Cornus piggae is represented by a group of fifteen specimens from the
Tiffanian aged
Sentinel Butte Formation which outcrops in near the town of
Almont, North Dakota and the Beicegal Creek, North Dakota. The age of the formation is based on the recovery of
late Tiffanian mammals in the upper section of the formation along with the floral and
palynological assemblages of the formation. Thirteen of the fossils were recovered from the
University of Florida location 15722 at Almont while the remaining two are from location 18907 near Beicegal Creek. The
holotype specimen for
Cornus piggae along with eight of the
paratypes are currently preserved in the
paleobotanical collections of the
Field Museum of Natural History in
Chicago, Illinois. Five of the Almont paratype specimens and one Beicegal Creek specimen are in the university of Florida Collections, with the remaining Almont specimen housed at the
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point and the second Beicegal Creek specimen in the
Arizona State University collections. The specimens were studied by
paleobotanist Steven R. Manchester of the university of Florida, and botanists Xiao-Ping Xiang of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Qiu-Yun (Jenny) Xiang of
North Carolina State University. Manchester, Xiang, and Xiang published their 2010
type description for
C. piggae in the
International Journal of Plant Sciences. The
etymology of the
specific name piggae was derived from Professor Kathleen Pigg's name in honor of her contributions the field of paleobotany. ==Description==