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Plant Megafossils
Common name: white cedar or false cypress. Chamaecyparis linguaefolia was a tall tree that probably grew along the valley bottom. Foliage and cones have been found, but none of the petrified stumps have yet been identified as Chamaecyparis. The eight modern species live on the coasts of North America and in Eastern Asia, far from Florissant, but the common juniper (Juniperus communis) and Rocky Mountain red cedar (Sabina scopulorum), which are in the same family, may be found in the Monument. The fossils are most similar to Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, which grows in modern-day southwestern Oregon and northeastern California, where modern redwoods grow.
References
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