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THE TWO IMAGES, ABOVE AND BELOW, SHOW ORIGINAL FOSSIL IMPRESSIONS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN SEALED AND STABILIZED. WE KEPT THEM NATURAL AS WHEN THE ROCK WAS FIRST SPLIT, IN ORDER TO PROVIDE PROOF OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE COLOR IN THE MAIN FOSSIL BRANCH. DESPITE WHAT LOOKS LIKE AN UNBELIEVABLE COLOR SCHEME IN THE TREE FERN BRANCH FOSSIL, THESE NATURAL, UNTREATED IMPRESSIONS OF LEAVES ABOVE, AND A STEM PORTION BELOW, PROVIDE PROOF OF THE BIZARRE AND BEAUTIFUL ORIGINAL COLORS OF RED, ORANGE, YELLOW AND GREEN THAT IS ALSO FOUND IN THE TREE FERN BRANCH ON THE SAME ROCK SLAB. THIS IS A VERY RARE COLOR COMBINATION OF SUCH SURREAL TONES, CONTRASTING WITH THE ORIGINAL BLUE-GRAY HOST ROCK. SUCH A SET OF HUES MAKES FOR THE MOST IMPRESSIVE AND BEAUTIFUL PLANT FOSSIL SPECIMEN WE HAVE EVER SEEN OR HANDLED. A COMPLETE TREE FERN BRANCH IS INCREDIBLY RARE BUT ONE THIS BEAUTIFUL MAKES FOR A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME MASTERPIECE OF NATURAL HISTORY. WE KNOW OF ONLY ONE OTHER COMPLETE BRANCH THAT WAS FOUND LIKE THIS FROM THE SAME REGION AND THAT PIECE NOW RESIDES IN A MUSEUM.
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PHENOMENAL MUSEUM-CLASS RARE COMPLETE PREHISTORIC GIANT TREE FERN BRANCH WITH ALL FRONDS INTACT FROM THE PERMIAN Odernheim / Rhineland - Pfalz, Germany EARLY PERMIAN PERIOD: 290 million years ago SPECIAL NOTE: The current laws in this region of Germany have forbid the collection of fossils since 1986. Legislation has permanently ended the hope of ever securing any new specimens as this one being offered here. This incredible piece comes from an old German private collection and was collected long ago before the ban was enacted. We acquired it in its natural state and prepared the specimen in its entirety in our lab. Ban or no ban, a piece like this is and ALWAYS HAS BEEN a true scientific rarity, but the fact that the site has been closed since 1986 means that such a natural history masterpiece will only appreciate in value over time! This rare specimen is our planet's version of the Mona Lisa! Words simply cannot do this piece justice. It is really a specimen that MUST be seen in person because standing alongside it is an amazing experience and the detail in the fossil just does not convey in photographs. Most fossil specimens are small and the vast majority have little aesthetic value or appeal but a remarkable specimen as this is in a class all its own. Forget for a moment the scientific rarity of this piece - a specimen like this is not only priceless in its scarcity, but the beauty and aesthetic it possesses can turn any interior into an instant shrine to natural history when a piece like this is put on display. It is a stunning and enormous specimen. One which also exhibits colors that are never seen in fossilized plants, small or large, rare or not rare. In summary, very few fossils like this are found on our planet and one that is as attractive as it is rare is nothing short of a masterpiece of our planet's natural history. This piece is far more rare yet, offered at a mere fraction of the price of any painting ever made by any of the most famous artists in history. As one of only two specimens known like it to have ever been found in the region, this is an IMMEASURABLY RARE and COMPLETE fossilized giant tree fern branch with all fronds, called Pecopteris sp.. Pecopteris was a prehistoric giant tree fern that on average, grew to a height of around 13 feet. A photograph at the bottom of this page demonstrates what this tree fern might have looked like nearly 300 million years ago, before the first dinosaurs. Fragments of fossil tree fern branches are common but a COMPLETE giant tree fern branch with the main stem and radiating fronds, is scientifically an incredibly rare occurrence. What is even more unusual about this specimen is that the colors, while hard to believe are in these hues, are ORIGINAL. The fossil is on a rock that was rather frangible and necessitated having the fossil stabilized. Doing so slightly enhanced the natural, original colors in the fossil but we left two areas untouched, as seen above, to provide proof of the authenticity and originality of the green, red and orange colors in the leaves and branches. There was only one other complete giant tree fern branch like this found several decades ago in the same deposit by the same collector and that specimen now resides in a museum. This is the only specimen of its kind, being a complete giant tree fern branch, that we have ever seen available for sale or offered to the public. Museums are strongly urged to take note of this magnificent and rare example as it is most certain that we will never see anything like this again. The overall thickness of this slab is approximately 2 inches and has been reinforced with epoxy. Original fossil wood layers can be seen in the lower part of the main branch. Frond leaf colors range from grass green to rust red. Negative impressions in the rock of other associated leaf fossils can be seen, as well. Ferns comprise a large group of plants that have a fossil record dating back to the Carboniferous Period, 360 million years ago. During this time, they were the dominant vegetation on the planet. About half of the fern foliage in the Carboniferous developed seeds versus conventional reproduction by spores, leading to the term "seed fern". Many modern families of ferns living today did not appear until the late Cretaceous Period. The leaves of ferns are called fronds and each frond is made up of leaflets. Ferns typically reproduce by the generation of dust-like, single cell spores which are generated from the fern sporangia structures. These spores act like seeds and in an ideal situation, fall to ground and begin to multiply with the right amount of light and moisture. Eventually, these tiny growths become a separate fern. In the Silurian Period, plants needed to make the cross-over from water to land so they developed ways in which to extract nutrients and water from the Earth. They developed an epidermis to slow down the loss of water and pores called stomata by which an exchange or gas could occur. By the Devonian Period, some plants had developed these characteristics leading to becoming the first land plants. At this time, five classes of plants had emerged - Psilotopsida , Trimerophytopsida, Zosterophyllopsida, Lycopdiopsida, and Equisetopsida. Ferns and fern allies, as we know them today, arose from these early plants. ONE OF ONLY TWO SPECIMENS LIKE IT KNOWN - AS INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL AS IT IS RARE! A COMPLETE FOSSILIZED BRANCH FROM A GIANT PREHISTORIC TREE FERN IS THE "HOLY GRAIL" OF PLANT FOSSILS 51" x 34.5" overall, tree fern branch is 50" in length $85000 PL037 Actual Item - One Only |
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A MODERN GIANT TREE FERN FOR COMPARISON AND WHAT THIS SPECIMEN MIGHT HAVE LOOKED LIKE NEARLY 300 MILLION YEARS AGO |
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