RARE Permian Glossopteris Fossil from Antarctica

Description: Scant but important fossil plants are known from several locations in Antarctica. This specimen of a pair of leaves and associated fragments on the reverse comes from the Polar Institute expeditions of over 50 years ago. The actual plant from which it comes in a member of the genus Glossopteris. Glossopteris sp leaves are a widespread fossil, but are difficult to assign by species because of the wide variety of venation patterns and morphology. This one is named for the location in which it was found. Glossopteris trees are found throughout what was once Gondwnana, another support for continental drift. The genus derives its name from the green words for tongue and fern. They favored a swampy habitat, and some had leaves up to a meter in length. The leaves have only rarely ever been found attached to braches, but the restoration here is of one that had a tree-like habit. Few Glossopteris leaves have been found in strata younger than the Permian, a time that closed with the greatest of all mass extinctions on the planet. This example is the last I have, and I have no prospects of getting additional material at this time. See my other offerings for a Triassic fern frond.