On this week’s Growing Up Green At Home, find out how to make your own plant fossil from things you can find at home. Read on to learn about prehistoric plants and discover lots of fun living fossil activities!

Living Fossils

Did you know that some of Allan Gardens’ coolest plants have been around since the time of the dinosaurs? We call them living fossils. Cycads, staghorn and tree ferns, dawn redwood and ginkgo trees are all examples of living fossils you can find in Allan Gardens Conservatory and Park.

Cycads like this Chestnut Dioon were eaten by dinosaurs. To help them digest the tough, fibrous leaves, the dinosaurs would swallow stones (about as big as a toonie), which ground down the leaves in their gizzard.

A living fossil may be defined as a plant that lived during ancient times and still survives on earth today. The term was used by Charles Darwin 150 years ago, and also refers to a plant that has been reintroduced and cultivated in a region where it once flourished millions of years before.

Scientists track the appearance and evolution of plant life by analyzing fossils, but they haven’t found many specimens because plants decompose so quickly. Fortunately, nature has its ways of recording history.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/plant/plant/images-videos

Plant fossils are formed when plant matter (such as stems, leaves, roots, spores, seeds, or fruits) is protected from rapid decomposition by being covered with sediment such as clay, mud, sand, and volcanic ash.