This is Mazon Monday post #216. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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Nederlands: Artistieke impressie van de Sigillaria
Syringodendron sp. is the inner bark of a undetermined Sigillaria. It's considered rare in Mazon Creek. Syringodendron is thought to be Sigillaria trunk before fossilization. The impressions that run vertically are called Parichnos scars. When there are double impressions side-by-side, they are sometimes referred to as “hare’s trails”.
Syringodendron sp. was named by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (1761 - 1838) in 1820. Sternberg was a Bohemian theologian, minerologist, geologist, entomologist, and botanist. He is widely known as the "Father of Paleobotany". The Linda Hall Library had a nice post about him for "Scientist of the Day" on January 6th, 2021.
Kaspar Maria von Sternberg, a Bohemian botanist, was born Jan. 6, 1761, in Prague. Sternberg was one of the founders of what is known as paleobotany (or, to the British, palaeobotany), the study of fossil plants. In 1820, when Sternberg published the first part of his Versuch der Flora der Vorwelt (Study of the Plants of the Prehistoric World, 1820-38), fossils were just beginning to be understood as the most important key to deciphering the earth's geological history, but the fossils used by such geohistorians as William Smith and Georges Cuvier were almost exclusively animal fossils, mollusks for Smith, and vertebrates for Cuvier. Sternberg was one of the first to point out that plant life had also changed over the eons, and in his book, he showed how to distinguish Paleozoic plants from those of the Mesozoic or Cenozoic.
Syringodendron sp. appears on page 16 of Jack Wittry's "A Complete Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek".
1820. Syringodendron sp.; Sternberg
1958. Syringodendron; Langford: p. 114, fig. 207DESCRIPTION: Syringodendron is bark which lacks leaf cushions. It has only poorly formed pit-like leaf scars in single or double rows centered down deep vertical channels. All surfaces are usually longitudinally striated.
REMARKS: Syringodendron is very rare. It is the underlying bark of an undetermined Sigillaria. The few known examples in the Mazon Creek flora are small and difficult to divide into species. This inner bark was often exposed in life on the lower and oldest parts of the trunk.
Specimens
From Jack Wittry's "A Complete Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek"
Danville Spoil Pile. ESCONI member Jeremy Zimmerman
Danville Spoil Pile. ESCONI member Rich Holm
