Fossil plant to ID. Sydney Australia

[kvadro]

Hi everyone!

 

This is my first find, not so exciting as I saw on other members' pictures, though still exciting for me

I found it in Sydney Australia, on a beach near Long Reef golf club, Collaroy, NSW, Australia.

Rock face here is weathering and pieces of black shale are falling off. As far as I know the entire Sydney area are from Triassic period and later.

One looks to me like some plant, probably a flower. If it's a flower, then it shoudl be definitely younger than Triassic for sure. The smaller one is probably similar, since they were on the same rock.

Thanks!

[Paleoworld-101]

Not a flower, these are cones of the lycopod Pleuromeia longicaulis. Originally the cones were found separate from the rest of the plant, as the cones floated away before they were buried, so they were actually given their own name: Cylostrobus sydneyensis. They are particularly common around the exposures at Turimetta Head. The rocks are about 240 million years old. 

 

See this paper: https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/d/3735/files/2013/07/alcheringa1975pleuromeia-1w04ctk.pdf

[kvadro]

Thanks a lot mate! Looks like a perfect match! I also found a lot of impressions of that plant leaves in the same rock and a bit at Turimetta head as well.  I did not expect the asnwer that quick and that complete

[kvadro]

And I discovered Greg Ratallack for myself! He authored this paper very early, 1975, just two years into his PhD studies. And he is one of the pioneers, if not the father-rounder of paleosoils studies. Thanks again Paleoworld-101!