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Early vascular plant. comparative_exact_taxon_visual
OBJECT DOSSIER · SMITHSONIAN OPEN ACCESS

Early vascular plant — Cooksonia pertoni

SAGE Museum Deep Time scientific dossier
Artist / Creator
This image is uploaded as image number 211800 at Amgueddfa Cymru Images . This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing .
Date / Period
Silurian · Silurian.
Object Type
plant fossil
Medium
original_fossil
About This Object

Geologic period: Silurian

Age: Silurian.

Feeding: Photosynthetic plant.

Body plan: Simple leafless branching axes with terminal sporangia.

Evidence: Branching axes and reproductive structures are directly preserved.

Why it matters: Cooksonia illustrates an early stage in the evolution of vascular plants and the greening of Earth's continents.

Plain Language Identity: One of the classic early vascular land plants.

What You Are Looking At: Small branching stems ending in spore-producing structures.

Ecosystem: Early terrestrial environment before large forests developed.

Preservation: Compression or impression plant fossil.

Open Questions: Do not reconstruct it as a large leafy modern plant.

Source Urls: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour/current-exhibits/deep-time-virtual-tour-fossil-list; https://www.si.edu/object/cooksonia-pertoni:nmnhpaleobiology_12307064

Enrichment Method: SAGE curated research pass; title and scientific name matched; evidence separated from inference

Scientific name: Cooksonia pertoni

Evidence / representation: comparative_exact_taxon_visual

Why It Is In This SAGE Exhibit

comparative_exact_taxon_visual

Oceans Before Dinosaurs: The Rise of Complex Animal Life.

Provenance
Smithsonian Deep Time source scene: Early Life in the Ocean
Visual source institution: Wikimedia Commons
Exhibition History
Included in the SAGE Museum Dinosaurs & Deep Time staging exhibit.
Collection & Credit

Media license: CC BY-SA 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

Subjects & Themes
Cooksonia pertoni Silurian plant fossil Early Life in the Ocean Oceans Before Dinosaurs
ORIGINAL COLLECTION SOURCE

This object page stays inside SAGE Museum. The Smithsonian link below is provided only as the original scholarly collection record. It opens separately.

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