National Museums Liverpool Blog

Last August I told you about a project that staff from the Earth Sciences section at World Museum Liverpool were undertaking. They were trying to find out what sort of plants were growing in the Merseyside area about 240 million years ago. Wendy Simkiss from the team provides an update:

Modern and Triassic horsetail.

"A 240 million year trip back in time to a Triassic site on Wirral revealed plant fossils in some of the rock strata.  These were collected during last summer, transported to the museum, examined, drawn, and numbered.  What we found was that most of the remains were from horsetails and conifers.  They are being identified and photographed in more detail at the present time.

One of the mysteries facing us is why all the fragments are so small.  We are attempting to find this out using examples of modern plants related to the fossil ones and seeing what happens as they dry up and disintegrate.  The photograph shows one of these tiny plant fossils from the Wirral site."

The top image shows modern horsetail growing wild. The lower image shows fossilised horsetail. This piece of rock is just 5mm tall. Images by Alan Bowden.

Fossil horsetail fragments found in the siltstones. These are the most abundant plant fossils.

If you think that garden restoration projects are daunting, spare a thought for the geologists who are attempting to reinterpret a lost world. Imagine trying to recreate your garden from the contents of your compost bin after it hasn't been emptied for years. That's the nature of the task geologists face when trying to picture a long vanished world.

Staff from the Earth Sciences section at World Museum Liverpool are currently involved in long term field work investigating the Triassic flora of Merseyside. The aim is to find out what type of plants grew locally 242 million years ago so that we can get a better picture of that past environment.

Exposure of Triassic siltstones containing plant remains

The region is famous for the fossilised footprints of the dinosaurs' ancestors (you can see some at the museum). However, we can also learn about the environment from the fragmentary remains of plants - we currently known very little about their distribution or diversity.  We aim to learn as much as we can about the Triassic plant communities and the role they played in supporting the population of plant eating reptiles (Rhynchosaurs) and meat eaters (Chirotherium).

Over the coming months staff from the team will be reporting back on what they find and we'll post the results here. In the meantime if you want to find out more contact either Alan Bowden or Wendy Simkiss.