Leaf Fossil Specimen

This beautiful leaf fossil piece contains several different types of leaf specimens.

The only two we are sure of are:

One leaf is : from the Eocene period (long, skinny leaf)

the other is: Cardiospermum Coloradensis (balloon vine)

This lovely leaf fossil is from the Green River Formation in Uintah County, Utah which is one of the most well known fossil sites in the Untied States. They were formed during the Eocence period. LONG DESCRIPTION: The Eocene Epoch took place between 56 to 33.9 million years ago. “It is a is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope 12C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the Grande Coupure (the “Great Break” in continuity) or the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Siberia and in what is now Chesapeake Bay. As with other geologic periods, the strata that define the start and end of the epoch are well identified,[3] though their exact dates are slightly uncertain.

The name Eocene comes from the Greek ἠώς (eos, dawn) and καινός (kainos, new) and refers to the “dawn” of modern (‘new’) fauna that appeared during the epoch.”- Wikipedia.org-