An Incredibly Life-Like Reconstruction Of A 400 Million-Year-Old Plant

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Using little more than a flattened fossil, researchers from UC Berkeley have created a stunningly life-like computer rendering of a long-extinct lycopod. A quick glance at this primordial plant reveals a very alien-looking species.

The computer rendering was compiled by graduate student Jeff Benca.

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"Typically, when you see pictures of early land plants, they're not that sexy: there is a green forking stick and that's about it. We don't have many thorough reconstructions," noted Benca in a statement. "I wanted to give an impression of what they may have really looked like. There are great color reconstructions of dinosaurs, so why not a plant?"

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His realistic, full-color image earned him a spot on the cover of a recent edition of the American Journal of Botany.

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The plant is called Leclercqia scolopendra, or centipede clubmoss, and it lived during the "age of fishes," more commonly known as the Devonian Period. It featured shoots about a quarter-inch in diameter and likely formed prickly, scrambling, ground-covering mats. The function of its hook-like tips is unknown, though they may have been used to clamber over larger plants.

Today, lycopods are represented by a group of plants called called club mosses, quillworts and spikemosses. And in fact, Benca referenced these distant relatives when creating his computer rendering.

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Read the entire study at American Journal of Botany: "Applying morphometrics to early land plant systematics: A new Leclercqia (Lycopsida) species from Washington State, USA." Additional information via UC Berkeley.

Image: Cathy Cockrell photo; Jeff Benca rendering.