Deltas of the Carboniferous period were heavily forested but plant species were quite different from those of today.     Tree ferns grew up to 15m high in an equatorial climate of high temperatures and heavy rainfall.     Calamites, a member of the horsetail family of today, grew to a tree size.     Seed ferns such as Neuropteris which often fossilise beautifully with fern like leaves were then abundant but are now extinct.     Club mosses, such as Lepidodendron characterised by spores held on cones, also grew to large sizes.

Leaves may be well preserved in fine grained mudstones and shales, but are broken up during turbulent current action, with leaf fragments found as black flecks in sandstones, a characteristic feature of the Rough Rock.    An impression of a leaf or branch is often represented only by a black carbon film.

Trees and branches brought down by heavy floods and stranded on sandbanks are sometimes preserved in cross bedded sandstones.     Roots and rootlets are often preserved in the soil and sand in which they grew. Quartz rich soils lithified to produce a tough white sandstone called ganister, frequently containing black rootlets in situ.

Many of our local sandstones contain plant fossils from the deltas of the Carboniferous period. Coal measure shales, sometimes have leaf and branch fossils.

This tree trunk fossil is approx 6 to 7 meters long. The tree was probably wedged between the main channel and a sand bank in a river 8km or more wide. Cross-bedding structures can be seen in the massive beds above the tree fossil. Lepidodendron fossils, recognisable by their spore and cone pattern have also been found in this quarry.

Other tree fossils found at Appleton Quarry

For more information about the Rocks and Landscapes of Huddersfield see our other pages on Local Geology and our guide to the Geology of Huddersfield. Publications