David Powers

There is a strata that contains productids. It rest on a bed of mixed bryozoans.  The shale is about 15 feet thick. It rest on a breccia limestone Bed. The breccia is evaporate crusts that were pilled by tidal activity.

In these shale I found part of a plant fossil. I am hoping to find more. So far I have not seen any fish.  There are clams and crinoid bits.

Thank you, the specimen above was pure luck.

Cheers

David

Hi James,

Your formation is older. It would be equivalent to the Lodgepole formation which is part of the Madison group in Montana. I also have some Productids from that formation too.

The examples of Echinoconchus I saw were from Kansas coming from Penn age rocks.

The productids in the original post are from the Kibbey formation which is Chesterian late Mississippian.

All of the brachiopods on the plate are produtids.  They can grow to a large size. The bachial valve on the younger ones start out flat but then become convex. I have only seen spines on the pedicle vales, never seen the bachial valve.  These guys are very fragile.  It is likely they are Echinoconchus. I tend to be conservative on identifying brachiopods.

I have a two more plates I am working on now. I collected them yesterday.

Hi James,

Thank you for your inqury. Based on some research the productida  Echinoconchus sp are younger and found in a different region. The examples of Echinoconchus sp lack or do not show signs of spines.

Where as my specimens have spines projecting off the pedicle valve and pedicle opening. These spines are long. I have seen these spines extend a few inches into the matrix.  The pedicle valves are very wrinkled. These productida are found in western edge of the late Mississippian age silty shale which are part of the Big Snowy Group. These rocks were once part of the edge of a large sea or tidal lagoon.

If you right click the posted image to view photo, you can them view the image in magnification to see spines and valve details.  The photo shows both valves of this type of productida.

Hi @mackenzie-smith

The differences in my leaves to those in the paper bugged me. So I contacted Dan Peppe  PhD the co author of the paper you referenced. Believing he would have more insight and  information for IDing these leaves. I am happy to say he answered my email. He sent me a Paper

REPRODUCTIVE AND VEGETATIVE ORGANS OF BROWNIEA GEN. N. (NYSSACEAE)
FROM THE PALEOCENE OF NORTH AMERICA
Steven R. Manchester1 and Leo J. Hickey
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-7800, U.S.A.; and
Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, U.S.A.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249158109

These fossil leaves more closely match the  Browniea Gen .

Between your help and Peppe’s these leaves are now identified.

Thank you

David C Powers

Hey @mackenzie-smith, thank you for the reply. I had looked at Dicotylophyllum hansonium from Peppe and Hickey 2014.  At first I thought my specimens matched until I brought the photo in the report to a 100 res. and notice some differences between the example and mine.  This is the best match considering leafs of a tree can be different in shape up to maturity and where they are on the tree.

I have other plates containing these an other leave. How know maybe I will find better specimens.

Thank you for your help.

Cheers

David