Cordaianthus ? (Upper Carboniferous)

[araucaria1959]

Hello,

this is a fertile axis ("cone") from the upper carboniferous (pennsylvanian: westfalian D) from Germany (locality Piesberg near Osnabrueck). It is about 20 cm long.

I suppose that it's a primary cone (= primary axis with secondary fertile shoots) from a cordaite (Cordaianthus). There is also a Cordaites leaf on the other side (last picture), and the central axis of the "cone" shows some structures that remind me of Artisia.

However, the fertile zone along the stems of Dicranophyllum may look similar like Cordaianthus (as far as compression fossils are concerned that are not very well preserved) if it carries only male cones (sometimes, male and larger female cones occur in the same fertile zone - then it is clearly distinct from Cordaianthus even if it's badly preserved), and the size of the fertile zone is similar to large specimens of Cordaianthus.

But I prefer the ID Cordaianthus. Is this correct?

Thanks

araucaria1959

[Missourian]

I too would say Cordaianthus. From what I've seen of Dicranophyllum, the stem of yours is too 'plain', and the 'leaflets' are too stout.

Also, what is the relative abundance of Cordaites and lycopods in the deposit?

[araucaria1959]

Hello missourian,

this is a very large quarry with several strata that are full of plant fossils. So it is difficult to answer this question in general. On the pile where I used to collect the flora was dominated by ferns and seed ferns, followed by sphenopsids. Lycopsids and cordaitales were rare both. However, the situation may be different in other areas of the quarry. It's located 350 km away from my home, so I wasn't there very often.

The specimen I'm showing here was not collected by myself. I got it via german ebay for about 7 Euro because it was labeled "unknown plant". Obviously, noone recognized what it really was (otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten it so cheaply; that's about the price for simple fern fossils from that locality).

I had found a small, badly preserved fragment of Cordaianthus many years before in the Saar area and so I realized that's something like that when I saw the specimen on ebay and so I took the chance ...

Only a short time ago, I got some doubts when I saw some fertile material of Dicranophyllum, but, as you confirmed, my original ID was correct.

Thanks,

araucaria1959

Edited November 20, 2012 by araucaria1959

[docdutronc]

Hi my friends

Your specimen is Cardaianthus ,you're right

http://forums-natura...olius-sternberg

best regards

Bruno

http://i30.servimg.c...73/cordai10.jpg

Edited December 16, 2012 by docdutronc