Fossils

Plant fossils include roots, wood, leaves, seeds, fruit, pollen, spores, phytoliths, and amber. Fossil land plants are recorded in terrestrial, lacustrine, fluvial and nearshore marine sediments. Specifically, pollen, spores and algae are used for dating sedimentary rock sequences. Though plant fossils are abundant in many local regions throughout the world, the remnants of fossil plants are not as common as fossil animals. Early fossils of these ancient plants show the individual cells inside the plant tissue.

The Devonian period saw the evolution of what many believe to be the first modern tree, Archaeopteris. This fern-like tree combined a woody trunk with the fronds of a fern, but produced no seeds. The Coal Measures are a major source of Palaeozoic plant fossils, with many groups of plants in existence at this time. The spoil heaps of coal mines are the best places to collect the things.