| Fossil plant specimen from the upper Miocene Disaster Peak Formation, High Sierra Nevada, Alpine County, California. Preserved on a chunk of andesitic sandstone. Approximately 7 million years old. It's a branchlet from an extinct variety of cypress, called scientifically Cupressus mokelumnensis; it is most similar to the living Chinese weeping cypress native to southwestern and central China. Photograph courtesy a specific technical document. |