Fern Fiddlehead

Object/Artifact

-

Crater Rock Museum

Name/Title

Fern Fiddlehead

Entry/Object ID

78.57.29

Description

Assemblage Zone: sedimentary Chemical Composition: Si O2 Crystal System: Subhedral Description: Family: Embryophtes Genus: Fern Common name: Fiddlehead Fern leaf Age: Eocene Location Data: The canal by Triangle B ranch, Ashland, Oregon (Previously notated as being from Immigrant Dam, OR) Description: Leaf imprint on a beige sandstone, it is very similar to the fiddlehead ferns today. Size: 6.500"x 3.750"x 1.00" Type of Fossils Present: Plants Fracture: conchoidal Grain Size: Fine Hardness: 7 Quartz Lithofacies: Fluvial System Luster: Silky Occurrence: Embryophytes developed from complex green algae (Chlorophyta) during the Paleozoic era. Conglomerates of the Payne Cliffs Formation consist mainly of quartzite clasts, felsic, intermediate, and mafic vocanic clasts, and metavolcanic clasts, and sandstone petrography shows dissected and transitional magmatic arc provenance. Pressure: Moderate Rock Color: Dark Rock Origin: Marine/Freshwater Rock Type: Sedimentary Specific Gravity: 2.6 Surface Process: Not apparent Temperature: Low Texture: fine grain Variety: Leaf fossils in this case are carbon films that remain on the bedding surfaces of fine-grained sediments. Fossilization happened after the leaves sank to the bottom of a pond or lake and were later buried by additional fine-grained sediments. With burial, the leaves were compressed and the sediment surrounding them solidified. Eventually these fine-grained sediments became sandstone, shale or mudstone. When all the volatile organic material in the living leaf was pressed out, only a thin carbon residue was left in the sediment, marking the outline and veins of the leaf. The embryophytes include trees, flowers, ferns, mosses, and various other green land plants.

Collection

Fossil Collection

Acquisition

Accession

78.57

Source or Donor

Delmar Smith Fossil Collection

Acquisition Method

Donation

Other Names and Numbers

Other Number

Other Number: 1978.57.29

Dimensions

Width

3-3/4 in

Depth

1 in

Length

6-1/2 in

Dimension Notes

Dimensions taken at widest points

Location

Location

Container

Center

Drawer

2nd Shelf

Shelf

Right

Cabinet

Case #107

Wall

North Wall

Building

Mentzer Hall - Petrified Wood Room

Category

Permanent