3D model of an isolated coalified fruit with seeds preserved (NHMW-GEO-2024/0188/10398)

<p>This is a fossilised fruit: <i>Spondylostrobus smithii</i>. Fruits like this are extremely rare in the fossil record, especially since it has not undergone distortion during burial.&nbsp;While originally thought to be the seed cone of a conifer (e.g., the southern conifer <i>Callitris</i>), it is now regarded as the five-sided fruit of a flowering plant (most likely the cashew family, Anacardiaceae).&nbsp;It was recovered from sediments of middle Cenozoic age from the gold fields of Victoria (southeastern Australia) during the gold rush of the middle 1800s.</p><p>This object is part of the historical ‘Ettingshausen collection’, which is on permanent loan from the Institute of Biology, University of Graz.</p>