Description

Gymnosperm
Early Cretaceous (Berriasian)
Yixian Formation
Huangbangi Valley, Beipiao, Liaoning Province, China

21mm sprig with 7mm cone on 37mm slab.

Here’s an unidentified conifer cone from the time when conifers were already well-established around the world, having appeared back in the Pennsylvanian Period.  This is also the time when angiosperms (flowering plants) were making their appearance. They would begin dominating many plant communities by the end of the Cretaceous.

Unusual piece with the cone still attached to its stem.