a blast from the past

38A: Alethopterius serlii (seed fern) [Pennsylvanian, 300 mya, upper Carboniferous], originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

While we ponder the future, it might be interesting to ponder the past as well. This seed fern fossil from Pennsylvania is over 300 million years old. It is pretty amazing that you can see and touch something that old I think. If you look close you can even see the veins in the leaves. The seed ferns are all extinct now, and was a separate lineage leading up to the seed plants.

I don't think we even can imagine 1 million years, really. When we talk and plan for the future we think 10-20 (maybe 50) years ahead, not 1000 years, not 10 000 years. And here is this leaf that is 300 000 000 years old. It puts things in perspective, I think, but we often forget about the timescale of things.