The first Gondwanan Euphorbiaceae fossils reset the biogeographic history of the Macaranga-Mallotus clade.

Autor: Wilf P; Department of Geosciences and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA., Iglesias A; Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas, San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, R8400FRF, Argentina., Gandolfo MA; L. H. Bailey Hortorium, Plant Biology Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.; Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Trelew, Chubut, 9100, Argentina.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: American journal of botany [Am J Bot] 2023 May; Vol. 110 (5), pp. e16169. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 May 02.
DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16169
Abstrakt: Premise: The spurge family Euphorbiaceae is prominent in tropical rainforests worldwide, particularly in Asia. There is little consensus on the biogeographic origins of the family or its principal lineages. No confirmed spurge macrofossils have come from Gondwana.
Methods: We describe the first Gondwanan macrofossils of Euphorbiaceae, represented by two infructescences and associated peltate leaves from the early Eocene (52 Myr ago [Ma]) Laguna del Hunco site in Chubut, Argentina.
Results: The infructescences are panicles bearing tiny, pedicellate, spineless capsular fruits with two locules, two axile lenticular seeds, and two unbranched, plumose stigmas. The fossils' character combination only occurs today in some species of the Macaranga-Mallotus clade (MMC; Euphorbiaceae), a widespread Old-World understory group often thought to have tropical Asian origins. The associated leaves are consistent with extant Macaranga.
Conclusions: The new fossils are the oldest known for the MMC, demonstrating its Gondwanan history and marking its divergence by at least 52 Ma. This discovery makes an Asian origin of the MMC unlikely because immense oceanic distances separated Asia and South America 52 Ma. The only other MMC reproductive fossils so far known are also from the southern hemisphere (early Miocene, southern New Zealand), far from the Asian tropics. The MMC, along with many other Gondwanan survivors, most likely entered Asia during the Neogene Sahul-Sunda collision. Our discovery adds to a substantial series of well-dated, well-preserved fossils from one undersampled region, Patagonia, that have changed our understanding of plant biogeographic history.
(© 2023 The Authors. American Journal of Botany published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Botanical Society of America.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: