Cordaites were primitive trees that went extinct millions of years ago. No lineage of descendants survives today.
Shown here is an example of it's leaves which were characteristically strap-shaped, increasing in width from base to tip. Leaf veins ran parallel with the long axis of the leaf, resembling the monocot veins of corn leaves.
Rock Type: Sandstone; fine-grained
Formation: Kanawha
Interval: Coalburg seam
Age: Middle Pennsylvanian Period, approx. 307 million years.Location: Nicholas County, West Virginia; Ramp Run Surface Mine #1, located about 12 miles north of Summersville, West Virginia. Turn west off route 19 north of Summersville onto Spruce Run Road. Follow it about 7 miles. It is now mostly reclaimed, but there is still some good collecting along the exposed rock rip-rap outslope of the sediment ditch along Buffalo Creek.
