| A vintage image of the fossil leaf locality near Verdi, Washoe County, Nevada, originally taken by the late paleobotanist Daniel I Axelrod during one of his fossil collecting expeditions in either 1939, 1947, 1953, 1954, or 1956. Viewing perspective is roughly southwest. The carbonized leaves occur in the sandstones and diatomaceous shales (composed almost entirely of diatoms, a microscopic photosynthesizing single-celled algae) of the upper Miocene Hunter Creek Sandstone, dated by radiometric analyses at 5.8 million years old. |