Lepidodendron Fossil
January 13, 2015
Photographer: Tom Wildoner; Tom's Flickr site
Summary Author: Tom Wildoner
The fossil at lower left was found by my wife and me during a hiking trip in 2013 in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. It's called Lepidodendron, also known as the “scale tree,” and shows the outside scale of this large tree that lived some 350 million years ago. This specimen measures approximately 4 in x 3 in (10 cm x 7.5 cm) across. The inset graphics show what the tree may have looked like. Given the right conditions, pressure and time, these trees eventually turned into coal. Photo taken on December 19, 2014.
Photo details: Canon 6D camera; 100 mm macro lens. Inset graphics from Wikimedia Commons.