Locality:          Poland, Kielce area

Stratigraphy:  Devonian - Emsian

Age:                 ca. 400 Mya

Matrix size:     5,0 x 3,5 x 0,5 cm - white square on pictures is 1,0 x 1,0 cm

Description:

Rare Devonian primitive fossil plant Psilophyton sp. branched twig  & goniatite cephalopod ammonoid fossil !

Psilophyton is a genus of extinct vascular plants. Described in 1859, it was one of the first fossil plants to be found which was of Devonian age (about 420 to 360 million years ago). Specimens have been found in northern Maine, USA;Gaspé Bay, Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada; the Czech Republic; and Yunnan, China. Plants lacking leaves or true roots;spore-forming organs or sporangia were borne on the ends of branched clusters. It is significantly more complex than some other plants of comparable age (e.g. Rhynia) and is thought to be part of the group from within which the modern ferns and seed plants evolved. Plants resisted of bare stems (axes) ending in blunt tips. Lower down they repeatedly branched dichotomously; higher up they bore sporangium-bearing 'units' in two rows on opposite sides of the stems. These units branched, also dichotomously, before terminating in sporangia, so that there were clusters of up to 128 paired, downward curved sporangia, oval in shape and about 5 mm long. Spores were released through a longitudinal slit. The first two branching points of the fertile units appear to have committed of two closely spaced dichotomous branches in which the middle branch did not develop.