Notoscyphus balticus is an extinct species of liverwort in the family Geocalycac

eae. The species is solely known from the Middle Eocene Baltic amber deposits in
the Baltic Sea region of Europe. The genus contains a total of thirteen extant
species distributed across the northern hemisphere.
Notoscyphus balticus is known from a solitary fossil gametophyte shoot which is
an inclusion in a transparent chunk of Baltic amber. The amber specimen also con
tains several Fagaceae hairs and some partially decomposed wood bits. When the f
ossil was described it was part of the amber collections housed in the Geologica
l-Palaeontological Institute and Museum Hamburg. The amber was recovered from fo
ssil bearing rocks in the Baltic Sea region of Europe. Estimates of the age date
between 37 million years old, for the youngest sediments and 48 million years o
ld. This age range straddles the middle Eocene, ranging from near the beginning
of the Lutetian to the beginning of the Pribonian. The holotype was first studie
d by a group of five researchers lead by Jochen Heinrichs of the Ludwig Maximili
an University of Munich. The research group's 2015 type description for the spec
ies was published in the paleobotany journal Review of Palaeobotany and Palynolo
gy. The specific epithet balticus was coined as a reference to the origin locati
on for the amber.
The N. balticus specimen is a gametophyte shoot preserved from apex down to the
rhizoids. Overall the gametophyte is 3.2 mm (0.13 in) long and 1.45 mm (0.057 in
) at its widest. There are three bunches of rhizoids near the base of the shoot
and growing to up to 3 mm (0.12 in) long. The rhizoids are unbranched and show a
thin coating of fungal hyphae that possibly penetrate into the rhizoids. The le
aves are attached to the stem in a succubous manner with the base of each leaf o
verlapping the leaf below it. The leaves are round in outline when they are smal
l and as the size increases they become elliptic in overall outline. The leaves
freely spread out from the stem and some curve upwards, while the underleaves ar
e small to inconspicuous with an ovate to triangular shape.