MOUNT CHESNUT — Arizona Hodak, 4, of Mount Chestnut was looking for salamanders or maybe yetis, she said, in a creek earlier this month when she found something much, much older.

The daughter of Natalie Hodak was searching a creek near the bike trail by the Oddfellows Shelter in Alameda Park Aug. 11 when she flipped over a rock and found something unusual.

The rock had an indentation that looked like fish scales.

“It was wet from the water and the sun hit it,” said her mother, who posted a picture of the fossil online with a message asking for identification.

But they didn't know what they had found until Natalie Hodak did a little internet research and made a trip to the Appalachian Rock Shop & Jewelry Emporium at 508 Perry Highway in Harmony.

Employee Dawna Joy identified Arizona's find as a root from a lepidodendron or scale tree that flourished in this area more than 300 million years ago.

“The fossil she found is pretty prominent in Pennsylvania. In every little stream and every little river in this side of the state you will be able to find them,” said Joy.

“It looks like a fossiled snake,” Joy added. “When you first see it, you are taken aback. You think you found some dinosaur remains.”

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