Help With Plant Fossil Id

[Dakota]

Hello,

I'm hoping you might help me ID this plant fossil. It was found in a nodule of petroleum-smelling shale inside a massive piece of barren sandstone in the largely marine region of the Coalinga Oil Fields in California. I have several pieces, many of which have small lumps of amber, along with black, carbonized plant material that looks very coniferous. I know that Margeriella cretacea has been found in the Moreno formation of the Panoche Hills, but I'd not heard of similar finds in the largely marine Coalinga area. I suspect the shale was indeed "rock" before it was included in the sandstone, so I suspect it could be considerably older than the marine sandstone that encased it. In this piece, you can see what appears very much like a small seed cone in the upper portion, near the edge. Most of the other plant material in the other pieces is very black and cabonized, but this piece has a wider profile, and is lighter colored. The amber nodules in the other pieces are quite small (only 3-5 millimeters across) and are dark orange colored. This isn't much to work with, but any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you,

Edited July 22, 2015 by Dakota

[Auspex]

There is something going on where I've marked it, and possibly some other indistinguishable bits.

I do not know what you have...

[Dakota]

Yeah, that's the most interesting feature, other than the little amber bits in some of the other pieces, along with obvious plant material throughout the chunks I chipped out. With all the other plant material, etc., I suspect this object (circled) may also be a plant part, and it sort of looked to me like a small cone that's been worn down to the core with bits of the "petals" on each side. Very strange. Thanks,