Dr R Prehistoric Trees
(http://ztcdd.org/DG/DLScreenshots/PrehistoricTrees.JPG) (http://ztcdd.org/DG/DLScreenshots/PrehistoricTrees1.JPG) (http://ztcdd.org/DG/DLScreenshots/PrehistoricTrees2.JPG) (http://ztcdd.org/DG/DLScreenshots/PrehistoricTrees3.JPG)
Author: Dr. Rick
Category: foliage, trees
Date Added: Nov 11 2007
Updated: September 28, 2026 by fern and Jay to add the foliage to the "Dinosaur Digs" purchase menu filter, to add the tankable Cordaites also to the "Marine Mania" purchase menu filter, to prevent Pleuromeia from crashing non-English versions of ZT, to add geologic period ranges provided by VNDragon for the tooltips, to correct the spelling for Archaeopteris, Chaloneria, Clevelandodendron, and Cordaites (but not in ztd names so that 2 versions cannot be placed in ZT's folders at the same time), to change the geologic period/era for Alethopteris, Archaeopteris, and Pleuromeia to match Dr. Rick's Description, to change the location of Archaeopteris and Pleuromeia to Many to match Dr. Rick's Description, to increase the Esthetic Value for Dicroidium, to change the habitat of Medullosa from Coniferous Forest to Rainforest to match the tooltip and Dr. Rick's Description, to allow Glossopteris, Medullosa, and Pleuromeia on water terrain to match Dr. Rick's Description, to rename the Araucaria version that is recent to Cook Pine in ZT, to change the location of Wollemi Pine to Australia to match the tooltip and Dr. Rick's Description, to allow the Wollemi Pine be turned into tree rubble by large dinosaurs, and to remove unnecessary files. In addition, hacks were created for some of the foliage to show more accurate geologic periods/eras in the foliage purchase menu when used with LANG--ZBorsato.dll.
Current ztd dates: September 28, 2026 for all
Zip sizes:
- Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees.zip - 0.97 MB
- Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees_Combined.zip - 993 KB
- Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees-AlternativePeriodHacks.zip - 19.7 KB
Compatibility: All Game Versions
Description: OK, some of you have been waiting for this with bated breath, and for some of you it will come as a surprise, but whoever you are, here are some lovely DD Prehistoric trees.
Although some of them are 1/4 tile, one is 2x2 tiles because it has such a vast rootstock!! They are nearly all land and water placeable. They display in the correct part of the foliage menu and the icon gives an additional clue what sort of place they like.
Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees.zip has all 32 individual ztds. Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees_Combined.zip has the 32 individual ztds combined into 1 ztd. If you use the combined, you do not need to use the individual ztds. Some of them are quite small and modest, but others are gigantic, in scale with their size in real-life - well as far as we can tell from their fossilised remains anyway. momAKAmom said, "thanks, too, for making so many of them 1/4 tile. It's much easier to use variety and placement to make nicer balance and appearance. The dino exhibits need all the help they can get."
They are configured like the zt DD trees, so they turn to rubble as soon as your dinos get unhappy!!
Dr R CordiatesW is tankable so it can be put in a tank up to 7 units deep and will display properly as soon as the zoo is rotated. If the tank is too deep it can't display correctly.
Graphics and other things by Dr Rick, beta testing by various people, but thanks especially to momAKAmom without whom they would have been nothing like as free of flaws!
In the UCS files for all of these, I have put in cEra so that they should be recognised in-game as being DD. This should not stop them working in original games I don't think. cEra poses a problem as many of these trees are older than the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras that the game includes. For older times, Devonian plants I have used the Triassic cEra; for Carboniferous and Permian, I have used Jurassic (following the lead of the in-game Lepidodendron which is Jurassic in-game). For others, I have put them in the correct cEra. I'm not actually sure that it makes any difference, but I thought I'd do the same sort of thing as Blue Fang. If you use LANG--ZBorsato.dll, Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees-AlternativePeriodHacks.zip contains hacks that will show more accurate geologic periods/eras in the foliage purchase menu for many of these foliage. You still need the individual ztds or combined ztd to use the hacks. The best place to put the hacks is in a hacks folder. If you do not have a hacks folder set up yet, there is information on how to do so in the download topic for the "Allow Purchasing Young Hack". For the foliage that existed in the Carboniferous geologic period, ZT by default will show "Carbonifer..." or "Carbonifer" when using LANG--ZBorsato.dll. But you can use the "Increase Era Space For Objects Hack" (available in a different topic) to show the full Carboniferous word with the latest LANG--ZBorsato.dll.
Alethopteris - A large tree-like seed-fern from the tropical and subtropical Carboniferous about 300 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, tropical rainforest, Jurassic, water placeable)
Aneurophyton - An early tree-fern (or progymnosperm) forming a small tree which has fern-like and conifer-like characteristics, from the Devonian about 380 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, coniferous forest, Triassic, water placeable)
Araucaria - Monkey Puzzles and similar conifers, forming large trees, from the Jurassic right through to the present day. (in-game: large Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana) which matches the in-game tree, and tall, thin Araucaria columnaris (coral reef araucaria or Cook pine), Grassland, Cretaceous, water placeable)
Archaeopteris - An early tree-fern (or progymnosperm) forming the first really large trees on Earth, which has fern-like and conifer-like characteristics, from the Devonian about 380 million years ago. (in-game: large and small, many locations, coniferous forest, Triassic, water placeable)
Bjuvia - A cycad-like conifer from the Permian about 280 million years ago, unusually for a conifer, having large simple (broad) leaves and large cones at the top, wider than they are long. (in-game: many locations, tropical rainforest, Jurassic, not water placeable)
Calamites - A horsetail the size of a large tree! (Modern horsetails are never more than 1 metre [3 feet] tall). From the Carboniferous about 300 million years ago. (in-game: large and small, many locations, coniferous forest, Jurassic, water placeable)
Chaloneria - a clubmoss forming an upright growth during the Carboniferous about 300 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, coniferous forest, Jurassic, water placeable)
Clevelandodendron - a clubmoss forming an upright growth during the Devonian about 380 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, coniferous forest, Triassic, water placeable)
Cordaites - An extinct group of large conifer trees with large strap-shaped leaves found in Carboniferous wetlands about 300 million years ago. (in-game: large and very large, many locations, coniferous forest, Jurassic, large is water placeable, very large can be placed in tanks)
Cycadeoidea - A cycad-like conifer forming a shrub from the Cretaceous about 120 million years ago, unusually for a conifer, having flowers with coloured petals (here shown white) and large cones on the short trunk. (in-game: many locations, tropical rainforest, Cretaceous, water placeable)
Diaphorodendron - A clubmoss forming a vast and extraordinary looking tree! (Modern clubmosses are insignificant little plants no more than a few centimetres [inches] tall.) From the tropical and subtropical Carboniferous about 300 million years ago. Reproductive bodies at the top. (in-game: large – rootstock covers 4 in-game tiles, many locations, coniferous forest, Jurassic, water placeable)
Dicroidium - A seed-fern forming a small shrub, related to Glossopteris, from the Triassic about 220 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, deciduous forest, Triassic, water placeable)
Eospermatopteris - first of the tree-sized tree-ferns forming the first forests on Earth from the Devonian about 400 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, tropical rainforest, Triassic, water placeable)
Ginkgo (note spelling which is correct) - medium to large tree which is a broad-leaved deciduous conifer (honestly!). It is known as a fossil from the Permian, but was found over a 1000 years ago in its last wild haunts by Chinese monks, who cultivated it even after it became extinct in the wild. It was 'rediscovered' in 1691 by the German Engelbert Kaempfer. (in-game: many locations, deciduous forest, Cretaceous, water placeable, matches the in-game tree)
Glossopteris - A seed-fern growing to a large tree, from the Triassic about 220 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, deciduous forest, Triassic, water placeable, matches the in-game tree)
Lepidodendron - Another clubmoss forming a large tree. From the tropical and subtropical Carboniferous about 300 million years ago. Reproductive bodies at the tips of the shoots. The young plants are unbranched and look most peculiar. (in-game: young and very large as well as absolutely huge, many locations, coniferous forest, Jurassic, water placeable)
Lepidophloios - And another clubmoss forming a large tree. From the tropical and subtropical Carboniferous about 300 million years ago. Reproductive bodies along the branches. (in-game: many locations, coniferous forest, Jurassic, water placeable)
Medullosa - A large tree-like seed-fern plant from the tropical and subtropical Carboniferous about 300 million years ago. Seed-ferns were the first plants on Earth to bear seeds. (in-game: many locations, tropical rainforest, Jurassic, water placeable)
Pleuromeia - a clubmoss forming an upright growth during the Triassic about 220 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, coniferous forest, Triassic, water placeable)
Psaronius - An elegant tree-fern from the Permian about 280 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, tropical rainforest, Jurassic, water placeable)
Pseudosporochnus - A primitive tree-fern, forming a small Devonian tree about 400 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, tropical rainforest, Triassic, water placeable)
Sigillaria - Another clubmoss forming a huge tree of weird appearance. From the tropical and subtropical Carboniferous about 300 million years ago. Less branched than Lepidodendron and with bigger leaves. Reproductive bodies on the branches. (in-game: many locations, coniferous forest, Jurassic, water placeable)
Tempskya - For a plant biologist, this is the weirdest of a weird lot! It has what appears to be a tree trunk which is actually made up of clusters of roots and stems bundled together, and at intervals up it there are small bundles of fern leaves. It was found in the Cretaceous about 120 million years ago. (in-game: many locations, tropical rainforest, Cretaceous, water placeable)
Williamsonia - cycad-like conifer forming a small tree from the Cretaceous about 120 million years ago, unusually for a conifer, having flowers with coloured petals (here shown orange) and cones at the end of branches off the main trunk. (in-game: many locations, tropical rainforest, Cretaceous, water placeable)
Wollemia - Monkey puzzle-like conifer known only from fossils until it was found in a valley in Australia in 1994. For that reason I have made two versions of it, one for DD and the other as an Australian contemporary savannah plant. (in-game: Australian savannah, not water-placeable AND many locations, savannah, Cretaceous, water placeable)
Click here to download Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees.zip (http://ztcdd.org/DG/DownloadFiles/Foliage/Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees.zip)
Click here to download Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees_Combined.zip (http://ztcdd.org/DG/DownloadFiles/Foliage/Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees_Combined.zip)
Click here to download Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees-AlternativePeriodHacks.zip (http://ztcdd.org/DG/DownloadFiles/Foliage/Dr_R_Prehistoric_Trees-AlternativePeriodHacks.zip)
The Prehistoric Trees were updated September 28, 2026 by fern and Jay to add the foliage to the "Dinosaur Digs" purchase menu filter, to add the tankable Cordaites also to the "Marine Mania" purchase menu filter, to prevent Pleuromeia from crashing non-English versions of ZT, to add geologic period ranges provided by VNDragon for the tooltips, to correct the spelling for Archaeopteris, Chaloneria, Clevelandodendron, and Cordaites (but not in ztd names so that 2 versions cannot be placed in ZT's folders at the same time), to change the geologic period/era for Alethopteris, Archaeopteris, and Pleuromeia to match Dr. Rick's Description, to change the location of Archaeopteris and Pleuromeia to Many to match Dr. Rick's Description, to increase the Esthetic Value for Dicroidium, to change the habitat of Medullosa from Coniferous Forest to Rainforest to match the tooltip and Dr. Rick's Description, to allow Glossopteris, Medullosa, and Pleuromeia on water terrain to match Dr. Rick's Description, to rename the Araucaria version that is recent to Cook Pine in ZT, to change the location of Wollemi Pine to Australia to match the tooltip and Dr. Rick's Description, to allow the Wollemi Pine be turned into tree rubble by large dinosaurs, and to remove unnecessary files. In addition, hacks were created for some of the foliage to show more accurate geologic periods/eras in the foliage purchase menu when used with LANG--ZBorsato.dll.