A genus of extinct tree ferns from the Carboniferous period, known from their fossilized stem structures.
From Greek 'kaulos' (stem) + 'pteris' (fern). Named descriptively to indicate these were ferns with distinctive stem features; now only found in the fossil record.
Caulopteris fossils are basically ancient tree-fern skeletons preserved in coal and rock—they show us that 300 million years ago, tropical rainforests had giant ferns with thick woody stems like trees!
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