N. spatulata has been identified from a single location in the
Clarno Formation, the Clarno nut beds,
type locality for both the formation and the species. The species was described from a series of
type specimens, the
holotype specimen USNM 422378, which was preserved in the
paleobotanical collections of the
National Museum of Natural History in
Washington, D.C. and four
paratype specimens. Two of the paratypes were also in the national Museum collections, while the remaining two were in the
University of Florida collections in
Gainesville, Florida. The fossils were part of a group of approximately 20,000 specimens collected from 1942 to 1989 by Thomas Bones, Alonzo W. Hancock, R. A. Scott, Steven R. Manchester, and a number of high school students. The
N. spatulata specimens were first studied by graduate student R. A. Scott, who placed the species into the extinct genus
Palaeonyssa as
Palaeonyssa spatulata, with the 1954
type description of the species appearing in the journal
Palaeontographica.
Palaeonyssa was first described by
Eleanor Reid and
Marjorie Chandler from fossils preserved in the
London Clay, with them describing several species in the genus.
N. spatulata was re-examined by
paleobotanist Steven R. Manchester of the University of Florida, who published a 1994 re-description for the species in the Journal
Palaeontographica Americana. In the re-description Manchester noted there was very little difference between the extinct genus
Palaeonyssa and the modern
Nyssa, and deemed the two to be the same genus. The merging resulted in the recombination of
Palaeonyssa spatulata as
Nyssa spatulata. ==Description==