SIGILLARIA (BRANCH OF A PREHISTORIC TREE) - 300 million years old - France
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Branch of a prehistoric tree preserved in brick red shale
300 million years old
Loos en Gohelle, Pas de Calais, France
Sigillaria was one of a group of giant trees related to the club mosses (lycopsids) that lived during the Carboniferous period and were a part of the tropical Coal Measures forests.
Although some of these trees reached a height of up to 30 metres (100 ft) they were really only gigantic herbs and not true trees. Coal is thought to have been formed mostly of the roots of lycopsid trees.
Unlike modern trees, the interior of the trunk was soft, cellular pith, the support for these trees being the outer bark. As a result the trunks and branches are frequently preserved only as natural casts.
The photos are taken with oblique lighting to make the fossils easier to see.
Click on a picture for a larger image
Size: 12 x 11 x 5 centimetres
Weight: 614 grams
Weight: 614 grams
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