570 vanished lives

128Mesozoic

Flower-like reproductive organs nestled among cycad-like leaves, but this bennettitalean was not a flowering plant.

129Mesozoic

Long leaves divided into broad segments formed part of the cycadophyte layer beneath Jurassic trees.

130Mesozoic

What looked like one trunk was a false stem woven from many small axes and adventitious roots.

131Mesozoic

Elongated aquatic stems bore petal-less reproductive structures important to debates about early flowering plants.

132Mesozoic

Curved cupules containing ovules hung beneath compound leaves in this puzzling seed plant.

151Mesozoic

Several separate woody columns occupied one stem beneath clusters of long leaves and unusual male and female organs.

152Mesozoic

A stout barrel-shaped trunk held a pinnate crown and many flower-like bisexual reproductive structures among old leaf bases.

153Mesozoic

Finely pinnate fronds carpeted Jurassic understories, each toothed leaflet crossed by repeatedly branching veins.

155Mesozoic

Tall conifers bore nearly spherical cones whose internal scales and ovules were silicified by volcanic landscapes.

349Mesozoic

Four net-veined leaflets belonged to a seed fern rather than a true fern.

350Mesozoic

Silica replaced fallen trunks to create today's multicolored petrified forest.

420Mesozoic

Columnar lycophytes formed pioneer stands after the end-Permian catastrophe.

421Mesozoic

Paired forked fronds became an emblem of Triassic southern vegetation.

424Mesozoic

Orderly lance-shaped leaves lined stems of a widespread but enigmatic plant.

504Mesozoic

Leaves of different lengths on one shoot record an early stage of modern conifer architecture.

505Mesozoic

Entire strap-shaped leaves with dense side veins define a form genus rather than one secure lineage.

551Mesozoic

Thick leathery pinnules and lower-surface stomata helped this seed fern withstand seasonal dryness.

552Mesozoic

Huge, nearly undivided strap leaves opened from a stout cycad-like crown.

553Mesozoic

Tough pinnate leaves crowned cycad-like trunks around compact flower-like reproductive organs.