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Specimen:  Rare big specimen of Carboniferous fossil horsetail - Pteridophyte species : 

Asterophyllites equisetiformis STERNBERG 

Locality:          Poland, GZW Upper Silesia Coal Basin – Detailed data will send with speciemen 

Stratigraphy:  Upper Carboniferous  – Pennsylvanian -  Westphalian B - Orzeskie Beds

Age:                ca. 305 /310 myo

Matrix dimensions: ca. 17,0 x 10,0 x 3,0 cm ( white square on pictures  is 1,0 x 1,0 cm )

                               ca.  6,69" x 3,94" x 1,18" in ( white square on pictures  is 0,39" x 0,39" in )

Description:

Rare big speciemn of classic coal fossil plant extinct horsetail  Asterophyllites equisetiformis STERNBERG.

Asterophyllites are the leaf whorls of an extinct horsetails. They would have grown on plants with stems like Calamites. A genus of fossil plants; star-leaf: so called from the stellated disposition of the leaves around the branches. They abound in the coal-measures, and are believed to be the branches of the Calamites or Calamodendron mother plants.

The trunks of Calamites had a distinctive segmented, bamboo-like appearance and vertical ribbing. The branches, leaves and cones were all borne in whorls. The leaves were needle-shaped, with up to 25 per whorl. Their trunks produced secondary xylem, meaning they were made of wood. The vascular cambium of Calamites was unifacial, producing secondary xylem towards the stem center, but not secondary phloem.

The stems of modern horsetails are typically hollow or contain numerous elongated air-filled sacs. Calamites was similar in that its trunk and stems were hollow, like wooden tubes. When these trunks buckled and broke, they could fill with sediment. This is the reason pith casts of the inside of Calamites stems are so common as fossils.

Calamites is a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which the modern horsetails (genus Equisetum) are closely related. Unlike their herbaceous modern cousins, these plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights of more than 30 meters (100 feet). They were components of the understories of coal swamps of the Carboniferous period.

Systematic: 

Phylum:  Tracheophyta 

Division:   Gymnospermatophyta 

Class:      Equisetinae 

Order:      Calamitales 

Genus:     Asterophyllites

Species:   Asterophyllites equisetiformis STERNBERG