Hobbies And Interests
Plants
Seed ferns and scale trees are among the fossils commonly found in coal. The time of the coal swamps is the Upper Carboniferous Era period known as the Pennsylvanian Epoch. The coal bears leaf fossils of seed ferns and the giant fragile lycopod trees. They grew to nearly 40 meters and had scales instead of bark.
Coal preserves other botanical treasures from the past as well. Giant horsetail plants and portions of entire forests are being found in mines. Just south of Danville, Illinois, part of a Pennsylvanian Epoch mire forest is preserved in the strata of the Herrin coal seam. The 10-kilometer stretch of preserved forest contains rare plant and cordaite conifer tree fossils.
Bugs
Some really unusual insect and arthropod fossils are found in coal. Imagine dragonflies as big as birds and monster centipedes 2 m long. The fossil remains of these and other strange bugs can be seen in coal strata.
Pulmonoscorpius fossils reveal what a meter-long scorpion was like and an Archaeoptitus flying insect found in a Derbyshire, England, coal mine is estimated to have a wingspan of 35 cm. A 9-cm roach fossil unearthed in an Ohio mine is so perfectly preserved that fine details of its wings and legs are visible.
Marine Animals
Marine fossils of different types are preserved in coal. Mollusks, trilobites, horseshoe crabs and shark teeth represent just a small portion of Pennsylvanian Epoch fossils found in coal. Cephalopods included an octopus-like creature with a snail shell. Other nautiloid swimmers achieved large size as did some of the Upper Carboniferous fish.
Tetrapod fossils are common in coal. These animals came in various forms from small eel-like amphibians that were fully aquatic to giants as large as crocodiles.
According to Palaeos: the History of Life on Earth, a web-based project tracing the history of life on earth, the first reptiles emerged during the Upper Carboniferous era. Fossils of these early reptiles are found in the coal mines of Nova Scotia, Canada.