100 Objects
Plant fossil
In this series that tell the history of Washington County, we have looked at objects as old as a several hundred years, but for this one, we are looking at something that formed millions of years ago, during a time when there was still the super continent of Pangea. The period known as the Pennsylvania period, which was a portion of the overall Carboniferous period, dates from around 320 to 280 million years ago. The area of present-day Western Pennsylvania would have been covered in swampy deltas. In these flood deltas, large forests would grow, but not like what we are accustomed to today.
“Flowering plants, or deciduous plants of any kind had not yet evolved. Instead, there were very large, simple, fernlike plants, such as Calamities (a giant horse tail), Lycopods (which grew up to 100 feet) seed ferns and herbaceous ferns (that grew up to 50 feet). However, at the end of the Pennsylvanian, most of these strange plants became extinct, and deciduous plants eventually evolved. Much of these forested areas became buried and now create the carboniferous coal beds that are mined today throughout the eastern United States and Europe. Because of this, these swampy forests are often called coal swamps and coal forests.” (fossilguy.com)
Pictured is a plant fossil from one of these carboniferous fern forests. It was found in a coal mine near present day Vestaburg and is part of the collection of the Washington County Historical Society.
Charles Edgar is research librarian for the Washington County Historical Society.