Permian Plants

Hidden within the red rocks of the North Texas Permian, scientists find clues about the conditions of the Permian climate that prevailed at the time the rocks were deposited.  Clues are found not only in organisms, but also in the fossil soils that developed at that time, and in turn, the plants that grew in those soils. Near Seymour, scientists see the first appearance of “Red Bed” floras. During Early Permian, the seashore was to the south and west of Seymour. Following the end of the Carboniferous, the world began to see a great transition – the dominance of terrestrial ecosystems for the first time. The climates began to change as well, becoming hotter and dryer. Plants that preferred dry conditions, such as the Permian fern Rhachiphylum, became abundant. Plant fossils that grew on the coastal plain include Auritofolia, Walchia, and numerous conifers of the Comioid type. In the geology near Seymour, Texas, we see the transition from marine to terrestrial as the rocks change from older dense grey limestones to younger red silts and clays deposited on flood plains of rivers that carried water from the mountains north and east of northcentral Texas. The animals and particularly the plants that lived here provide information about the prevailing regional and local habitats.