Ginkgo dissecta

Ginkgo dissecta Temporal range: Early Eocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
G. dissecta leaf
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Ginkgophyta
Class:	Ginkgoopsida
Order:	Ginkgoales
Family:	Ginkgoaceae
Genus:	Ginkgo
Species:	†G. dissecta
Binomial name
Ginkgo dissecta Mustoe, 2002

Ginkgo dissecta is an extinct ginkgo species in the family Ginkgoaceae described from a series of isolated fossil leaves. The species is known from Early Eocene sediments exposed in the province of British Columbia, Canada, and Washington, USA. It is one of two Ginkgo species found at the Washington and British Columbia sites.

Ginkgo dissecta is represented by a group of fossil specimens from four different geologic formations. The type locality for the species is at the YpresianMcAbee Fossil Beds, near Cache Creek, British Columbia, and in an unnamed formation belonging to the Kamloops Group. G. dissecta is also known from the similarly aged sites of the Klondike Mountain Formation, which crop out around the town of Republic, Ferry County, Washington. At least one specimen has been recovered from the fossil sites around the town of Princeton, British Columbia, and a fourth occurrence for the species was reported from the "Falkland site" near the town of Falkland, British Columbia.

The type specimens for G. dissecta include two leaf fossils, a holotype and a paratype, both from the McAbee Fossil Beds. The holotype leaf is numbered number WWU-GK-020 and the paratype is number WWU-GK-008, both of which are currently preserved in the paleobotanical collections of Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. In addition to the two type specimens, the Western Washington University collections have 39 other fossils from the McAbee site and one from the Princeton fossil sites. For the species description one fossil, SR 96-09-01, was borrowed from the Stonerose Interpretive Center in Republic, Washington. The specimens were studied by paleobotanist George Mustoe of the Western Washington University Geology Department. Mustoe published his 2002 type description for G. dissecta in the Canadian Journal of Botany. The etymology of the chosen specific name dissecta was not identified by Mustoe in the type description, but he noted it is a formalization of the name which had been first used in 1974 in an unpublished thesis by Verschoor.