Welcome to Catnapin's
Pennsylvanian Fossil Plant Gallery
?
(Phylum)
Red text = needs information
Fossil identification by Jo Cox unless otherwise noted
Warning: Reference material used for identification is old. Group names may have changed.
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1 billion years ago - multi-cellular plants appear in the fossil record. 600 million years ago, Cambrian Period - water plants became common. 430 million years ago, Silurian Period - plants started growing above the water line. Advanced vascular systems carried nutrients and fluids throughout the organism. The innovation of roots and leaves let plants adapt to moist ground and photosynthesize more efficiently. 360 million years ago, Mississippian Period - an explosion of green life spread throughout the world . Horsetails, club mosses, ferns, cycads, and ginkgos dominated the land. Some of these simple plants grew into trees, 100 feet tall. 330 million years ago, Pennsylvanian Period - conifers and cypress develop, quickly followed by insects to eat them. 280 million years ago, early Permian Period - The first herbivorous land vertebrates appear. |
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Pteridophyta, Cycadofilicales, ?, Alethopterideae
(Group, Class, Order, Family)
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Alethopteris serli Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 21 mm long x 7 mm wide (longest) |
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Description: pinnule leaflets in red/black shale (Slab B) |
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Tracheophyta (Pteropsida), Gymnospermae, Pteriodospermae, Pecopterides
(Division, Class, Order, Family)
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These are fern-like leaves from a variety of gymnosperm trees. |
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Asterotheca candolleana Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 13 mm long |
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Description: segment of a pinnule in red/black shale (Slab B) |
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Asterotheca hemitelioides Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University |
#1 #2 2 specimens on one slab |
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Description: secondary pinna of a fern-like frond in red/black shale (Slab C) |
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Asterotheca miltoni Period: Pennsylvanian Location: Mazon Creek, Illinois Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection |
#1 #2 2 specimens |
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Description: segment pinna, in nodule. This is the most common leaf found in the Pennsylvanian. Each frond and pinna branches forming a new frond. |
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Asterotheca oreopteridia Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 17 mm long |
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Description: secondary pinna in red/black shale (Slab B) |
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Asterotheca oreopteridia Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 56 mm long |
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Description: secondary pinna in red/black shale |
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Asterotheca sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 28 mm long |
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Description: secondary pinna in red/black shale. This plant's leaflets were fuzzy, blurring details. |
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Asterotheca sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 17 mm long |
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Description: pinnule leaflet in red/black shale (Slab C) |
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?, ?, ?, Pecopterideae
(Phylum, Class, Order, Family)
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The Psaronius is a Seed-Fern tree that could grow 50 feet high with a 5 foot diameter trunk. |
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Psaronius sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: Berryville, Illinois Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 137 mm long |
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Description: cross-section of trunk, polished |
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Pecopteris clintoni Period: Pennsylvanian Location: Mazon Creek, Illinois Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 53 mm long |
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Description: Leaf of the Seed Fern Psaronius, in nodule, both sides |
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Pecopteris serpillifolia Period: Pennsylvanian Location: Mazon Creek, Illinois Collection: Hardin-Simmons University |
#1 #2 2 specimens |
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Description: Leaf of the Seed Fern Psaronius, in nodule |
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?, ?, ?, Sphenopterideae
(Phylum, Class, Order, Family)
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Aphlebia sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? (West Virginia) Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 9 mm long |
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Description: pinnule of a fern-like frond, which had highly scalloped leaflets like lettuce, in dark gray shale (Slab A) |
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Corynepteris sternbergi Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? (West Virginia) Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 41 mm long |
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Description: frond of the tree-fern, Psaronius in dark gray shale (Slab B) |
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?, ?, ?, Neuropterideae
(Phylum, Class, Order, Family)
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Neuropteris clarksoni Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 21 mm long |
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Description: section of a pinnule leaflet of a Seed Fern frond in red/black shale (Slab B) |
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Neuropteris gigantea Period: Pennsylvanian Location: Mazon Creek, Illinois Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 156 mm long |
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Description: Sead Fern frond, in nodule (both halves) |
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Neuropteris plicata Period: Pennsylvanian Location: Mazon Creek, Illinois Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 13 mm long |
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Description: pinnule leaflet of a Seed Fern frond, in red/black shale (Slab B) |
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Neuropteris scheuchzeri Period: Pennsylvanian Location: Mazon Creek, Illinois Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 88 mm long nodule |
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Description: secondary pinna of a Seed Fern frond, in nodule |
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Neuropteris tenuifolia Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 18 mm long |
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Description: Pinnule leaflet of a Seed Fern frond in red/black shale. (Slab B) |
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Tracheophyta (Sphenopsida), Equisetinae, Calamitales, Calamariaceae
(Phylum, Class, Order, Family)
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This is a tree-like rush related to today's horsetails found along streams. Like horsetails, leaves grew in rings around the stem. Because of a thick secondary growth on the trunk, these giant rushes could reach 50 feet tall. The trunk and stems grew in short segments and could continue to grow as the marshy sediments buried them. |
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Calamites sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 200 mm long |
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Description: section of trunk |
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Calamites sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? (West Virginia) Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 44 mm long x 4 mm wide (longest) |
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Description: sections of stems showing segmentation lines in dark gray shale (Slab C) |
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Annularia stellata Period: Pennsylvanian Location: Mazon Creek, Illinois Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 56 mm long |
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Description: leaf ring of a Calamites, in nodule |
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Annularia radiata Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? (West Virginia) Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 11 mm long (leaflet 45 degrees, larger aster) |
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Description: leaf rings of a Calamites, in dark gray shale. The long dark strip between the asters and the large square-ish patch are impression of the flattened outer surface of the stem of a Calamites. (Slab A) |
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Paleostachya Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? (West Virginia) Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 17 mm long 4 mm wide (cone) |
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Description: Reproductive cone of a Calamites tree-rush in dark gray shale. It is the long fuzzy thing. Just to the right is an Alethopteris sp. leaflet. the long dark strips are the flattened outer surface of a stem of a Calamites. (Slab A) |
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?, ?, ?, Lepidodendreae
(Phylum, Class, Order, Family)
| These trees were very abundant and very large in the late Paleozoic. These trees reached heights of 130 feet tall with trunks 6 feet in diameter. There are layers of coal made up of just the spores of the trees. The few descendents of the group are very small: club-moss and ground-pine. The name Lepidondendron means "scale-like tree". the bark is characterized by a diamond shaped pattern where leaves once attached, called leaf scars or leaf cushions. |
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Lepidophyllum sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? (West Virginia) Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 42 mm long |
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Description: section of a leaf in dark gray shale (Slab B) |
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Stigmaria sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? (Texas) Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 292 mm long |
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Description: This name is given to the root casts of various scale-trees. The diamond shapes isolate nodes where ribbon-like rootlets grew. A vascular tube runs off-center through the main root. It carried fluids and possibly nutrients to the tree. |
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Pteridophyta, Sphenophyllales, ?, Sphenophylleae
(Group, Class, Order, Family)
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Sphenophyllum cuneifolium Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? (West Virginia) Collection: Abilene Christian University Natural History Collection Size: 18mm long |
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Description: leaves in dark gray shale. The leaves of this plant are grouped in rings around the stem. It was a small herbaceous climbing vine. (Slab C) |
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Tracheophyta (Pteropsida), Gymnospermae, Cordaitales, Cordaitaceae
(Phylum, Class, Order, Family)
| These long strap-like leaves could grow 2-3 feet long. Tall and thin, the Cordaites tree could exceed 100 feet tall with diameters of only two feet. They probably grew up river from swamps as the leaves are more common than the trunk. The tip of a leaf is needed for species identification. |
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Cordaites sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? (West Virginia) Collection: Abilene Christian University University Natural History Collection Size: 116 mm long x 13 mm wide |
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Description: leaf section, in dark gray shale. Both sides of leaf are present. |
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Cordaites sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: ? Collection: Hardin-Simmons University Size: 100 mm long |
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Description: leaf section, in red/black shale (Slab A) |
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?, ?, ?
(Phylum, Class, Order)
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Lescuropteris sp. Period: Pennsylvanian Location: Parker Co., Texas Collection: Jo Cox Identified by: (purchased) Size: 80 mm long block |
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Description: fern-like frond, in coal |
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?, ?, ?
(Phylum, Class, Order)
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Fern ? Period: Pennsylvanian Location: near Mineral Wells, Texas Collection: Bill Robinson Identified by: Size: ? mm long block |
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Description: fern-like frond, in sandstone |
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