Spore Building - Archaeopteris PNG

(Not to be confused with Archaeopteryx)

A tall plant with fern-like leaves, Archaeopteris grew during the Late Devonian to the Early Carboniferous, around 383 - 323 million years ago. Its remains have a global distribution, and are often used as index fossils for their time period.

Archaeopteris grew up to about 10 metres in height. With proper wood, branches and buds, these tree-like plants were related to the earliest gymnosperms, even though technically they still reproduced using spores.

These early trees grew in wet soil, often near rivers or on floodplains. They often formed large forests. The expansion of these forests played a big part in changing the Earth's climate, by making the atmosphere richer in oxygen.


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