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Product Description
SPECIAL NOTE: The current laws in this region of Germany have forbid the collection of fossils since 1986 with this quarry specifically, being closed and protected by state law. Legislation has permanently ended the hope of ever securing any new specimens as this one being offered here. This piece comes from an old German private collection and was collected long ago before the ban was enacted.
More than any other fossil dealer online, one of our prime specialties is offering the rarest and most impressive Permian fossils of Germany. We have handled a number of pieces that exceed what most if not, all museums of the world, house in their collections. This specimen offered here is one of only a few complete Walchia sp. branch fossils we have ever seen and it is one of the largest. We have seen a few on the market in the past that are sold with an amphibian or alone but in every case, those pieces had extensive restoration to the leaves and stems drawn on the stone plate. While common in small fragments, a fossil of a complete LARGE Walchia branch such as this, is most definitely a piece fit for the finest and rarest plant ( AND Permian!) fossils!!! Walchia sp. was a prehistoric conifer that lived in the swamp forests of what is now Western Germany during the Lower Permian. Plate has crack repair with the back of the plate being reinforced with epoxy for strength. This is our ONE AND ONLY complete example, devoid of any restoration and only has a light, sealer applied to the fossil for stabilization and preservation as these fossils once split and exposed, are very fragile.
HISTORY
Walchia was a prehistoric plant that thrived during the Permian Period, before the first dinosaurs walked the earth. The roots of these plants were not particularly strong and during storms, large numbers were up-rooted and deposited in low lying regions, rapidly buried under sediments. These buried beds of decomposing plants existed in a unique environment without oxygen during the breakdown process. The result was the formation of coal which is found today in the region.
These plant fossils were formed in a different manner from the coal deposits. The fossils were found in what once was a swampy aquatic environment and their burial was less dramatic than mass burials that formed coal beds. Alongside these graceful plants, fish such as Paramblypterus and amphibians such as Sclerocephalus swam below the quiet, calm Permian waters nearby. They lived and went extinct before the very first dinosaurs!
