Biology:Walchia

From HandWiki
Short description: Extinct genus of conifers

Walchia
Temporal range: ~310–290 Ma
Walchia piniformis.jpg
Walchia piniformis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
Division:
Class:
Order:
Genus:
Walchia
Species
  • Walchia garnettensis
  • Walchia hypnoides
  • Walchia piniformis

Walchia is a primitive fossil conifer found in upper Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) and lower Permian (about 310-290 Mya) rocks of Europe and North America. A forest of in-situ Walchia tree-stumps is located on the Northumberland Strait coast at Brule, Nova Scotia.

Besides the Walchia forest, fallen tree trunks, and leaflet impressions, the forest, fossil-rich layer contains numerous, 4-legged, tetrapod fossil trackways.

Walchia trunk

Individual species

W. hypnoides: from the schists of Lodeve; also copper slates of the Zechstein in Mansfeld.

Monuran trackways

At the same time period of 290 mya, another species was making fossil trackways, now preserved in New Mexico; Walchia leaflets are found in the same fossil layers. The Monuran trackways were made by Permian, wingless insects called monurans, (meaning "one-tail"); the insects' means of locomotion was hopping, then walking.

These 290 mya layers contain footprints of the large Dimetrodon, large/small raindrop impact marks, and also these fossil trackways of insects.

References

External links

General articles
Walchia Fossil examples
Walchia fossils, with Monuran trackways

Wikidata ☰ Q3185543 entry