5.4" Fossil Leaf (Eugenia) Pos/Neg - Green River Formation, Colorado

Fossil Leaf (Eugenia) Pos/Neg - Green River Formation, Colorado #250739

This is a 5.4" fossil leaf (Eugenia americana) from the Green River Formation of Piceance Creek Basin, Colorado. It shows primary venation and the dark color of the leaf contrasts nicely against the cream colored shale. While the Green River Formation is best know for its fish fossils, other areas produce incredible plant fossils.

Both halves of the split are included and each is accompanied by an acrylic display stand. There is a repaired crack through the shale on the darkest split half.

A note on Green River leaf identifications. Over 60 described leaf bearing plants have been identified from this formation, many of which have very similar leaves. We have done our best to provide identifications based on the resources available to us, but we are not paleobotany experts and cannot guarantee that all will be 100% correct.

50 million years ago, in the Eocene epoch, these fish thrived in Fossil Lake, which was fed by the Uinta and Rocky Mountain highlands. The anoxic conditions at the bottom of Fossil Lake slowed bacterial decomposition, prevented scavengers from disturbing corpses, and, most interestingly, suffocated creatures that ventured into the oxygen-starved aquatic layer. The result is a miraculous exhibition of Eocene biota: a subtropical aquatic community within sycamore forests, teeming with creatures such as freshwater stingrays, dog-sized horses, menacing alligators, early flying bats, and one of the first primates.

A view of one of the commercial quarries where fossils from the Green River Formation are collected.