Originating in British Columbia, Canada, here is a rarely seen fossil association, a large Alnus leaf (Alder - Family: Betulacaea) together with a not quite complete ray finned fish Eohiodon rosei (Cavender, 1966).

The rich brown Cache Creek shale yield fossil plates that are beautiful collages, and this large plate is no exception.

The Eocene was a period when flowering plants continued a massive radiation that began in the Paleocene Epoch. Plants thrived, and with that many animals, as new environmental niches were filled. The first grasses appeared with growth near the root as opposed to the tip, providing a renewable food resource and place of refuge for many animals. Small mammals radiated. Many new species of shrubs, trees and small plants appeared. A variety of trees thrived in a warm Eocene climate, including beech, elm, chestnut, magnolia, redwood, birch, and cedar, and more. The evolution of plants was providing a powerful selective pressure across the entire animal Kingdom, and many new symbiotic systems appeared.