Seed
Early Cretaceous
Jiulongshan Formation
Daohugou Village, China

Very fine 16mm winged seed.

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 especially those with no modern relatives from the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras.

A “winged seed” bears an extended surface that allows them to whirl 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 in the sun rather than just drop next to the tree it fell from where it has less of a chance of growing.

Aren’t we all just trying to find our place in the sun?