Do you have a ginkgo plant at home? Compare this 60 million-year-old leaf fossil with your modern day ginkgo and see how incredibly similar they are!
The ginkgo adiantoides species existed throughout much of the tropical northern areas of North America during the Paleocene epoch, and disappeared roughly 7 million years ago. Despite its age gap, the leaves from this species and leaves from present-day ginkgo biloba look nearly identical. There is no fossil evidence of any species of ginkgo during the Pleistocene, yet modern Ginkgo biloba in China somehow survived and continues to thrive in Asia (and was brought to other continents in the 1700s).
Type: Ginkgo Leaf
Species: Ginkgo adiantoides
Age: Paleocene (66 - 56 million years ago)
Formation: Fort Union Formation
Locality: Almont, North Dakota
Size: 5 x 3.25 x .5 inches
Weight: 3.6 oz.