While walking along a local creek in Birmingham, Alabama, Tristen Klavenga came across a rock by the side of the stream that appeared to be covered in scales.At first, Klavenga thought it might have been some sort of prehistoric palm or tree.”After further inspection and my friend’s thoughts, I wasn’t too doubtful that it could possibly be a fossilized imprint of fish scales,” Klavenga told Newsweek. “It looks pretty darn scaly.”
The fossil had large scales but did not seem to be a recognizable animal. Tristen Klavenga
“I’ve been to this spot hundreds of times but never noticed the fossil until then,” Klavenga told Newsweek. “With the rain we’ve had this season, I think it uncovered the mud and bedrock to expose the fossil.”Klavenga shared photos of the rock to the subreddit r/fossilid to hear what other users thought it could be. Several users identified the scaly stone as a Lepidodendron, an extinct type of tree (or more accurately tree-like plant) that thrived on Earth roughly 300 million years ago.