Seed Fern Fossil (Neuropteris ovata Hoffman) Collection of the Everhart Museum, E122 Fossils (Latin fossus, meaning "having been dug up") are the mineralized or otherwise preserved remains of animals, plants, and other organisms. This fossil of a seed fern was collected at the Cayuga Mines in 1906 and is an example of the variety of local plant fossils in the Everhart Museum’s collection. Seed ferns (pteridosperms) are a group of extinct plants with fern-like foliage but with real seeds; today, ferns reproduce by releasing spores into the air. Pteridosperms were common plants in the Carboniferous period, a period of geologic time that occurred over 300 million years ago.

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