Can Horsetail Grow Through Layers Of Mud?

[Salvageon]

I checked out this cliff face (dangerous) and found the best Horsetail fossils at the bottom, of course, but what amazed me was evidence that they grew through many layers. I threw water on one stem and broke some slag off so you can see it. That one is about 3' tall and goes through several layers. There are several that do it. I'm thinking the mud didn't crash in and crush things it silted in and the plant just kept growing. As an exlogger I've seen trees do this. The third photo is of a small stem about 1' tall at the base with all of the layers and joints intact. I left it as there is no way I could remove it intact. There is lots of down fossils in the rock also. Is this theory plausible?

[Fossildude19]

Salvageon,

It couldn't "grow" up through the layers, but, rather, ...was still erect/upright when it got covered with flood mud.

Quite likely that the mud wasn't deposited all at once, but over a bit of time, so that the horsetail remained upright as it got covered.

You also can't totally rule out the possibility that the fossil was covered while laying down on the ground horizontally, and subsequent earth movements/thrusting/shifting has made it appear to have been preserved in the vertical aspect.

Remember - this is happening over millions of years.

Hope this helps.
Regards,

EDIT: I just re-read what you wrote, and I guess, there could have been multiple flood events that buried the horsetail over time, although, I am thinking it was one event that took a bit longer to finish, if you catch my meaning.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Fossildude19

[Dave in Alaska]

Certainly modern horse tails can grow through layers of mud. They are pretty hardy. Do we know this sediment was caused by a flood event? Could the plant have been growing and had small layers of silt placed over several years, or several events?

[Auspex]

In the images, it looks like an almost continuous deposition. It must have been near the end of a a pretty big watershed, during a time of high erosion rates. Maybe the Laramide Orogeny?

[Plantguy]

Yep, the horsetails have extensive rooting structures.

I am curious about the rock types in the pictures....In the first photo there appears to be a more eroded bed at the bottom of it as near the top---is that a fine grained rock--perhaps a shale? Above that where the plant remains appear to be it looks more sandy...does it have a grainy nature--a sandstone or are all of the beds fine grained? Do we know what formation this is from-----you got my curiosity going again. Do any of the beds contain pebbles/cobbles/rocks which would represent a higher energy environment/event.

Can you show a closeup of the plant remains and any cross section?

Regards, Chris

[Oxytropidoceras]

For a discussion of such upright fossils, go read

DiMichele, W. A., and Falcon-Lang, H.J., Pennsylvanian

‘fossil forests’ in growth position (T0assemblages):

Origin, taphonomic bias and palaeoecological insights.

Journal of Geol Soc London. 2011;168:585–605.

Link at https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/15971

PDF file at https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/15971/paleo_2011_DiMichele_Falcon_Lang_T0Assemblages_JGeolSoc.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Yours,

Paul H.:

[Salvageon]

Strangely enough the bottom layer, where the small fossil is, is a very hard blue gray fine sand or clay that shatters when hit with a hammer. Shards of which draw blood from the idiot wielding the hammer. The middle 4' layer, where the longer growth is, is soft sand or mud stone. This is capped off with the strange obviously catastrophic layer with what looks like a fine coal seam.

[Auspex]

That sequence tells a story, maybe years of seasonal deposition, then an accelerated inundation, then???

Is there a sedimentologist in the house? Mitch, where are you?

This gets more interesting every day!

[Rockwood]

I've seen modern horse tails grow right up through the black top asphalt on a driveway. Mud should be a piece of cake.

[Salvageon]

If it helps the discussion any here is a cross section from the site of a large and small root with a closeup of the small one (little blurry sorry) and a nice section I broke out showing the almost scaly nature of the things. They don't have a large root system just maybe a fuzz and they look like they were tough.

[Plantguy]

Thanks for the additional pictures. It is interesting to see the bedding in the outcrops. I sure wish I could see the section in person as I'm wondering if there might be another possible explanation than just horsetails...I'm not an expert in this and was wondering if there could be roots of another type of plant/tree or could this reflect some secondary plant event after lithification? Maybe Mitch as Chas alluded to earlier or someone else more familiar with possibilities and/or the geology there has some ideas.

Neat stuff!

Regards, Chris

[ashcraft]

If you cover grass with soil, it will grow through the new layer, as long as it is not too thick. When you transplant tomatoes, you can bury about 2/3 of the plant and it will grow just fine.

I suspect a plant that has been around for hundreds of millions of years wouldn't be too put off by a little mud.

Most depositional events don't drop that much silt in most places at one time. For example, we have a large loess deposit measured around 30 feet or more thick. Should have killed all the plants from the huge dust storms necessary to make such a deposit. But it really only dropped about 0.25 inches/year.

Brent Ashcraft

[Salvageon]

Thanks for all the input. To be honest I'm just a surface scratcher not doing a long term study. I'm kind of thinking a short term event due to continuous growth and in a perfect high growth jungle environment the plants could easily keep going. I haven't found any leaves here but have found many of them of different species elsewhere. There are no doubt many different plants and critters buried in there........critters.......got to find critters.

[paleoflor]

The following paper may be of interest: Gastaldo, R. A. (1992). Regenerative growth in fossil horsetails following burial by alluvium. Historical Biology, 6(3), 203-219.

[Salvageon]

Here is one more nice picture of a Horsetail showing its connecting joint (I think). I labeled it because my wife is going to use it as a teaching aid. That paper in that last post didn't download but I'll find it. Thanks