Late Eocene

Copper Basin Flora

Elko County, Nevada, USA

Excellent 2 inch conifer branch.

Leaf, Conifer.

Here is a plant fossil from a time when the once-tropical forests that covered much of the Rocky Mountain region of North America and north up through Canada were well on their way to being replaced by temperate, more open woodlands.  The trees of this time were essentially modern though their geographic ranges would have been different as the North and South poles were still ice-free.

Branches of any size are rarely found as fossils.