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The Nature of Creation: Joseph Haydn's Oratorio and Beyond: ASU Fossil Plant Collections: Land Plant Evolution

The exhibit explores the nature of Creation through human imagination and creativity, as depicted in visual arts, music, cosmological narratives, utopian writings, maps, and scientific work.

ASU Fossil Plant Collections: Land Plant Evolution

Pertica quadrifaria, Lower Devonian, Maine: ASU Fossil Plants: 69A.

ASU Fossil Plant Collections: Land Plant Evolution (see 3D dioramas)

The evolutionary success of plants is undeniable. Their colonization on land was the single largest change ever seen on the planet and set the stage for the emergence of more highly evolved oxygen-breathing organisms. 

Approximately 450 million years ago, during the Silurian Period, the earliest land plants began taking in large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. The fossils you see here are from the Lower Devonian Gaspé Sandstones of Quebec (Psilophyton forbesii and Sawdonia ornatum), New Brunswick (Psilophyton crenulatum) and Maine (Pertica quadrifaria). These plants have branched stems, but no leaves, roots or flowers. Sawdonia ornata, Psilophyton forbesii and Psilophyton crenulatum were fairly small at around 3-4 inches tall. Pertica quadifaria was a bit taller — up to 6 feet high. The modern plant that most closely resembles these Devonian plants is the whisk fern Psilotum nudum, which grows in southeastern Arizona today.

Scroll down to download a PowerPoint presentation of fossil plants from exhibit case.

Pertica quadrifaria, Lower Devonian, Maine: ASU Fossil Plants: 69A
ASU Natural History Collections

Developed by ASU Natural Collections: Elizabeth Makings, Kathleen B. Pigg and Anne Basham with BioKIC (Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center). We also thank Patricia G. Gensel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for her consultation.

Plant Evolution Videos

Devonian Period

Devonian Plants from CambrianScience: A good overview of plant evolution in the Devonian Period.

Devonian plants: Shows some fossils, localities and paleobotanists related to some of the fossils on display. Patricia Gensel, New Brunswick Museum, Canada.

Carboniferous (Mississippian and Ennsylvanian Periods in the US)

Carboniferous Period by Paleofan: Nice overview of landscape reconstructions and plants. 
Pennsylvanian age fossils: One outcrop that has lots of Pennsyvanian plants (St. Clair, PA).

Cretaceous Period

Reconstructions of fossil landscape from Late Cretaceous of Colorado.

Eocene Epoch

Republic Plant Fossils: Shows a trip to Stonerose Interpretive Center and the fossil site.

Miocene Epoch

Miocene Clarkia: Emerald Creek, Idaho.

Geological Time Periods 

Evolve or Perish Game: National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution.

The ASU Library acknowledges the twenty-three Native Nations that have inhabited this land for centuries. Arizona State University's four campuses are located in the Salt River Valley on ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. ASU Library acknowledges the sovereignty of these nations and seeks to foster an environment of success and possibility for Native American students and patrons. We are advocates for the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems and research methodologies within contemporary library practice. ASU Library welcomes members of the Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh, and all Native nations to the Library.