paleoflor Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Hi all, Plant fossils are, simply due to the sheer size of most (arborescent) plants, almost exclusively fragments, instead of complete specimens (imagine finding a 30m tall tree, all complete, how extraordinary would that be!). Accordingly, one of the most rewarding goals for palaeobotany is producing reliable reconstructions of what the whole plants could have looked like. Not an easy task, I imagine, especially considering additional problems such as differences in mode of preservation (adpressions, compressions, casts, petrifactions, etc.) between various localities. However, the results are so worth it - these reconstructions make the fossils come to life, at least, if you ask me. Luckily, there are quite some reconstructions available in the literature. I took two of Psaronius, a Marattialean tree fern from the Carboniferous, published by Morgan (1959) and Stidd (1971), and attached images of several of the fragments in my collection. This is the result: A Pecopteroid foliage (adpression/imprint) B Pecopteroid foliage (adpression/imprint) C Scolecopteris pinnules (petrifaction, a.k.a. "Madenstein") D outer surface with Caulopteris leaf scars (petrifaction) E stem section (3D cast/mould) F cross-section through Psaronius stem (petrifaction) It would be nice to see similar reconstructions, plant or non-plant (vertebrates, others?), illustrated using our own collections. I am sure this could yield some really nice compilation images. Please join in! Cheers, Tim 1 Searching for green in the dark grey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosmoceras Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Tim, how excellent! Very well done for putting this together. I have made one up for a Devonian fish skull section I found last month. Gyroptychius milleri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paleoflor Posted August 21, 2013 Author Share Posted August 21, 2013 (edited) Tim, how excellent! Very well done for putting this together. I have made one up for a Devonian fish skull section I found last month. Gyroptychius milleri Devonian Fish.png This is exactly what I meant. The reconstruction puts the fossil in perspective perfectly - from a shape some might not recognize on its own (me, for example), to the bigger picture. Thanks for sharing! Edited August 21, 2013 by paleoflor Searching for green in the dark grey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDudeCO Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Paleoflor, love the idea...a lot of times all we get are fragments it really does helping being able to put it in a perspective thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 This is a good idea, I have thought about including drawings/reconstructions when displaying or trading fossils so that people know what they're looking at. I think it could make for much more fossil appreciation. I'll see what I can come up with for this thread, but I have trouble finding such drawings for most of the things I find around here, especially plants! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paleoflor Posted August 30, 2013 Author Share Posted August 30, 2013 If in need of any specific drawings, let me know. Perhaps I can help through our university library... Searching for green in the dark grey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pefty Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 Paleoflor, have you by chance done any more excellent compilations along these lines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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