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BEAUTIFULLY DETAILED 3D LARGE CARBONIFEROUS SIGILLARIA RUGOSA PLANT FOSSIL FROM POLAND Siodlowe Beds (Upper Silesia Coal Beds) - SW Poland UPPER CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD: 325 million years ago This
is a beautiful and highly detailed, double-sided large fossil of Sigillaria
rugosa Brongniart
displaying exquisite preservation from the Carboniferous Period of the
coal deposits of southwest Poland. It is a fully,
three-dimensional section of the plant with both sides showing identical
lifelike detail. In between each row is a margin of sparkling
coal, attesting to its former deposit type. Very few fossils of
plants from this period and site are found of this size and quality.
Most are very small, fragmentary and weathered. A plant fossil such as
this offers a glimpse
into the past plant life of the planet when amphibians were the apex
predators and sole rulers of the Earth. The flora of this period
must have been not only stunningly beautiful, but very alien in
appearance compared to what we are used to today.
100% AUTHENTIC AND ORIGINAL
AS FOUND WITH NO REPAIR.
A spectacular quality fossil
showing beautiful, lifelike detail of extinct flora of a European swamp
forest from over 300
million years ago! During the Carboniferous Period, a large portion of Europe and North America was on the equator. The warm and consistently humid climate was ideal for the growth of extensive swampy forests. The Paralic Basin was the largest Carboniferous basin which comprised regions of what are now Ireland, England, northern France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany (Ruhr District) and Poland. Periodic changes in the sea levels caused the rivers that traversed these forests to flood, depositing massive amounts of sand and mud thereby burying the forest along the banks. In a period of one million years, several thousand meters of sediment would be deposited, densely packing and pressing the abundant vegetation into flattened rock fossil impressions. Abundant vegetation in these forests included Sigillaria, Lepidodendron and Calamites. Calamites is an extinct genus that has some relation to modern horsetail plants. These were large tree-like plants with a segmented trunk similar to bamboo, that grew to heights exceeding 100 feet. The presence of Calamites fossils suggest a very hot and humid environment existed where they once thrived. Lepidodendron and Sigillaria are lycopods, or more commonly known as club mosses. They belong to the lycophytes group, today only represented by a handful of small herbaceous forms. While they were giant tree-sized plants, Lepidodendron and Sigillaria are not actually classified as trees but are very unique types of plants that died out hundreds of millions of years ago. Both grew to amazing heights exceeding 100 feet with stems over 6 feet in diameter! Their branches were draped with long, grass-like foliage of spirally arranged leaves and cones containing spores. The presence of Sigillaria, Lepidodendron and Calamites fossils suggest a very hot and humid environment existed where they once thrived. BEAUTIFUL, LARGER-THAN-TYPICAL SPECIMEN WITH STUNNING THREE-DIMENSIONAL DETAIL! 7.5" x 2.4" overall $295 PL048 DISPLAY BOX INCLUDED Actual Item - One Only |
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