Sabalites — Sabalites
Sabalites James St. John, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Plant

Sabalites

Fossil palm frond

Sabalites is the fan-palm frond of the Green River Formation, preserved as huge pleated fronds up to two metres across on the Fossil Butte Member limestone, sometimes with fish on the same slab. Complete palm fronds are among the most expensive Green River fossils and are wall pieces; fragments are affordable. Fronds are cut, backed and often extensively painted, so ask for pre-preparation photographs.

PhylumTracheophyta
ClassLiliopsida
OrderArecales
FamilyArecaceae
GroupPlant
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorSaporta 1865· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Angiospermae › NO_CLASS_SPECIFIED › NO_ORDER_SPECIFIED › Arecaceae· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)83.6–5.33 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences37· Paleobiology Database

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Sabalites" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/sabalites. Accessed 2026-09-20.

@misc{stratum-sabalites,
  title        = {Sabalites},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/sabalites}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.