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Carboniferous Fossils

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Here, we have a Lepidodendron fossil called a “scale tree” after its scale-like bark. These trees would grow in the wettest part of the peat bog (Carboniferous swamp) and could grow up to 160 feet tall! There are also two Neuropteris fossils known as “seed ferns,” though they are not real ferns. They grew in peat bogs and next to rivers and could grow to be 30 feet tall. These plants were very common and can be identified through its rounded or heart-shaped leaves. These specimens are examples of plants that would form coal in the peat bogs. 

Most coal was formed during the carboniferous age, in large vegetative swamps. Coal is made from dead plant matter, these dead plants would be "shielded" from oxygen in thin layers of the swamp, being unable to decay. The movement and compaction of the earth's plate tectonics would compress the dead plant matter into hydrocarbon molecules, creating coal rich in carbon. The more the plates moved, the denser the compaction of coal would become. Sadly, plants today cannot form coal since there are now legions of bacteria and fungi that decompose the dead matter.
 

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  1. Coal Geological Materials Selby Hearth

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