The Hell Creek formation of North America is one of the most famous fossil hunting locations in the world. Spread over portions of North and South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming, Hell Creek is a unique time capsule, capturing the final years of the dinosaurs as well as many other flora and fauna.

Spanning the final years of the upper Cretaceous as well as the lower Paleocene, Hell Creek is also a witness to destruction. The iridium-rich layer of the K-Pg boundary which provides a physical record of the massive Chicxulub impact event.

This fossil cone comes from an extinct metasequoia tree. Also known as the dawn redwood, the metasequoia is the “smallest” of the Redwood family though height is relative considering modern varieties of metasequoia in China typically grow to more than 50 meters in height (165 ft).

These giants once stood tall over a landscape of river deltas and floodplains which bordered an inland sea. Dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Pachycephalosaurs, Edmontosaurus, and numerous dromaeosaurid species like Daktoaraptor roamed here along with invertebrates, marine reptiles, and mammals.

Dawn redwood cone fossils like this are typically found in small caches, as the majority of plants in the Hell Creek formation are flowering angiosperms. If fossils are found, it is typically petrified wood and cones such as these are exceedingly rare.

This specimen is one of those rare cone fossils. These fossils are a bit too thick for one of our regular cases, and frankly they're fun to hold. We've opted to ship the cones with an arcylic stand (also known as a "dimple" block).

The cones and the stands are individually wrapped for protection and placed inside a heavy duty shipping box. A small information card is also included.

Each cone is priced individually by size. You can see all of our available cones in the collection below.