of extinction. As noted above, however, perhaps the most important use for Castanopsis wood is in its fossil form. 175,400 metric tons of lignite - much of which was former chinkapin trees - were mined in Germany in 2001. As with many Fagaceae, the nuts of many Castanopsis species are edible. The trees may be grown for their nuts, but more often they are used as forestry or ornamental trees and the nuts are collected opportunistically. Among many animals, such as tits, corvids, rodents, deer and pigs, the nuts are popular as food too. Meguro, Tokyo and Matsudo, Chiba in Japan use shii (椎; Castanopsis cuspidata) as one of their municipal symbols. The well-known and commercially important shiitake mushroom likes to grow on the logs of C. cuspidata and derives its common name from this: shii-take simply means "Castanopsis cuspidata mushroom". Species Main article: List of Castanopsis species Formerly placed here Castanea henryi (Skan) Rehder & E. H. Wilson (as C. henryi Skan) Chrysolepis Fossil record Fossil species known from Miocene Europe are: Castanopsis pyramidata (Menzel) Kirchheimer Castanopsis salinarum (Unger) Kirchheimer Castanopsis schmidtiana (Geinitz) Kräusel These are known and identifiable from their fruit. It is not entirely clear if they belong here or into Chrysolepis, but the pattern of biogeography - with the two genera being most diverse around the Pacific but absent from North America east of the Rocky Mountains suggests that they are indeed correctly assigned to Castanopsis. In addition, two form taxa refer to the remains of these trees, at least in part: the fossil wood Castanoxylon eschweilerense and the fossil pollen Tricolporopollenites cingulum ssp. pusillus. Castanopsis praefissa and Castanopsis praeouonbiensis are described from fossil specimens collected from the upper Miocene Shengxian Formation, Zhejiang Province, Southeast China. The fossil leavesare obovate to elliptical with serration mostly confined to the upper 1/3 of the leaf. The fossil cupule (upper part of the acorn) is globose with branched spines, and a broadly ovate nut scar. The fossil leaves and cupule have been compared with those extant in this genus. Castanopsis praefissa shows the closest affinity to C. fissa, and C. praeouonbiensis closely resembles C. ouonbiensis. Castanopsis praeouonbiensis and C. praefissa became extinct in this area because of the cooling climate from the late Miocene to the present day in Zhejiang Province. The oldest known records of the genus are those of Castanopsis rothwellii and Castaneophyllum patagonicum from the Eocene