''Arthropitys'' is an extinct genus of calamitacean equisetale. The

petrified In geology, petrifaction or petrification () is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this p ...

fossils of ''Arthropitys bistriata'', the type species, can be found at

Chemnitz petrified forest The Chemnitz petrified forest is a petrified forest in Chemnitz, Germany. Most of the trunks are exhibited in the Museum of Natural History in Chemnitz inside of Kulturkaufhaus Tietz , including slices of trunks with polished edges. A small col ...

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany ...

, Germany.

History

Petrified In geology, petrifaction or petrification () is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this p ...

trunks of

tree ferns The tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae (scaly tree ...

, seed ferns,

conifers Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All exta ...

as well as

Cordaitales Cordaitales are an extinct order of gymnosperms, known from the early Carboniferous to the late Permian. Many Cordaitales had elongated strap-like leaves, resembling some modern-day conifers of the Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae. They had cone ...

and different species of

Calamites ''Calamites'' is a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which the modern horsetails (genus '' Equisetum'') are closely related. Unlike their herbaceous modern cousins, these plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights o ...

. The primeval plants were repeatedly discovered from the 17 century ongoing till today and mostly at Hilbersdorf, today a district of Chemnitz. In the mid-18th century, gemstone prospector David Frenzel (1691-1772) found numerous examples of this wood in the hills in and around Chemnitz. One of his 1751 finds is one of the few petrified wood specimens still possessing its roots. Later a collector, the Hilbersdorf contractor Güldner, bequeathed some of the petrified logs to King Albert Museum in Chemnitz. The first director of the Museum, Johann Traugott Sterzel, took over the investigation of the findings. The Sterzeleanum in the museum (the petrified forest display) is dedicated to him. Arthropitys sp 56

References

Equisetales Fossil taxa described in 1884 Permian plants {{permian-plant-stub