3D model of a fossilised fruit (NHMW-GEO-2024/0188/10426)

<p>This part of a fossilised fruit from the late Cenozoic age was originally described by F.V. Müller in 1871 as <i>Penteune clarkei</i>.&nbsp;We do not yet know to which plant group this species belongs, but it is probably an extinct lineage of the soapberry group of flowering plants (Sapindaceae). This is one segment of a five-sided fruit.&nbsp;Fruits like this are rare in the fossil record, especially since it has not undergone distortion during burial.</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>