Crinoid, Plant & Fern Fossils for Sale

Ferns date back to beginning of the Mesozoic period – 360 million years ago. Fern and plant fossils are formed by the plant resting in sediment which is then compressed into sedimentary rock. Ferns today, are leafy plants that do not have seeds but reproduce from spores. Early fernlike plants, Rhacophyton, are the ancestors of ferns today. The size of pre-historic ferns, ranges from tree-like (which populated swampy coal forests) to low ground cover. Flora of the Carboniferous period (Coal Measure) is very rich in ferns and has many differing species; Calamites, Cordaites, Lepidodendron as well as seed ferns, called Peridospermatophyta. However, the most abundant plants, are the Pecopteris seed ferns, with fossils showing leaf, branches and trunk sections of the Calamites horse tails, as well as the needle like leaves of the giant Lycopod scale-trees. Horsetail are related to ferns. Prehistoric ones grew very large but today they are relatively small.

Crinoids, which were marine animals, are one of the oldest fossil groups and appeared 300 million years before dinosaurs. They appeared in the Cambrian period and can still be found today. They have an array of branching arms (brachials) around a goblet like main body (calyx) which was attached to the sea bed.

Plant fossil is any conserved part of a plant that has long since died. Of such these fossils may be prehistoric that are many millions of years old

Come and see all of our crinoid, plant and fern fossils for sale avaliable below.