Glossopteris (a seed fern) was the dominant southern hemisphere tree during the Early Triassic period.

Understandably, it attracts more visitors than the display case dedicated to coal-age seed ferns.

The seed ferns were by far the earliest seed plants, and must have included the ancestors of the later plants.

Glossopteris is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct seed ferns.

The plants are part of the group called seed ferns because they are seed-bearing plants with fern-like leaves.

Initially Beck described the genus as possibly a precursor to the seed ferns or pteridosperms.

It is believed to be most closely related to the giant seed ferns which date back to the Jurassic era.

Neuropteris is an extinct seed fern that existed in the Carboniferous period, known only from fossils.

On land, at least 20 kinds of plants like early conifers, horsetails, and seed ferns grew.

Caytoniaceous seed ferns were another group of important plants during this time and are thought to have been shrub to small-tree sized.