Description

Spinifructus antiquus (Dawson)
Late Cretaceous
Hell Creek Formation
Harding County, South Dakota, USA

36mm fruit on 121mm sandstone matrix. No repair or restoration. As found.

These fruits were originally thought to be fossil figs until modern study found they belong to the palm family (Arecaceae), closely related to the genus Astrocaryum. Were they food for dinosaurs? The Hell Creek Formation was certainly full of them.

See: McIver, E. E. (2002). The paleoenvironment of Tyrannosaurus rex from southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 39(2), 207-221.