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(American Journal of Botany. 2008;95:954-973.) doi: 10.3732/ajb.2007216 © 2008 Botanical Society of America, Inc. |
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Paleobotany |
2 Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Archeology, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution, Balboa, Ancon, Panama 3 Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-2710 USA
ABSTRACT
The origin and processes creating the high diversity of plant species in neotropical rain forests and their floristic composition and multistratitified forest structure are still uncertain. Here, we studied one of the most common leaf morphotypes of the Cerrejón flora (middle-late Paleocene, ca. 60-58 Ma), Guajira, Colombia, that contains one of the oldest records of neotropical rain forest floras. Fifty-seven leaf specimens were carefully examined with a focus on general morphology, venation patterns, and cuticular characteristics. The analysis allowed us to recognize four new species that were assigned to the fossil-leaf genus Menispermites on the basis of an ovate leaf shape with cordate to truncate bases, actinodromous primary venation, brochidodromous secondary venation, percurrent tertiary venation, regular polygonal reticulate fourth and fifth venation, well-developed polygonal areoles, entire margin, and the presence of a fimbrial vein. This set of characters suggests a possible affinity with the pantropical angiosperm family Menispermaceae. The predominantly climbing habit of this family suggests that the Cerrejón Paleocene tropical rain forest was already multistratified. These findings represent the earliest record for the family in northern South America.
Key Words: Colombia • leaf morphology • lower eudicots • Menispermaceae • paleobotany • Ranunculales
Received for publication 16 July 2007. Accepted for publication 2 June 2008.
FOOTNOTES
1 The authors thank two anonymous reviewers, the Biostratigraphic Team at the Colombian Petroleum Institute, and the Department of Geology EAFIT University. They deeply thank F. Chavez, C. Montes, S Moodley, and the geology team at Carbones del Cerrejón LLC, S. Wing for help in collecting and morphotyping fossil leaves, J. Betancur and F. Gonzalez at Herbario Nacional Colombiano, R. Fonnegra, J. Roldán, and R. Callejas at Herbario de la Universidad de Antioquia. Thanks to N. Atkins for improving the grammar. C.J. thanks M. I. Barreto for continuous support and source of creative ideas. This work was supported by Carbones del Cerrejón, the Smithsonian Paleobiology Endowment Fund, the Unrestricted Endowments SI Grants, NSF (grant DEB-0733725) and the Colombian Petroleum Institute.
4 Author for correspondence (e-mail: jaramilloc{at}si.edu)
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