Description

Isoetites sp.
Gymnosperm
Early Cretaceous
Santana Formation – Crato Member
Aripe Basin, Brazil.

Specimen is 120mm on 165mm matrix. Rare example of a complete plant from the Cretaceous.

Isoetites is an extinct genus of quillwort, an aquatic plant of the ancient Class Lycopodiopsida (lycopods). Quillworts are rather obscure plants except to botanists. Isoetites dates back at least to the Middle Jurassic of Idaho and Oregon, surviving into the Eocene of North America.

This would be a great specimen if it were some common kind of plant but it’s especially fantastic to be something as unusual as a quillwort.