Pennsylvanian

Spotted Ridge Formation

Crook County, near Pauline, Oregon, USA.

Bark, Horsetail. Plant.

Very fine 3-dimensional 17mm stem of a primitive horsetail.

Mesocalamites is an extinct genus belonging to a group of primitive land pants (lycopsids) that formed the first forests as life invaded the tropical lowlands during the Devonian Period.   It’s found in the Mississippian of the eastern Pyrenees and the Pennsylvanian of the United States and Bashkortostan (southern Urals).  It apparently died out by the end of the Pennsylvanian Period.  One genus of horsetails distantly related to Mesocalamites still lives today.

This extremely unusual specimen comes from a very remote and obscure locality that is the westernmost known Pennsylvanian plant locality in the United States.  Great collector piece.