Description

Late Oligocene
Fisher Formation, Goshen
Lane County, Oregon, USA
30mm seed on 84mm slab.

Plant. Seed.

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

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 far enough away to sprout and grow successfully in the sun rather than be stuck in the shadow of the tree it fell from. It’s a nice innovation from millions of years ago that still works well today.