Fossil On The Rim EarthCache
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After a day of hiking and caching, we came across one of the pull offs overlooking the canyon and found a neat discovery. We found a fossil all alone high up on the rim of the canyon waiting to be discovered. I have been here many times to take in the beauty of this part of the country and never realized just what was embedded beneath my feet. I hope you enjoy this Earth Cache as much as I enjoyed finding it!
Calamites, genus of tree sized, spore-bearing plants that lived during the Carboniferous and Periman period (about 360 to 250 million years ago). Calamites had a well-defined node-internode architecture similar to modern horsetails, and its branches and leaves emerged in whorls from these nodes. Its upright stems were woody and connected by an underground runner; however, the central part of the stem was hollow, and fossils of Calamites are commonly preserved as casts of this hollow central portion. Calamites grew to 20 metres (about 66 feet) tall, standing mostly along the sandy banks of rivers, and had the ability to sprout vigorously from underground rhizomes when the upper portions of the plant were damaged. The remains of Calamites and other treelike plants from the Carboniferous Period were transformed into the coal used as a source of energy today.
Calamites is one of the most well-known fossils of the Carboniferous and the Permian. It is found as a stem with a longitudinal ribbing and, at some distance from each other, transverse lines or nodes. In most cases the stem of Calamites is flattened, but sometimes it is more or less threedimensional. In this case the fossil shows no internal structure: it is just petrified sediment. This is the reason that it is difficult to get an impression of the composition of the Calamites tree.
Most of the fossils of Calamites are casts of the central cylinder of the trunk. After the tree had died, this cavity got full of sediment, after which the bark and the wood of the trunk decayed. So only a cast of the central cylinder remained. The longitudinal ribbing on it is the counterpart of the serrate pattern on the inside of the central cavity. The transverse lines at the cast indicate where the diaphragms were placed in the central cylinder. These diaphragms or nodes are characteristic for horsetails. They gave rise to the wirls of leaves and branches.
To fulfill the requirements for this Earth Cache, you must answer the following questions to the best of your ability. Please e-mail me the answers and not in your log.
- In your opinion, what is the length and width of the fossil?
- What 2 periods did Calamites live in and how long ago was that?
- How tall did Calamites usually grow and where could they be found?
- What type of plant does Calamites resemble of our modern day?
- What do we find Calamites in today and what do we use it for?
- What type of rock is this fossil embedded in?
- What is the name of the overlook you are at?
- (Optional) Although it is not required, I would like to see you with GPS in hand either standing in front of the sign without giving away any information, or a picture of the fossil and GPS beside it.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
2 cnprf Abegu sebz gur fvta.
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