[Oberon]

When I was at Virginia Tech, we knew these as "Dawn Redwoods." There were several examples growing on campus, and I knew them because of helping my then-girlfriend (now wife) study for her Dendrology class. One side of the index card said "Dawn Redwood" on it, and on the other side was Metasequoia glyptostroboides.

And they looked like the trees in the picture.

[Post Toasties]

Dawn Redwoods or ‘Dinosaur Trees’ are really not all that different than the well known bald cypress. In fact the first Dawn Redwood fossils found in 1855 were at first mistaken for bald cypress fossils.

As far as living fossils go, my favorite is the ginkgo biloba tree, of which fossils from 270 million years ago have been found, predating dinosaurs, and it shares traits of cycads (that look like ferns or palms) with which the ginkgo is considered among the most primitive seed bearing plants.