Ferns

Ferns are plants with true leaves, but without seeds.

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta

Horsetails and ferns are older than flowering plants, and they are still alive today (see left).

Timescale: Ferns appeared about 360 million years ago. They are, of course, still with us.

This fern is Pecopteris from the Carboniferous age. It is from Braidwood, Illinois. Size: 40mm

These ferns are Alethopteris serli, from Radstock, Somerset, from Big Bright's seam coal measures, Upper Carboniferous.
Stone size: 70mm

Horsetails are related to ferns. There are still horsetails today (see left - found by an English road).

Modern horsetails are quite small, but the ancient horsetails grew very large. Below is a horsetail or Equisetum. It is from the Wadhurst clay, Freshfield Lane Quarry, Sussex. It is from the Cretaceous period.

Fossil size: 60mm

Horsetail

I'm not sure what these last two are!

Stone size: 27mm
Leaves

Stone size: 30mm
Leaves