then took us on a tour of the mine, allowing us to park near a monster machine known as a "dragline". To access the coal seams, overlying soil and hard rock has to be removed, which is the principal task of the dragline. Usually there are 100-200 feet of solid rock to be removed, but on Saturday the dragline was mostly removing topsoil.

--Edited by Vicki Lais

The dragline. The 180 ton
bucket is hanging in the middle
of the photo.

Climbing into the dragline.

lot of people in the bucket The machine uses a 180 ton metal bucket to drag soil and rock forward
for lifting, and then rotates to dump the material on an area that has
already been mined. The machine is so large and so specialized that,
according to Mr. Hendon, it cost $36 million when it was brand new. Not
only were we allowed to view the dragline from close up, but we were
also able to go inside and see how it works. The movements of the
bucket can be efficiently operated by one person, but three other
workers are usually present to keep the machinery functioning and
oiled. The complex manipulations of the dragline depend on 16 giant
motors of over 100 horsepower each, one of which we saw winding and
unwinding the huge cables connected to the bucket. Other motors rotate
the whole assembly and move it. We all visited the operator control
room, as well as a second empty control room. Inside the machine, the
noise was loud enough to necessitate the use of earplugs. After
visiting the dragline, Mr. Hendon took us all to a second bucket no
longer in use, where I took the group photograph shown here.

After this part of the tour, Mr. Hendon
then led us all to an area
where we could search for plant fossils. Like many other sites in
Walker and Jefferson Counties, plant fossils from the Carboniferous
period are present in abundance at Cedrum. Mr. Hendon first pointed
out to us a couple of fossil stumps of arborescent lycopods, one of
which was partly removed by BPS members James Lowery and Danny Brooks.
The piece Danny Brooks showed me weighed about 100 lbs and showed
characteristic
scars of a likely Lepidodendron. Interestingly, the cross section of
the
stump showed scars as well, but I am not sure exactly what these
represent.
Danny has very graciously donated the specimen to the Southern
Environmental
Center, who plan a special display.

Other items found at the site included numerous
medullary casts of the
familiar Calamites, a member of the horsetail phylum. The largest piece
shown to me was about 8 inches long and about 4 inches in diameter.
All of the pieces I saw, including a small one I found myself, showed
well-defined linear furrows and ridges aligned parallel to the
direction
of the stem. The raised furrows represent vascular bundles of the
plant, and
are basically inverse impressions of the life features. The narrower
ridges,
also inverse, are known as medullary rays. The casts represent the
inner
pith cavities of the plant, which were either hollow or had only soft
tissue that quickly decayed. When these cavities filled with mud, the
mud solidified and preserved an impression of the

inside of the plant.
Some specimens looked broken at a node, a place where leaves and
branches could emanate from the plant. The node is a horizontal ridge,
and the small specimen I show here has two nodes. Sometimes a node may
be preserved
in cross-section. On splitting one rock, I found a large node
impression
with thin radiating structures, probably leaves. However, none of the
inner structure of the node was preserved in this piece.

One of the most interesting fossils I noticed at this site was a
modest-sized bark impression of Lepidophloios, a subgenus of the
Lepidodendra. The leaf scars of Lepidophloios are very much like those
of a normal Lepidodendron stem, only the scars are elongated
horizontally, rather than vertically. Although I have read that fossils
of Lepidophloios are the most commonly found plant fossil in Alabama,
it was the first time I had seen a definitive example. It was easily
distinguished from the better known Lepidodendron.

Also found at
the site were various seed fern impressions, the most familiar ones I
noticed being Alethopteris and Neuropteris. The latter were often found
as disconnected and relatively large pinnules. One BPS attendee showed
me a nice slab of intact Alethopteris ferns. He was so happy to have
the slab, and it was so fragile, that he said he was going to carry it
home on his lap! Related to these ferns, I believe I found what appear
to be two branches of a likely tree-sized seed fern plant. The branches
have a brownish color with some carbonized plant material remaining,
and bear no resemblance to the branches of Calamites or the arborescent
lycopods. No fern impressions are attached to these branches, but I
have seen other similar specimens having attached ferns.

Easily the most spectacular find of this trip was a 300-400 pound
arborescent lycopod stump found by James Foshee. The specimen is about
1 foot thick and tapers from a diameter of about 2 feet to 3 feet from
top to bottom. All around the rim, the stump is covered with beautiful,
well-defined leaf scars, the appearance of which suggests to me that
the specimen is of the genus Lepidodendron. From its curved shape, it
looks like a part of the lower base of a much larger trunk. The
preservation is as good as any I have seen of these trunks in museums.
A happy day for James!