The Fossil Grove
When I visited Victoria Park here in Glasgow the main reason was to see the Fossil Grove, a group of eleven fossilised stumps of Lepidodendron trees dating back to the Carboniferous, when amphibians were the dominant vertebrates, and discovered in 1887 while the park was being built. Really an impressive experience to imagine these primitive trees alive, standing exactly where they still are and towering over a completely different landscape.
At the site I also met an elderly lady who introduced herself as an amateur geologist and we had a really interesting chat about the story of these trees. Unfortunately she also pointed out the lack of funding in keeping Glasgow’s most ancient attraction in good order -you can see the white deposit on the rocky soil caused by water infiltration- which is really a shame when you think the city owes its industrialisation to coal provided by ancient rainforests of these and other trees and plants, like Sigillaria and Neuropteris, some small fossils of which are on display there too. That’s why the geological era they where extant in is called Carbonifererus, which in Latin means ‘carbon-bearing’,
