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1 S C I N C P L A N T S PLANTS Ancient Plants in Focus This nrichment4you e-guide provides a brief overview of ancient leaves. In this e-guide you will: *Learn basic Information About Fossilized Leaves *Learn About Flowers, Ferns, Cones & Seeds *Learn how to Make a Fossilized Leaf Skeleton Using Japanese Beetles, Fossilized Plant Strata, a Fossilized Fern, and a Fossilized Panel NRICHMNT4YOU Published by Henrich Incorporated Copyright 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without first obtaining the written permission of the copyright owner. Plants Ancient Leaves

2 ABOUT THIS NRICHMNT GUID This enrichment guide is designed to introduce you to the many different types of fossilized botanicals. This nrichment4you e-guide has several interesting sections to explore: 1. Learn basic Information About Fossilized Leaves - Pages Fossilized Flowers, Ferns, Cones & Seeds - Page Make a Fossilized Leaf Skeleton Using June Bugs - Pages Make a Fossilized Plant Strata - Pages Make a Fossilized Fern in Plaster - Pages Make a Fossilized Panel - Pages Plants Ancient Leaves

3 A New Adventure FOSSILIZD BOTANICALS L A V S Plants encompass one of the major Kingdoms - Plantae. Without plants, life would be in question. They provide a source of food, a means to clean the air, and a source of economic livelihood. Fossilized plants have been discovered throughout the world. Decayed plants from thousands of years ago, provide huge deposits of coal and oil reserves. Although plants are considered to be on the lowest level of the food-chain, they are the most essential part of that chain. COR CONCPTS Through the process of photosynthesis, plants have been able to sustain themselves and provide food for the rest of the planet. Scientist believe that plants were one of the earliest forms of life. Fossilized plants have been found in coal, petrified wood, amber, slate and other rock material. The oxygen in the air today, is the result of thousands of years of photosynthesis. Plants 1 Ancient Leaves

4 Petrified Ancient Plants Fossilized plants are formed through a process called Petrification. Petrification is the replacement of the plant parts with mineral-like materials. Ground water seeps between the pressed layers where leaves have been compressed. Ground water often has minerals such as silica and calcite which are left behind by the ground water. Petrification can take thousands of years. The actual time required depends on such factors as the ph level and temperature. FUN FACTS Fossilized plants are usually the impression of an original plant that has been preserved in rock. Plants 2 Ancient Leaves Plant fossils are commonly discovered in rocks where the original habitat was somewhat acidic. Areas where mudstones and shales are located are often good places for searching for fossilized plants such as ferns. Larger plant parts such as tree trunks, pine cones and seeds can be discovered in sandstone regions. Sturdier plant materials are usually replaced with minerals and become fossils such as petrified wood. Tree bark has also been fossilized. When tree trunks or branches fell to the ground and the right conditions existed, the patterns of the bark were imprinted into rock.

5 Preserved Forever Ancient Plants There are several ways plants can be preserved as fossils. The following is a description of each possibility: 1. Hard parts are unaltered. Rarely the skeleton remains intact without being changed by chemicals. 2. Impression/Mold. Most fossils are found covered in layers of sediment that become cemented together. Any remains of the object dissolve away leaving an empty space where the original object once was located. This is a mold or impression 3. Carbonization of organism. Under heat and/or pressure, all the plant material is eliminated leaving a carbon film of the original. Coal is an example of this process. Plants 3 Ancient Leaves 4. Permineralization. Many organic materials are porous. The tiny holes can be replaced by minerals in a solution. Petrified wood is an example of the mineral silica replacing the organic material of the wood. 5. Replacement. This fossilization process takes place when the organic material is replaced by another material, molecule by molecule. 6. Recrystallization. This process of fossilization involves the original mineral crystals being changed in size or shape, but the actual chemical makeup of the crystal remains the same.

6 Flowers, Ferns, Cones &Seeds Arranged to Perfection FRNS Whether alive or fossilized, ferns are some of the most beautiful and easily identifiable plants. The great coal deposits located in West Virginia and Pennsylvania are made up of large layers of fern plants that were once buried in peat bogs. Over many, many years and with a tremendous amount of pressure, the layers of fern were condensed into fossil-rich layers of coal. Within these layers are plates of fossilized seed fern fronds. FLOWRS Fossilized flowers are rare. The fragility of the flower parts and their brief time in bloom, limited the numbers that were preserved. CONS & SDS Fossilized cones and seeds are rare. Gymnosperms are plants that have naked seeds. These seeds are not produced inside an ovary. There are four main divisions within Gymnosperm plants: Coniferophyta, Cycadophyta, Ginkgophyta and Gnetophyta. Seed ferns are extinct gymnosperms that look like real ferns, but rather than reproducing by spores, reproduce by seeds. Plants 4 Ancient Leaves Coniferophyta (cone-bearing trees and shrubs) - include Conifer trees which produce cones which are the seed-producing part of the tree. Cycadophyta (Cycads) are palmlike plants that have large seed-producing pollen cones. Ginkgophyta (Maidenhair Tree) - Considered a living fossil, Ginko trees are native to China. Ginko seeds are borne in pairs on dwarf shoots. Gnetophyta - very unusual types of plants. They vary from tropical climbing plants, desert dwellers to shrub-like plants.