View of the 'The Fossil Grove', Victoria Park, Whiteinch, Glasgow, Renfrewshire


' Fossil trees of Lower Carboniferous age.
Some of a group of ten well-preserved natural casts of lower rooted portions of Lower Carboniferous Lepidodendron trees.

The trees are rooted in shale, which would have been the soil that they originally grew in, and are overlain by sandstone which ultimately preserved them. Some dolerite (teschenite) sills have intruded the sandstones and shales of Fossil Grove, wedging apart and locally baking the beds.

During the Lower Carboniferous, Scotland had a tropical climate and trees such as these flourished across the huge deltas and swamps which abounded hereabouts. On death, the trees would have contributed to the organic matter which ultimately became coal.

SCRAN ID: 000-000-147-320-C; British Geological Survey