Fossil Seeds

Help!  Summer has intruded upon my ability to concentrate.  I have lost the push to keep going on popcorn and somehow wandered into fossil seeds.  I have a few fossils, but no seeds.  A school favorite is fossilized turtle poop from Florida.  "Does anyone know what a coprolite might be?" Kid responses when they find out what they are examining  always have the class in an uproar :-)

The following are all seeds though!

London Clay fossil seeds found 14th July 2009 at Eastchurch - Sheppey  -  from schming2001

Some 350 named species of plant have been found, making the London Clay flora one of the world's most diverse for fossil seeds and fruits.

Link: Nice old photos, too  http://www.bucksgeology.org.uk/london_clay.html

Link: 1840- A history of the fossil fruits and seeds of the London clay  By James Scott Bowerbank

Do a fossil seed search on ebay and you will have quite a choice!

SEED SAMARA

Oligocene, Muddy Creek Formation

Beaverhead County, Montana

** This is a compression fossil seed from a deciduous tree over 25 million years ago.  A "samara" is a seed fruit with a flattened wing that enables the seed to be transported longer distances by the wind.  Most of us are familiar with those ubiquitous maple seed "helicopters that seem to spin their way down to the pavement from the branches.  That "helicopter" is properly called a "samara".  Some samaras have a structure attaching two different seeds to give them the ability to spin while others are singles and depend upon random movement by gusts of wind or breeze.  This very well preserved samara measures .5 inch in length on a plate 2 inches square and 3/8 inch thick.