# Sequoites dakotensis

Sequoites dakotensis was a species of plant that existed during the end of the Cretaceous. Originally described as a coniferous tree in the genus Sequoia as Sequoia dakotensis from fossils found in the U.S. state of North Dakota, later discoveries in Alberta led to its reassignment to the genus Sequoites. Further fossils the Canadian province of Saskatchewan indicate that its affinity is potentially closer to the genus Parataxodium.
The species was first described by the paleobotanist Roland W. Brown in 1935 from fossilized cones found in the Hell Creek Formation along the Cannonball River in North Dakota. The cones had no natural connection to foliage, meaning no description of the species's foliage could be given; this was not unusual among Sequoia species described from fossils.
A potentially conspecific plant, Sequoiites dakotensis, was described by the geologist and paleobotanist Walter A. Bell in 1949 from cone fossils found near Edmonton. The name Sequoites dakotensis is currently accepted by the International Fossil Plant Names Index. In 2002, a posthumously published paper by Elisabeth E. McIver recorded fossils featuring cones aligned with S. dakotensis but instead demonstrating deciduous foliage. McIver believed the plant likely shared the lowland and swampy habitats of the Parataxodium it emulated.

## Description

Sequoites dakotensis is an extinct species originally described as a coniferous tree in the genus Sequoia that lived during the Upper Cretaceous. The species possessed cones that were between 1.5 cm (0.59 in) and 4 cm (1.6 in) long with diameters between 1.2 cm (0.47 in) and 3 cm (1.2 in). Each cone featured about 30 scales. The surface of these scales were smooth or occasionally slightly wrinkled.
Later discoveries of fossils of foliage – including leaves and seeds – alongside cones matching those described as S. dakotensis instead suggest that the species was part of the genus Parataxodium. This would make the species instead deciduous.

## Taxonomy

The paleobotanist Roland W. Brown first described the plant as the species Sequoia dakotensis in a 1935 article in The Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. The type locality is the Hell Creek Formation at locality 6600 on the Cannonball River in North Dakota.$^{:247}$ A syntype is held in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution.
Brown described S. dakotensis as a new species based on specimens of cones lacking natural attachment to any foliage. At the time of this initial description of S. dakotensis, there were approximately 50 accepted species of Sequoia that had been described from American fossils dating from between the Lower Cretaceous and the Pleistocene. Of these, only a few were described based on wood rather than cones or foliage. Brown said there were limitations in identifying a species based on foliage alone, saying that foliage was "extremely variable and therefore not reliably diagnostic". Because of this, the foliage associated with this species could not be determined. In 1937, Brown said that the discovery of a cone and foliage on the same branch would be "good fortune".
Paleontologist Walter A. Bell, writing for the a paper published by the Canadian Department of Mines and Resources in 1949, described a species he called Sequoiites dakotensis as a plant that was likely conspecific with Brown's Sequoia species. Bell was utilizing cones from near Edmonton to assign the plant to the genus Sequoites'. The species is currently accepted as Sequoites dakotensis by the International Fossil Plant Names Index.
In 2002, a posthumously published article in Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences by paleobotanist Elisabeth E. McIver described fossilized cones matching Brown's description of S. dakotensis in the Frenchman Formation southeast of Eastend, Saskatchewan. Associated with these cones were fossils of leaves and seeds that indicated the plant was not part of the genera Sequoia or Metasequoia, but instead more aligned with Parataxodium, a genus that favored lowland forests and swamps.

## Distribution

Instances of cones associated with Sequoia dakotensis were found in the Upper Cretaceous sediments along the Cannonball River in North Dakota. In his original description, Brown said a fossilized Sequoia cone described by Frank Knowlton from near Wild Horse Lake in Alberta aligned with the characteristics of S. dakotensis.
Fossil cones potentially conspecific with S. dakotensis were observed near Edmonton, Alberta. McIver identified cones matching the species's description in a Cretaceous-era formation southeast of Eastend, Saskatchewan. McIver believed that the associated foliage indicated that the species was "deciduous, occupying such environments as lowland forests and back swamps".