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First published online June 12, 2009; doi:10.3732/ajb.0800378 American Journal of Botany 96: 1300-1312 (2009) © 2009 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

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Palms (Arecaceae) from a Paleocene rainforest of northern Colombia¹

² Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Unit 0948, APO AA 34002 USA ³ Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94720 USA ⁴ Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-7800 USA ⁵ Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20560 USA ⁶ Instituto de Biología, Universidad de Antioquia, AA 1226, Medellín, Colombia

ABSTRACT

Palms are a monophyletic group with a dominantly tropical distribution; however, their fossil record in low latitudes is strikingly scarce. In this paper, we describe fossil leaves, inflorescences, and fruits of palms from the middle to late Paleocene Cerrejón Formation, outcropping in the Ranchería River Valley, northern Colombia. The fossils demonstrate the presence of at least five palm morphospecies in the basin ca. 60 Ma. We compare the morphology of the fossils with extant palms and conclude that they belong to at least three palm lineages: the pantropical Cocoseae of the subfamily Arecoideae, the monotypic genus Nypa, and either Calamoideae or Coryphoideae. The fossil fruits and inflorescences are among the oldest megafossil records of these groups and demonstrate that the divergence of the Cocoseae was more than 60 Ma, earlier than has previously been thought. These fossils are useful in tracing the range expansion or contraction of historical or current neotropical elements and also have profound implications for the understanding of the evolution of neotropical rainforests.

Key Words: Arecaceae • Arecoideae • Attaleinae • Cerrejón • Cocos • Colombia • neotropics • Nypa • Paleocene

Received for publication 6 November 2008. Accepted for publication 17 March 2009.

FOOTNOTES

¹ The authors thank Carbones del Cerrejón, Explorers Club, Fondo para la Investigación de Ciencia y Tecnología of Banco de la República–Colombia, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Instituto Colombiano del Petróleo, Corporación Geológica ARES, and NSF grant DEB-0733725 for financial support. Especially they thank F. Chavez, C. Montes, and the geology team at the Cerrejón mine for their help and support during field trips. The Litoteca Nacional and the Universidad de Antioquia Herbarium and Palynology Laboratorium provided space for the study of the fossils. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden supplied leaf fragments of modern palms for comparison. S. Manchester, N. Parra, G. Upchurch, and R. Fonnegra provided advice on cuticle preparation; F. Henderson resolved questions about epidermal anatomy; and J. Dransfield, S. Zona, A. Henderson, M. A. Gandolfo, and F. J. Roldán resolved inquiries in plant systematics and taxonomy. They also thank W. J. Baker, C. Specht, and the anonymous reviewers for insightful comments on the manuscript. P. Sucerquia provided the photographs in Figs. 3A, B, 5A, 6I, and G. Bayona the stratigraphic column.

⁷ Author for correspondence (e-mail: jaramilloc{at}si.edu), phone: 507-212-8089

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				S. L. Wing, F. Herrera, C. A. Jaramillo, C. Gomez-Navarro, P. Wilf, and C. C. Labandeira Late Paleocene fossils from the Cerrejon Formation, Colombia, are the earliest record of Neotropical rainforest PNAS, November 3, 2009; 106(44): 18627 - 18632. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]