Description

Araucarian cone

Late Jurassic

Solnhofen Limestone

Solnhofen, Germany.

55mm cone on 103mm slab.

Plant.  Conifer.

“Araucarian” is a term meaning of the form of Araucaria, a genus of evergreen conifers that includes the modern monkey puzzle tree.  It dates back to the Middle-Late Jurassic, which was the time when dinosaurs were dominant and the supercontinent, Pangaea, was starting to break up.

Araucaria would become well established across the world during the Cretaceous but its range became restricted to the southern hemisphere by the early Cenozoic.