"Giant Fossil Scale Tree"

Originally post - Smithsonian NMNH

Reposting from a link that Matt had brought up in Facebook. Freakin' awesome if you tell me. =P

Natural History Highlight
Giant Fossil Scale Tree

In June, 2005, the National Museum of Natural History received one of the largest plant fossils ever collected - 3.9 m (13 ft) long and 3.7 m (12 ft) high, and weighing more than 16 tons.


Fossil preparators are now working in our Mall-side parking lot to reduce the size of the block. You can see them from the Mall steps, if you look down into the parking lot on the side towards the Washington Monument.

Once the specimen is light enough that the Museum's floors can safely support it, the fossil will be brought inside for additional preparation and display.

Dr. Schabilion admiring the fossil tree before
it is shipped to the National Museum of Natural History.


The fossil comes from a coal mine on the Rus family farm located near Pella, Iowa. The Rus family donated the fossil to the University of Iowa, which in turn donated it to the Smithsonian through the efforts of Dr. Jeff Schabilion.

How did this tree become a fossil?


This now-extinct species of a "scale tree", or lycopsid, was preserved 310 million years ago when it fell along a stream bank and was buried by sand. Scale trees and their relatives lived in vast swamps that eventually formed most of the coal that is mined in the Appalachians and Midwestern United States today.

This Museum gratefully acknowledges the generous support of
The Rus Family,
The Vermeer Manufacturing Co. (Pella, Iowa) and
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Original Post: Smithsonian NMNH
Location: Pella, IA 50219, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Martin Head (Southern New Brunswick)

Image
There's a place, called Martin Head, located just West of Fundy Park that people having been going to for a very long time. I've been talking to people and every time I mention camping sites, people would ask me: "Have you gone to Martin Head yet?". As it turned out I hadn't, so thus became an item that went up in my 'To do' list. Martin Head is a mash up of very old and not as old rocks. The 'island' which goes by the name Martin Head is made up mostly of Cambrian rocks, or even older. The basalts are mixed with some sedimentary rocks of about the same age, and some mineral deposits (I couldn't find which type of minerals occurred). The section between the island and the beach which includes some sections of the cliffs are of younger age, dating close to the Late Triassic. Click here for information about the fossilized Sand Dunes of Martin Head. These are mostly buff or reddish sandstones. There is a small section that juts out fr...
Read more

Amethyst Cove (Blomidon, Nova Scotia)

Image
This past Summer I talked to people about collecting local minerals to add to my collection, and several people mentionned Amethyst Cove. Amethyst Cove is a section of Blomidon Provincial Park, near Canning, Nova Scotia. This location is quite difficult to get at as the options to get there are slim. You can access Amethyst Cove either by boat (preferably from Parrsboro at high tide), by walking around Cape Split or from White Water (which could take half a day or more, making it quite fucking impossible), or by repelling down a cliff 300 to 400 feet high, by shaky ropes. I talked to Matt about going to Amethyst Cove someday and didn't think that I would have made it this year. Matt offered to take me there. He was very familiar with the area as he has gone there several time. We picked September 24th to go down. I left Moncton at around 6:30AM and made my way to Halifax to pick up Matt and his buddy Chris. From there we proceeded to drive North towards Wolfville on the 101. (1...
Read more

Rock Hunting in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada)

Image
Me and my buddy Matt went for a trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia this past Saturday (November 26th, 2011) to snoop around the city and try to collect rocks and minerals. Why snoop around a big city for minerals? Halifax lies on top of a granitic pluton, a mass of magma located under the surface which has slowly cooled. The batholith intrusion was exposed over a long period of time, over several million years. The granite that you see on most road cuts leading in and out of the city was part of that feature. With igneous rock comes the chance to find interesting crystals. The area is known for its quartz (smoky), feldspar (K-feldspar), tourmaline, pyrite (fool's gold), and gold among other things. When we arrived in Halifax, we had driven by some road cuts that had yielded several minerals. We parked the car close-by so that we could go take a look before going for a bite to eat. We took some of our gear and headed out to check the outcrops. The granite contained fine to bigg...
Read more