The extinct plant Othniophyton elongatum, once thought to be related to modern ginseng, has been reclassified as the sole member of an unidentified family, highlighting greater diversity in the fossil record of flowering plants. Discovered in 1969 in Utah, fossils of Othniophyton were initially linked to the ginseng family, but new findings indicate a unique morphology, suggesting it doesn’t fit within any existing plant families. Steven Manchester and his team analyzed 47-million-year-old fossils and discovered that specimens from the original collection matched with those from the University of California, Berkeley, revealing distinct flowers and fruits previously unseen in ginseng. This research emphasizes challenges in paleobotany, where extinct species are often misclassified into modern families, skewing biodiversity estimates. The fossils were well preserved due to low-oxygen lake sediments that facilitated detailed fossilization in a formerly tectonically active lake. Juggling various peculiar traits of the plant, researchers couldn’t associate them with either living or extinct plant families. Notably, the stamens of this species remained attached even when mature fruits were present—a rarity in modern plants. This discovery calls for a reevaluation of plant evolution and diversity in ancient ecosystems, as more enigmatic species emerge from the Green River Formation.
