EOCENE FLORAL EVIDENCE OF LAURACEAE: CORROBORATION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN MEGAFOSSIL RECORD

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Numerous megafossils of Lauraceae have been reported from the early Tertiary of North America, but the subfamilial affinities are usually not well understood due to the great morphological variability found in extant taxa. The flowers of Androglandula tennessensis gen. et sp. nov. Taylor, from the Middle Eocene Claiborne Formation, are six‐parted, pedicellate, bracteate, and have stamens with paired basal staminal glands. The flowers have ethereal oil cells and paracytic stomates throughout. The fossil species has affinities with the subtribe Cinnamomineae, and this supports suggestions that the Middle Eocene climate of the southeastern U.S. was subtropical. The existence of this fossil, and reports of the subtribe from the Eocene of Europe, indicate a South American‐North American‐European‐southeast Asian paleodistribution suggesting that extinction in North America and Europe was the cause of the tribe's current disjunct distribution.
Funding Information
  • National Science Foundation (BSR‐8409308)