This is the "Fossil Friday" post #87. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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We've got a Pennsylvanian seed fern for today's fossil. You might guess that means another Mazon Creek fossil, but that would be wrong. This species of seed fern, Neuropteris vermicularis, is known from Mazon Creek, but this particular specimen comes from a fossil deposit in Knob Noster, Missouri. The Knob Noster locality is contemporaneous with Mazon Creek, which dates to about 307 million years ago. Back in the Pennsylvanian, a large bay separated the two deposits. The red dot below represents Wilmington, IL 300 million years ago. Looking at the outline of Missouri, Knob Noster is in the middle west portion of Missouri, just southeast of Kansas City.
Paleo Map from https://dinosaurpictures.org/
Fossils from Knob Noster are found in concretions just like Mazon Creek. But, the Matrix is quite a bit different, being much lighter in color and much less dense. We had a spider from Knob Noster back in Fossil Friday #84.
The specimen below was opened with a hammer.... not me! It was purchased at the MAPS show in Springfield, IL back in October. Enjoy!
