Lepidodendron veltheimianum

Size: Up to 40 m tall
Time: 330 Million years ago
Period: Carboniferous
Location: World-wide

Hundreds of millions of years before the dinosaurs the world held an impressive array of giant tree size plants related to the much smaller present-day club-moss plant. Remains over 330 million year old are found in a variety of locations world-wide.

The pictures are some I took at Fossil Grove in Glasgow, Scotland, which is worth a visit. There are at least ten exposed erect trunks and root systems of the ancient tree Lepidodendron veltheimianum and their root system Stigmaria ficoides.

There are also parts of trunks lying across the floor of the quarry.

Despite their tree-like size these ancient plants have a much weaker structure than modern trees. The inside of the ancient plants held soft and pithy material instead of any woody structures. It would seem unlikely that these plants could grow so tall in present gravity.

The creatures which lived in these ancient forests looked, apart from there size, very similar to their smaller present-day descendents. On the ground were giant salamanders, cockroaches, scorpions, spiders, millipedes, and centipedes. In the air massive Carboniferous dragonflies dominated the air.

Earth Data

Gravity: 0.35g

Life’s Scale Factor

Linear: present x 2.8