Eocene Cache Creek Plant Fossil Mosaic with Three Families

Originating in British Columbia, Canada, these Middle Eocene tree fossils exemplify some of the defining events of Paleobiology in the Tertiary (see discussion below). Six types of plant fossils are in association:

• Betula leopoldae (Birch) - Family: Betulacaea
• Metasequoia occidentalis (Dawn Redwood) - Family: Taxodiaceae (a Conifer that unlike the predominant evergreen Conifers was actually deciduous)
• Alnus parvifolia (Alder) - Family: Betulacaea

This plant fossil association plate at is both very large and showy. A large birch leaf and two alder leaves are essentially complete, and there are partials of six more. There are many dawn redwood sprigs as readily visible in the pictures. The darker leaves on a lighter brown shale matrix makes for a quite striking plant fossil mosaic.

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.