File:Clevelandodendron ohioensis (fossil club moss) (Ohio Shale, Upper Devonian; Cleveland, Ohio, USA) 2.jpg

English: Clevelandodendron ohioensis Chitaley & Pigg, 1996 - fossil club moss in black shale from the Devonian of Ohio, USA. (stem is ~2 centimeters across; holotype, CMNH P-2975, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

This is an extremely rare fossil club moss from Cleveland, Ohio. It comes from an Upper Devonian, marine black and gray shale succession called the Ohio Shale. In the Cleveland, Ohio area, the Ohio Shale consists of a lower black shale unit called the Huron Shale Member, a middle gray shale unit called the Chagrin Shale Member, and an upper black shale unit called the Cleveland Shale Member. This fossil comes from the Cleveland Shale. The black shale portions of the Ohio Shale were deposited in a moderately deep, anoxic seafloor environment. This was a widespread lithofacies during the Late Devonian. The Ohio Shale is equivalent to the Chattanooga Shale, the Antrim Shale, and the New Albany Shale in surrounding states.

The entire plant is present on this black shale slab and is ~1.25 meters long. The original living land plant was upright.

---

From exhibit signage:

Clevelandodendron ohioensis CMNH P-2975 Holotype

This slender club moss was described in 1996 and named in honor of the bicentennial anniversary of the City of Cleveland. It grew 363 million years ago during the Upper Devonian Period and was found in the Cleveland Shale Formation during the construction of Interstate 71. The fossil was named by Doctors Shya Chitaley of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Kathleen B. Pigg of Arizona State University.

---

Classification: Plantae, Lycophyta, Lycopsida, Isoetales

Stratigraphy: Cleveland Shale Member, upper Ohio Shale, Famennian Stage, upper Upper Devonian

Locality: 1965 to 1968 road construction exposure at the Interstate 71-West 130th Street intersection, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, northeastern Ohio, USA