Pertica quadrifaria is the
scientific name of a primitive plant that lived about 390,000,000 years
ago during the Devonian Period. Its fossilized remains were discovered
in 1968 in the rocks of the Trout Valley Formation in Baxter State Park
near Mount Katahdin. Based on the type of rock it is found in today and
the other fossils associated with it, Pertica quadrifaria grew in a brackish
or freshwater marsh near an active volcano. Fragments of the plants were
preserved when they fell into the marsh and were covered by sediment before
they could decay. After millions of years of burial, the plant remains
are now exposed along eroding stream banks.
The Pertica quadrifaria probably
reached a maximum height of about six feet, making it the largest land
plant at that time (Pertica is a Latin word meaning a "long pole or rod").
Its stem, which measured up to one inch in diameter, had both sterile and
fertile branches arranged in four rows which spiraled up the stem (quadrifaria
means "in four ranks"). The fertile branches ended in dense clusters of
sporangia, or spore cases, while the sterile branches subdivided to form
forked tips. These forked ends may represent the first step in the evolution
of leaves.
Pertica quadrifaria is the
scientific name of a primitive plant that lived about 390,000,000 years
ago during the Devonian Period. Its fossilized remains were discovered
in 1968 in the rocks of the Trout Valley Formation in Baxter State Park
near Mount Katahdin. Based on the type of rock it is found in today and
the other fossils associated with it, Pertica quadrifaria grew in a brackish
or freshwater marsh near an active volcano. Fragments of the plants were
preserved when they fell into the marsh and were covered by sediment before
they could decay. After millions of years of burial, the plant remains
are now exposed along eroding stream banks.