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Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A common fossil plant of the Carboniferous coal-measures, supposed, in some cases at least, to have furnished an important constituent of the coal itself. By most fossil botanists Lepidodendron is considered to be closely allied to the club-mosses (Lycopodiaceæ), now widely spread plants. The fossil clubmosses are, however, not identical in structure or external appearance with any now living, one important difference being the much larger size of the fossil forms. The surface of the stem of Lepidodendron is marked by peculiar, prominent, quincuncially arranged, and generally lozenge-shaped “leaf-cushions” (also called “bolsters” and “leaf-bases”), which are sometimes distinctly separated from each other, and sometimes confluent above and below, and which vary greatly in size and shape with the age of the plant to which they belong. The leaf-scars are also usually rhombic (sometimes heart-shaped), and are situated on the upper or central part of the cushion, and marked with vascular impressions or scars, which are usually three in number, the middle one being always the largest. The young twigs were clothed with long narrow leaves. The internal structure of the plant varies considerably with the species, of which great numbers have been described, based chiefly on the differences in form and size of the leaf-cushions and -scars, which are now generally considered as furnishing very unreliable data for specific distinction. The fossil Lepidodendra are chiefly casts of the exterior. These plants are very characteristic of the middle and lower divisions of the productive (Carboniferous) coal-measures, and are widely distributed over the world. One species of Lepidodendron (corrugatum, Dawson) is very characteristic of the Lower Carboniferous in America. In Europe this genus is especially developed in the lower parts of the coal-measures. Sternberg, 1820. See
Sigillaria .
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Paleon.) A genus of fossil trees of the Devonian and Carboniferous ages, having the exterior marked with scars, mostly in quincunx order, produced by the separation of the leafstalks.
Examples
“The lepidodendron tree died and them gave birth to me”
“Get the passive student once into palæozoology, and he takes your other hard names -- your ichthyodorulite, trogontherium, lepidodendron, and bothrodendron -- for granted, contemplating them, indeed, with a kind of religious awe or devotional reverence.”
“{97} The specimens found in the muschelkalk are allied to the crocodile and lizard tribes of the present day, but in the latter instance are upon a scale of magnitude as much superior to present forms as the lepidodendron of the coal era was superior to the dwarf club-mosses of our time.”
“In no other age did the world ever witness such a flora: the youth of the earth was peculiarly a green and umbrageous youth, -- a youth of dusk and tangled forests, of huge pines and stately araucarians, of the reed-like calamite, the tall tree-fern, the sculptured sigillaria, and the hirsute lepidodendron.”
The Testimony of the Rocks or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed
“In the Middle Old Red Sandstone there also occurs a small fern, with some trace of a larger; and one of its best preserved vegetable organisms is a lepidodendron, -- an extinct ally of the Lycopodiums; while in the upper beds of the system, especially as developed in the south of Ireland, the noble fern known as _Cyclopteris”
The Testimony of the Rocks or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed
“Devonian basin of Sabero in Spain, its characteristic organisms are, a lepidodendron (_L.”
The Testimony of the Rocks or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed
“We find it associated with the remains of a terrestrial plant allied to lepidodendron, and which in size and general appearance not a little resembles one of our commonest club mosses, -- _Lycopodium clavatum_. [”
The Testimony of the Rocks or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed
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Words of Dinosaurology
This quickly got bigger and weirder than originally intended, so now it's housing terms that relate to the study of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. See also Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Ichthy...
zygopophyses, ziphodont, plesiomorphic, cleidoic, endothermy, ectothermy, viviparous, vertebrae, cervical, dorsal, sacral, caudal and 628 more...
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