11.6" Pennsylvanian Club Moss And Fern Plate - Alabama

This is a spectacular, 10.4" fossil club moss (Lepidodendron)and fern (Neuropteris) plate, from the Pottsville Formation, Alabama. This striking specimen is several sections of lepidodendron limbs with needle like leaves, a Lepidodendron cone (Lepidostrobus), and a number of pinnules (branch of leaflets) of a seed fern (Neuropteris). This specimen is so well preserved that some of the plant material remains. The shale measures 11.6 x 11.3 inches and weighs 19 pounds.

Lepidodendron, also called scale trees, is a genus of extinct, primitive, vascular, tree-like plants most closely related to gill worts and and club mosses, that grew up to 98ft (30m) and had trunks a 3.2ft (1m) in diameter.

Neuropteris is a seed fern, meaning it reproduced by seed rather than by spores, like modern ferns