This is the “Fossil Friday” post #239.  Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website.  We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com.  Please include a short description or story.  Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!

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For this week, we have a sweet little Linopteris neuropteroides from the spoil piles around Terre Haute, Indiana.  That locality dates to about 305.5 million years ago, which is a little younger than the Mazon Creek fossil deposit at 307-309 million years ago.   The concretions is the Terre Haute area come from the Dugger Formation, which sits atop the Springfield coal member.  The Dugger Formation is the uppermost formation in the Carbondale Group.  The Springfield coal member has been correlated with the Danville coal in Illinois and is now referred to by the same name.  We did a post about the fossils of Terre Haute in Mazon Monday #36.

Notice that even though the general shape is similar to Macroneuropteris, the venation is very different in L. neuropteroides.  Not reticulated like Reticulopteris munsterii var. dawsonii, but “anastomosed to form long, narrow, and sharply pointed meshes that meet the margin at an oblique angle.”

This specimen looks very similar to Field Museum PP 58409 shown in Mazon Monday #242,  PP 58409 was collected by Jim and Sylvia Konecny, while this fossil was purchased at the recent MAPS show.  Unfortunately, there was no label or markings.  Enjoy!