A MIND-boggling discovery has left scientists even more puzzled about one of the most mysterious fossils ever found.
A 47-million-year-old plant fossil, first unearthed in Utah’s Green River Formation decades ago, has revealed that the so-called “alien plant” is even stranger than anyone thought.
It is so strange, in fact, that it defies classification entirely.
The unique specimen, known as Othniophyton elongatum, turns out to have no known relatives, living or extinct, making it a one-of-a-kind enigma in the world of paleobotany.
What makes this discovery so shocking is that despite all efforts to match the plant to any modern or ancient species, scientists are still left with more questions than answers.
The plant has neither modern nor extinct relatives, making the “alien” the only example ever seen of its kind.
“It’s unclear how much diversity in this mysterious extinct group has been lost to time,” a statement from researchers read.
“We just don’t know what else was out there.”
With an unprecedented look at its full anatomy — thanks to cutting-edge technology — researchers have found that this “alien” plant is even more bizarre than the initial fossil leaves suggested.
And it’s raising more eyebrows about just how much of the Earth’s ancient biodiversity has been lost to time.
The fossil was first uncovered in 1969 in the rich fossil beds near the ghost town of Rainbow, Utah, where palaeontologists initially found only a handful of leaves.
These leaves, which led them to name the species Othniophyton elongatum, were unlike anything seen in living plants.
Back then, based on the shape and vein patterns of the leaves, researchers speculated that the plant might belong to the ginseng family.
But it wasn’t until new fossils were discovered and analysed that the truth began to emerge — and it wasn’t anything like they initially thought.
The breakthrough came when Steven Manchester, curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History, came across a well-preserved specimen in the University of California, Berkeley paleobotany collection.
This new fossil, found in the same region as the original, provided a more complete picture of what the plant may have looked like.
For the first time, researchers were able to see the plant’s leaves, flowers, and fruit attached to the stem, something that is extremely rare in fossil records.
Normally, plant fossils are found in separate pieces — leaves here, fruit there — but this specimen allowed scientists to examine the plant as a whole.
“This fossil is rare in having the twig with attached fruits and leaves,” said Manchester.
“Usually, those are found separately.”
But even with this new information, the plant refused to fit into any familiar category.
The researchers had hoped to match it with one of the 400-plus families of living flowering plants, but no match was found.
Even comparisons to known extinct plant families turned up nothing.
The plant was entirely unique, with features no modern plant shares, making it an outsider in the fossil record.
One of the most surprising findings was the plant’s unusual reproductive organs.
In most plants, the male reproductive organs — called stamens —detach once the fruit matures.
PLANT fossils offer invaluable insights into Earth’s ancient ecosystems, with some specimens standing out due to their exceptional rarity and the mysteries they unveil.
Here are a few of the rarest and most intriguing plant fossils discovered:
Sanfordiacaulis densifolia: Unearthed in New Brunswick, Canada, this early Carboniferous plant, described in 2024, exhibits an unusual crown morphology unlike any other known plant, living or extinct.
Lepidodendron: Often referred to as ‘scale trees,’ these plants thrived in swampy environments about 300 million years ago.
Walchia sp. : This large, complete branch fossil from the Permian period is exceptionally well-preserved, offering a rare glimpse into ancient coniferous plants.
Regnellites nagashimae: Identified in Japan, this is the oldest known fossil of the fern family Marsileaceae, dating back to the Upper Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous period.
But this “alien” plant seemed to hold onto its stamens even as it developed mature fruit with seeds ready to disperse.
“We haven’t seen that in anything modern,” Manchester explained.
“Normally, stamens will fall away as the fruit develops, but this plant seems to retain them at the time it has mature fruits with seeds.”
This unexpected trait only deepened the mystery.
The plant’s strange anatomy wasn’t the only oddity — its berries, flowers, and fruits also didn’t resemble anything in known plant families.
And with the help of modern microscopy and artificial intelligence, the research team was able to uncover even more minute details.
This included the presence of seeds in the plant’s fruit — something not usually preserved in fossils of this kind.
Despite all these breakthroughs, the plant remains unclassified, standing as an isolated, baffling example of ancient life.
This discovery isn’t just a singular anomaly but a reminder of how much we still have to learn about Earth‘s ancient ecosystems.
The Green River Formation, where this plant was found, is known for preserving incredibly detailed fossils of fish, reptiles, and birds,
But this plant has turned out to be one of the most perplexing of all.
It suggests that ancient ecosystems may have been far more diverse than we ever realised — and that many of the plants and animals that once thrived on Earth have disappeared without a trace.
“This fossil gives us a little bit of a clue about how these organisms were evolving and adapting in different places,” said Julian Correa-Narvaez, another author of the study.
It’s a window into a world we’ll never fully understand, but with each new discovery, we get one step closer to unraveling the secrets of the ancient planet that existed long before us.
