Fossil Trees

Trees like ginkgos and dawn redwoods are called “living fossils” due to their ancient origins that date back to the days of the dinosaurs.

January 7, 2025 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

The alamosaurus, a sauropod dinosaur of the late Cretaceous period, stretched its long neck to graze the upper leaves of a tall gingko growing in what is now Utah. It was unaware of the predator lurking among the dawn redwoods nearby – a tyrannosaurus rex preparing to attack.

This is a hypothetical scenario, but we do know that gingkos and dawn redwoods, trees that grow comfortably in Headwaters today, trace their lineages back to the era of the dinosaurs.

Those dinosaurs, except for their avian branch – the birds – were wiped out by the cataclysmic asteroid impact that closed the Cretaceous period. But ginkgos and dawn redwoods survived. They are branded as “living fossils” due to their ancient origins.

dawn redwood living fossil — The dawn redwood is a fast growing coniferous tree that is native to China but now being grown in North America. Photography by Don Scallen.

dawn redwood foliage — The fern-like, feathery foliage of the dawn redwood.

Gingkos were once widely distributed in the northern hemisphere, but over the eons their range shrank. By the 20^th century, natural populations of gingko (Gingko biloba) were only found in a small area of central China. Others persisted as cultivated specimens at Buddhist temples.

Seeds, though, were sent to nurseries worldwide, and now gingko has reclaimed parts of the planet it retreated from millions of years ago. In Europe and North America, it is recognized as a worthy urban tree. A lovely gingko grows in Caledon.

gingko living fossil — Foliage of a gingko tree.

The other “living fossil” is dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), a deciduous conifer with a lineage dating back to the late Cretaceous period, 100 million years ago.

Botanists in the early 20^th century only knew dawn redwood from fossils. Then, in a story that echoes the discovery of living coelacanths in 1938 – a fish species believed to have gone extinct in the late Cretaceous – living dawn redwoods were found in China in the 1940s.

Dawn redwood is now endangered in its wild Chinese haunts. However, like gingko, its future appears secure. It is popular in the nursery trade and now grows throughout the temperate world.

Gingkos and dawn redwoods are admired for their beauty and their suitability for urban landscaping. That their early relatives kept company with the dinosaurs only adds to their allure.