Bald Cypress (Palaeo-Environment Project)

Okay today's product is new plant component. So after doing some background homework, I've compiled a pretty good list of generic Cretaceous Alberta plants (as in genus and type). The trick now is to track down references of their extent relatives to create rough proxies to represent their prehistoric ancestors. ` Next week I'm hoping to hit the Tyrrell, and while there try to track down or take photos of the fossil remains of any of them I can (especially the leaves). In the meantime creating some of these proxies is more than enough to currently keep me occupied. Today I decided to tackle a bigger tree, to make my floodplain a little more impressive. So I took on the Bald Cypress today, a giant swamp tree. Here is my reference of a modern Cypress on the left (Photo by unnamed photographer from here on Wikipedia) next to two of my CG versions on the right. ` While mine are not 100% the same as the real one, the rough likeness is good enough for me. There is no reason why (or way of knowing that) these trees have not undergone changes through millions of years. Besides if any of the experts I'm planning on showing this too/talk to about prehistoric Alberta have a qualms I can always revisit these and tweak them later.