EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Cycad of the North

Cycad (Cycas calcicola), Family Cycadaceae
Litchfield National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

Explanation:  When hiking in Litchfield National Park way up in Northern Territory, Australia, my mates and I happened upon these wonderful specimens of an ancient plant.  These are not palms, but cycads.  

Cycads amazingly date back in the fossil record some 300 million years.  Their origins predate the appearance of dinosaurs, persisted during endless millennia of major shifts in global climates, asteroid strikes, shifts of polar axes, and much more.

But hold the phone ... some studies suggest that cycads actually evolved since the dinosaurs, although it may have been a "second wave" of evolution derived from that more ancient stock.  

Regardless, cycads are a prehistoric treasure needing special conservation attention, as they currently exist mostly in small, isolated patches and fragmented populations.