Yixian Sphenopterid Plant Frond

Description: The Yixian formation of China contains a panoply of exquisitely- preserved insects, vertebrates, and plants. This is a fine frond of a fern of indeterminate affinities. After the end Permian extinction event ferns began a slow recovery during the Triassic as climate moderated. They flourished during the Jurassic (commonly known as the Age of Ferns) and Early to Middle Cretaceous. With the ascendancy of angiosperms in the Late Cretaceous the ferns again declined. Some Cretaceous ferns like this one bear evidence of their descending from Paleozoic forms. This one looks much like some of the Sphenothales, but may be something entirely different. It does however show well on the matrix plate.