Conifer
Upper Pennsylvanian, Late Carboniferous
Orzesze Beds, Upper Silesia Coal Basin
KWK “Szombierki” mine, Bytom, Poland

Extremely rare, huge 101mm museum quality specimen of enigmatic fossil conifer with 2 strange, small cordaianthus type cones on 225mm matrix.

Plant. Carboniferous.

The appearance of conifers (a group of gymnosperms or cone-bearing plants) during the Carboniferous was a giant leap for land plants because earlier groups were dependent on the swampy soils of the lowlands while conifers could colonize the drier, wide-open highlands. They helped create new environments for other organisms to invade.

Here’s a good-sized conifer blade with numerous leaflets – mixed with other plant pieces including two Cordaianthus-type cones. Cardaianthus is a form-genus for the ovule-bearing and pollen-bearing parts of a Cordaites-like gymnosperm plant.