This is the "Fossil Friday" post #265. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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This week's Fossil Friday is a beautiful Sphenopteris spinosa from the Mazon River. S. spinosa was part of the forest understory. It was described by Heinrich Göppert in 1841. Göppert (1800 - 1884) was a German botanist and paleontologist. He was a professor of botany and the curator of the botanical gardens in Breslau. In the 1840s, he demostrated the existence of plant cells in microscopic preparations of coal, which settled the long running debate as to the origin of coal. At that time, his private collection of specimens of fossil flora was considered the finest in the world. See Mazon Monday #240 for more information.
This particular specimen was collected from the Mazon River.
