It is interesting to learn more about what it was like back then. It's a part of our history, part of our life. The plant fossil record of western North America and Canada stretches back 500 million years, detailing not only types and species of plants that once grew here but showing dramatic climatic shifts and continental movement. But it is a very incomplete record. Fossils that have been found represent only a small number of the plants that have lived on the planet.
Most plants decay after they die, turning into chemicals and nutrients that replenish the soil.
Only those lucky enough to have been buried in a lake or swamp, or been covered by volcanic ash, or subjected to one of the few other natural processes that allowed preservation, have survived in anything like the original form. Perhaps it is that rarity or that connection with the past, but plant fossils have long fascinated both academic and amateur collectors alike. And, he says, paleobotanists get a lot of help from these collectors. They send in samples and want to know what they are. Many of his hermie wood pieces have come in that way.