Arizona Hodak, 4, of Mount Chestnut, holds the fossil of a lepidodendron tree root she found in a creek while hunting for salamanders.

MOUNT CHESTNUT — 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.

“We were exploring and looking for salamanders,” Natalie said, “We were in the water flipping rocks over. She thought it was a dragon.”

It was easy to make that identification. The rock had an indentation that looked like fish scales.

“I turned over lots of rocks, but my mom didn't find anything,” Arizona said.

“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 Lancaster Township.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,” Joy said. “In every little stream and every little river in this side of the state, you will be able to find them.“It looks like a fossilized snake. When you first see it, you are taken aback. You think you found some dinosaur remains.”Joy's identification was confirmed by an email from Matthew Miller, a museum specialist with the department of paleobiology at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History.He messaged the Hodaks in answer to their query that the lepidodendron is related to club mosses and not modern trees. Lepidodendron was a key source of carbon in the ancient forests that produced the coal for which Pennsylvania began famous.

While it's neither a dragon nor a yeti, Arizona said she's keeping her find in her room.It will keep company with Arizona's toads, Leaf and Princess, and her collection of live insects.“Lady bugs are my favorite,” she said.“Sometimes I like to go spider hiking” to look for spiders and spider webs, Arizona said.Her mother said Arizona is a budding naturalist.“We are walking and she picks a flower or a weed or a rock and says, 'Mommy, what's this?'” Natalie Hodak said.