Ohio 4/26 What kind of plant?

[saysac]

Found today.Not sure what it is?

[tmaier]

The way the veins radiate from the base of the stem, and there are no major veins, it resembles a Ginkgo.

Edited April 27, 2016 by tmaier

[saysac]

Thank you tmaier

[Fossildude19]

According to this website, :

"The earliest fossils assigned to the Ginkgoales come from the Permian, though some of these do not clearly belong in this group. Both Trichopitys and Polyspermophyllum, from the Lower Permian, have forking leaves and short, forking, ovule-bearing appendages that closely resemble features of Ginkgo. Both of these have been compared to other seed plant groups."

Sherry's fossils are from the Carboniferous,... so while this item may superficially resemble Ginkgo sp., something in the seed fern family is more likely.

From the wikipedia page on Ginkgo:

"The most plausible ancestral group for the order Ginkgoales is the Pteridospermatophyta, also known as the "seed ferns", specifically the order Peltaspermales. "

I think some research will need to be done to figure out what it is - unless one of our resident plant experts is familiar with the Carboniferous seed ferns that may match.

You may have an earlier occurrence of Ginkgo, or a completely new plant, or,... a piece of a plant that has been beat up, and damaged in some way as to make it unrecognizable. Cool, whatever it is.

Regards,

Edited April 27, 2016 by Fossildude19

[saysac]

You are always helpful Tim, and I thank you. It definitely does not look like the entire leaf, sad to say. I guess I am so spoiled by finding the entire leaf that just a piece makes things a bit more challenging.

Sherry