4.5" Wide, Fossil Seed Fern (Neuropteris) Plate - Pennsylvania

This is a plate of seed fern fossils from the Pennsylvanian aged (305 million year) Llewellyn formation of Pennsylvania. The white color of these detailed fern fossils contrasts well against the black shale they are preserved in. These plants were buried in a swamp where a low temperature, pressure, and oxygen environment the plant tissue was slowly replaced by pyrite. This pyrite was later replaced by a whitish mineral (aluminum silicate) as the fossils were buried and exposed to the heat and pressure inside of the earth.

Neuropteris is an extinct genus of fern that reproduced from seed as opposed to sporophyte reproduction of most modern ferns. As with most seed ferns, Neurodontopteridaceae grew in tree form.

There are fossil on both sides of this rock. This specimen comes with an acrylic display stand.