Walchia
{{Short description|Extinct genus of conifers}}
{{Taxobox
| fossil_range = ~{{fossil range|310|290}}
| image = Walchia piniformis.jpg
| image_caption = Walchia piniformis
| regnum = Plantae
| divisio = Pinophyta
| classis = Pinopsida
| ordo = Voltziales
| genus = Walchia
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision =
}}
Walchia is a primitive fossil conifer found in upper Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) and lower Permian (about 310-290 Mya) rocks of Europe and North America. A forest of in-situ Walchia tree-stumps is located on the Northumberland Strait coast at Brule, Nova Scotia.
Besides the Walchia forest, fallen tree trunks, and leaflet impressions, the forest, fossil-rich layer contains numerous, 4-legged, tetrapod fossil trackways.
Individual species
W. hypnoides: from the schists of Lodeve; also copper slates of the Zechstein in Mansfeld.
Monuran trackways
At the same time period of 290 mya, another species was making fossil trackways, now preserved in New Mexico; Walchia leaflets are found in the same fossil layers. The Monuran trackways were made by Permian, wingless insects called monurans, (meaning "one-tail"); the insects' means of locomotion was hopping, then walking.
These 290 mya layers contain footprints of the large Dimetrodon, large/small raindrop impact marks, and also these fossil trackways of insects.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
;General articles:
- [https://archive.today/20130201200200/http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V6W-45PTTH7-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=68cccc3a559630cc4ea61f58b8d00ee0 Chemosystematic and microstructural investigations--(including Walchia)]
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=g04-0wFBOEUC&dq=walchia+conifer&pg=PA178 Book preview-(1854)--W. hypnoides discussion]
;Walchia Fossil examples:
- [http://www.geology.19thcenturyscience.org/books/1896-Dana-ManGeol/figures/705-fig1147t.gif Graphic of W. piniformis branchlets], from James D. Dana, "Manual of Geology" [http://www.geology.19thcenturyscience.org/books/1896-Dana-ManGeol/htm/doc-full.html]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20081012121659/http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/photos_images/news_images/01_2007/Walchia_lg.jpg Photo-High Res]; [http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=7994 Article] – www.news.ucdavis.edu--"A Bumpy Shift from Icehouse to Greenhouse", Fossil from Smithsonian. Walchia went from the 'Uplands' to the lower basins-(floodplain forest region of Brule, Nova Scotia).
- [http://www.colby.edu/~ragastal/Images/walchia.gif Photo-High Res--4 cm width Leaflet-(Order Voltziales)]; [http://www.colby.edu/~ragastal/Paleobotany/Permocarboniferous.htm Article] – www.colby.edu-"Carboniferous Paleoecological Scenarios"
;Walchia fossils, with Monuran trackways:
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20071225141508/http://www.hmnh.org/archives/category/paleozoic/ "The Footfalls and Bellyflops of Permian Insects"] – (from the Robledo Mountains of New Mexico)
{{Taxonbar|from=Q3185543}}
Category:Prehistoric gymnosperm genera
Category:Carboniferous life of Europe
Category:Carboniferous life of North America
Category:Permian life of Europe
Category:Permian life of North America
Category:Paleozoic life of Nova Scotia
Category:Paleozoic life of Nunavut
Category:Paleozoic life of Prince Edward Island