Fossil of Oldest Flowering Tree in North America Discovered. And It Was Huge.

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This artist's reconstruction shows the newly discovered ecosystem, with both conifers and flowering trees, as well as dinosaurs, crocodylians, turtles, pterosaurs and sharks.
This artist's reconstruction shows the newly discovered ecosystem, with both conifers and flowering trees, as well as dinosaurs, crocodylians, turtles, pterosaurs and sharks. (Image credit: Sae Bom Ra)

During the late Cretaceous period, northeastern Utah was home to pterosaurs, duck-billed dinosaurs and fearsome therizinosaurs with claws that would put Edward Scissorhands to shame.

Now, add to that list giant flowering trees.

The fossil is the first documented angiosperm greater than 9.8 feet (3 m) in diameter from prior to 75 million years ago, study researcher Michael D'Emic, a biologist at Adelphi University in New York, told Live Science in an email.

Lucky log

The petrified log dates to between 94 million and 90 million years ago, part of the late Cretaceous period. At the time, a vast interior seaway cut North America in two. The log was found in what was once an ancient river delta by this seaway.

"It was transported far from the original forest," D'Emic said.

Fragment of a fossilized leaf from the Ferron Sandstone in Utah. (Image credit: Nathan Jud)

The researchers couldn't assign the tree to any one species, but they found that it belonged to the genus Paraphyllanthoxylon, a group that contains at least 11 species of fossilized tree.

Rare find

The finding is important, D'Emic said, because it's unusual to find fossil wood from the Cretaceous. That led to the question of whether the wood simply wasn't being preserved in the fossil record or whether flowering trees simply weren't around in that period.

The new results suggest they were around and growing as part of the forest canopy, D'Emic said.

"This has importance for how we understand both climate and plant-animal interactions during the Cretaceous period," he said. 

The researchers also found fossilized segments of turtles, a shark tooth and teeth from Cretaceous-era relatives of crocodiles.

Original article on Live Science.

Stephanie Pappas
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.