The magnolia tree, named after French botanist Pierre Magnol, is a large genus comprising about 210 species. The fossil pictured is about 50 million years old. Magnolias, as shown by other 95-million-year-old fossils, have always remained as magnolias since the moment they existed. They have neither evolved from any other plants, nor turned into any other species. Fossil record remains to be one of the most important proofs of this fact.