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Specimen: Lepidostrobus variabilis Lidney& Hutton - Lepidodendron "scale tree" fossil cone !
preserved in paired siderite nodules from Poland , Not Mazon Creek
Locality: Poland, GZW Upper Silesia Coal Basin, detailed ino will be added to package
Stratigraphy: Upper Carboniferous – Pennsylvanian - Westphalian A – Załeże Beds
Age: ca. 314 myo
Nodule dimensions: ca. 4,0 x 3,5 x 2,0 cm ( white square on pictures is 1,0 x 1,0 cm )
ca. 1,57" x 1,38" x 0,79" in ( white square on pictures is 0,39 x 0,39 in )
Description:
Nice Lepidostrobus variabilis Lidney & Hutton fossil cone preserved in paired siderite nodule !
The Lepidostrobus is the generic name for the cones of arboresent lycopsid. It corresponds closely in structure with the fertile spike of the living Selaginella. The spore-bearing leaves are attached to a central axis in a crowded spiral arrangement, and their outer ends curve over so as to form an imbricated, diagonally arranged pattern, resembling that of the stem itself. The Lepidostrobus cones produced spores and megaspores.
Systematic:
Division: Tracheophyta (Lycoposida)
Class: Lycopodinae
Order: Lycophodiales
Family: Lepidodendraceae
Genus: Lepidostrobus Brongniart (1828)
Lepidodendron (also known as the "Scale tree") is an extinct genus of primitive, vascular, arborescent (tree-like) plant related to the Lycopsids (club mosses). It was part of the coal forest flora. They sometimes reached heights of over 30 metres (100 ft), and the trunks were often over 1 m (3.3 ft) in diameter, and thrived during the Carboniferous period. Sometimes called "giant club mosses", this is actually not correct as they are actually closer to quillworts than to club mosses. The closely packed diamond-shaped leaf scars left on the trunk and stems as the plant grew provide some of the most interesting and common fossils in Carboniferous shales and accompanying coal deposits. These fossils look much like tire tracks or alligator skin. The scars, or leaf cushions, were composed of green photosynthetic tissue, evidenced by the cuticle covering and being dotted with stomata, microscopic pores through which carbon dioxide from the air diffuses into plants. Likewise, the trunks of Lepidodendron would have been green, unlike modern trees which have scaly, non-photosynthetic brown or gray bark. Lepidodendron has been likened to a giant herb. The trunks produced very little, if any, wood.