Carboniferous Fern Pecopteris arborescens

Description

Nice preserved Carboniferous Fern Pecopteris arborescens. It has a coppery appearance. The fossil shows  structure with fine venes on the leafes preserved. The piece comes from a Carboniferous coal mine at Ploetz near the Town of Halle in Sachsen Anhalt. The production in the mine was shut down in 1967.

The dump of the mine was a fossil hunters paradise. Besides the common plants there was some material that contained remains of ancient spiders and remains of Syscioblattia and Xenoblattia. The mine became in the early 2000’s a mining monument and fossils can not be collected. The fossils here come from earlier digs in 1987 to 1989. I tried to get a permission from the Mining Authorities in 2005, but no mercy. However other mine dumps in the area can be visited for collection.

There are Loebejuen and mines around Wettin that produce the same fossils with some variations. They all belong to the Caboniferous Period and in there to Stefan C.

I have to state here that I am not a specialist in Ferns and there seems t o be a lot of confusion out there. So to my best knowledge looking at the net and my old very specific books, with the leafes comming straight in almost a 90 degree angle out of the main axis and straight middle axis in the leaf it is Pecopteris arborescens. Ferns are so difficult, because the leafs in different areas of the plant look totaly different. Never mind with the spores on there. That would be another look. I will put a picture into the gallery that shows you 15 different looks of Callipteris conferta as an example.

On top of that Pecopteris arborescens is also named Pecopteris arborea or Cyathocarpus arborea or Asterotheca arborescens.

The middle axle of the Carboniferous Fern Pecopteris arborescens here is 7 cm or 2.75 inches long. The slab is 12 cm by 9 cm or 4.75 inches by  3.5 inches.

Find some pictures about the fossils from the area here: https://www.steinkern.de/steinkern-fossilien-zeitschrift.html/fundorte/sonstige-bundeslaender/220-funde-von-den-alten-steinkohlenhalden-der-saale-senke.html

Interesting also: https://www.esconi.org/esconi_earth_science_club/2024/09/mazon-monday-236-cyathocarpus-arborea-fossils-paleontology-mazoncreek-mazonmonday-fern-carboniferous

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