Middle Miocene (Seldovian)
Sucker Creek Formation – Sucker Creek Flora
Malheur County, Oregon, USA
18mm winged seed on 42mm slab
Seed, Plant.

This is an unidentified seed from a time when the climate in Oregon was warmer than it is now.

Isolated seeds are difficult-to-impossible to identify if they are not known from specimens connected to the rest of the plant.  This is often the case with extinct plants from the Paleozoic or Mesozoic with no modern relatives.

A “winged seed” bears an extended surface that allows them to spin in the air on the way to the ground like a helicopter.  If it catches even a light breeze, it might drift to an open patch of ground where it can sprout and get enough sun and water to grow.

Here’s an affordable plant fossil that shows an adaptation still seen in some modern seeds.