Editing Ginkgo biloba (section)

====Rise and decline====
[[File:Ginkgo biloba MacAbee BC.jpg|thumb|''Ginkgo biloba'' leaf from the [[Eocene]] epoch from the [[McAbee Fossil Beds]], [[British Columbia]]]]

Fossils attributable to the genus ''Ginkgo'' first appeared in the [[Middle Jurassic]]. The genus ''Ginkgo'' diversified and spread throughout [[Laurasia]] during the [[Jurassic]] and [[Early Cretaceous]].<ref name="Zhou-2009"/>

The Ginkgophyta declined in diversity as the Cretaceous progressed, and by the [[Paleocene]], ''[[Ginkgo adiantoides]]'' was the only ''Ginkgo'' species left in the [[Northern Hemisphere]], while a markedly different (and poorly documented) form persisted in the [[Southern Hemisphere]]. Along with that of ferns, cycads, and cycadeoids, the species diversity in the genus ''Ginkgo'' drops through the Cretaceous, at the same time the flowering plants were on the rise; this supports the hypothesis that, over time, flowering plants with better adaptations to disturbance displaced ''Ginkgo'' and its associates.<ref name=royer/>{{rp|93}}

At the end of the [[Pliocene]], ''Ginkgo'' fossils disappeared from the fossil record everywhere except in a small area of [[South Central China|central China]], where the modern species survived.