Calderdale is a busy valley, and through it runs the main road from Greater Manchester and Lancashire to West Yorkshire. Though just off the road, is an easily accesible relic from the Carboniferous period. The Carboniferous Period lasted from about 359.2 to 299 million years ago, and the rocks that lie underneath the valleys and hills of this part of West Yorkshire were formed millions of years ago at a time when the whole of what is now the North of England was covered by huge river deltas and lagoons. Sediments, mainly sands, silts and muds, were eroded from hills in an area that now includes Scandinavia and Greenland and were swept into vast river deltas and lagoons in a central basin in a position now occupied by the Pennines. The sediment settled to the bottom as the water slowed down in the deltas and lagoons. The nearest equivalent sediments of today are forming in huge river deltas such as the Mississippi delta. Amongst the sediment that was was washed down there was also bits of plants, the same thing happens today.
Paleobotany is the study of plants, dealing with their identification of plant remains from the geology, which then aids in the understanding of what the past enviroment was like.
So lets be a Paleobotanist.
Plants you may have found in the Carboniferous:
Calamites.
Calamites were a genus of extinct tree-like horsetails to which the modern horsetails are closely related. These plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights of more than 30 meters (100 feet). The trunks of Calamites had a distinctive segmented, bamboo like appearance and vertical ribbing. The branches, leaves and cones were all borne in whorls. The leaves were needle-shaped, with up to 25 per whorl.
Lepidodendron
The Lepidodendron tree, also known as the scale tree, was an extinct primitive plant related to the club mosses which sometimes reached heights of over 30 metres. They thrived during the Carboniferous Period before going extinct. They had tall, thick trunks that rarely branched and were topped with a crown of branches bearing clusters of leaves . These leaves were long and narrow, similar to large blades of grass, and were spirally-arranged. The closely packed diamond-shaped leaf scars left on the trunk and stems as the plant grew provide some of the most interesting and common fossils in Carboniferous deposits.
Ferns
Ferns are still about today, and indeed you may see some if you are up here in summer.
This being an EarthCache, in order to log it, I ask that you answer some questions. Please send them to me, and do not include them in your log. You can send them to me by using the message facility or email, both of which can be found by looking at my profile. It is not meant to be difficult to do.
So at the listed co-ordinates there is a plant fossil.
1. Please describe the location of the plant fossil, is it on the upper, lower, or side aspects of the rocks?
2. How wide is the plant fossil?
3. Please describe the plant fossil, what does it feel like, what does it look like, how wide is it?
4. Please describe the colour and general feel of the rock outcrop.
5. What type of plant fossil is it?