Two early Eocene vines from south-east England

Small diameter pyritized axes, commonly referred to as 'twigs', of fossil vitaceous and menispermaceous wood from the Lower Eocene, London Clay Formation of south-east England are described here for the first time. The vitaceous twigs, which represent the earliest known occurrence of fossil Vitaceae wood, are characterized by large diameter, solitary vessels, tall wide rays which dilate in the phloem region, scalariform intervessel pits and simple perforation plates. The wood anatomy supports a close relationship to the Vitaceae and in particular the genus Rhoicissus Planch. The menispermaceous twigs are characterized by medium to moderately large vessels, simple perforation plates, alternate intervascular pitting and very broad and high rays. The anatomical characters support a close relationship to the Menispermaceae and in particular the genera Tinomiscium Miers and Coscinium Colebr. However, as these fossil twigs are not exactly similar to any particular genus they have been placed in the organ genus, Vitacexoylon Wheeler and LaPasha and Menispermoxylon Vozenin-Serra, Privé-Gill & Ginsburg, with which, respectively, they have the greatest similarity. These specimens were studied using reflected light- and scanning electron microscopy.     

A review of the platanaceous woods from the Eocene paratropical rainforest of south-east England

Small diameter pyritized axes, commonly referred to as 'twigs', of fossil platanaceous wood are described from the Lower Eocene London Clay Formation of south-east England. These twigs are characterized by solitary vessels with scalariform perforation plates, opposite intervessel pits, and tall, multiseriate rays that dilate in the phloem region. The wood anatomy supports close relationship to members of extant Platanaceae and the material is placed in the organ genus Plataninium Unger erected for fossil woods with close anatomical similarity to Platanus L. This material supplements the fossil record of platanaceous type wood from the Eocene London Clay and documents the first record of Plataninium decipiens Brett in the twig flora.  © 2002 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , 2002, 139 , 181–191.     

Woods of the Vitaceae—fossil and modern

Vitaceoxylon tiffneyi gen. et sp. nov. and Vitaceoxylon carlquistii sp. nov. from the Middle Eocene Clarno formation are the oldest known woods with characteristics of the Vitaceae. They are characterized by a tendency to two diameter classes of vessels, wide and tall rays, and a high proportion of their area is vessel. Other characteristics include septate imperforate elements, scanty paratracheal to vasicentric parenchyma, idioblasts in the rays, crowded alternate intervessel pitting, and vessel-parenchyma pits with reduced borders. Wood anatomy of the major extant genera of Vitaceae was examined and compared to the fossils. Features of secondary xylem useful for distinguishing between genera in the Vitaceae include vessel size and arrangement (two distinct diameter classes or not, radial multiples or tendency to tangential multiples), vessel pitting (scalariform or alternate), crystal type (prismatic, druses, and/or raphides) and location (in chambered parenchyma and/or ray parenchyma), cambial variants (present or absent). Wood anatomy supports the proposed close relationship of Cissus to Cayratia. Pronounced vessel dimorphism occurs in temperate Vitaceae; cambial variant structure occurs in tropical Vitaceae. Despite their conformity with Vitaceae at the family level, the two fossil woods are not comparable to any one extant genus. This contrasts with the Vitaceae seeds from Clarno, all of which are referable to extant genera. Two new combinations for fossil woods of the Vitaceae are proposed: Vitaceoxylon ampelopsoides (Schönfeld) comb. nov., and Vitaceoxylon megyazoense (Greguss) comb. nov.     

First record of Cercidiphylloxylon(Cercidiphyllaceae)from the Palaeocene of Fushun,NE China

Cercidiphylloxylon spenceri(Brett)Pearson is described from the Lizigou Formation,Palaeocene in China.The growth rings are distinct; pores are diffuse,solitary,with somewhat angular outlines in cross section;vessel elements long with long scalariform perforation plates; intervessel pitting is opposite to scalariform; fibertracheids are present; axial parenchyma is scarce; rays are mostly biseriate and heterogeneous.All wood characters of the fossil specimen fall into the range of those of extant Cercidiphyllum(Cercidiphyllaceae).The finding is one of the earliest fossil wood records of Cercidiphyllaceae.     

First record of Cercidiphylloxylon (Cercidiphyllaceae) from the Palaeocene of Fushun,NE China

Abstract Cercidiphylloxylon spenceri (Brett) Pearson is described from the Lizigou Formation, Palaeocene in China. The growth rings are distinct; pores are diffuse, solitary, with somewhat angular outlines in cross section; vessel elements long with long scalariform perforation plates; intervessel pitting is opposite to scalariform; fiber‐tracheids are present; axial parenchyma is scarce; rays are mostly biseriate and heterogeneous. All wood characters of the fossil specimen fall into the range of those of extant Cercidiphyllum (Cercidiphyllaceae). The finding is one of the earliest fossil wood records of Cercidiphyllaceae.     

Tetracentron Wood from the Miocene of Noto Peninsula,Central Japan,with a short revision of homoxylic fossil woods

A vesselless fossil wood was discovered in the Miocene Yanagida Formation in the Noto Peninsula, central Japan. This fossil has distinct growth rings with gradual transition from the early- to the latewood ; tracheids, which are called 'usual traeheids' here, constitute the ground mass of the wood and have typical scalariform bordered pits on radial walls in the earlywood and circular sparse pits on those in the latewood ; rays are 1\2-4 cells wide and heterogeneous with low to high uniseriate wings; axial parenchyma strands are scattered in the latewood. This wood has a peculiar feature; sporadic radial files of broad tracheids whose tangential walls have crowded alternate bordered pits. The radial walls have crowded half-bordered pits to ray cells, but no pits to the usual tracheids. Among all of the extant and extinct angiosperms and gymnosperms, these unusual tracheids occur only in Tetracentron. From these features, we refer the fossil to the extant genus Tetracentron, and name it T. japonoxylum. A revision of homoxylic woods is made for comparision with the present fossil. Tetracentron japonoxylum is the only fossil wood of Tetracentron.     

Glutoxylon Chowdhury (Anacardiaceae): the first record of fossil wood from Bangladesh

This paper documents the first record of silicified fossil wood from a previously undescribed wood-rich horizon in the Sitakund Anticline, Eastern Bangladesh. The outcrop is composed of cross-stratified, fine-medium grained sandstones with bidirectional cross stratification indicative of a tidal environment, deposited ca. 5-5.2 million years before present (Miocene/Pliocene). The wood is characterised by large solitary vessels with alternate intervascular pits, banded parenchyma, uniseriate rays, and multiseriate rays with one radial canal per ray. This character combination closely resembles the wood of extant Gluta L. of the Anacardiaceae. This specimen has been assigned to the organ genus Glutoxylon Chowdhury erected for fossil woods with anatomical similarity to Gluta (including Melanorrhoea Wall.). The excellent preservation of this mature wood specimen illustrates the potential for using fossil wood from the Sitakund locality for palaeoecological studies in terms of biodiversity and adaptational response to climate change. Moreover such investigations of fossil woods from Bangladesh will compliment studies undertaken on fossil plants in other parts of Central and Southeastern Asia which will further the understanding of plant migration routes between India and Southeast Asia during the Tertiary.     

First fossil record of Cedrelospermum (Ulmaceae) from the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau: Implications for morphological evolution and biogeography

Cedrelospermum Saporta is an extinct genus in the Ulmaceae with abundant fossil records in North America and Europe. However, so far, fossil records of this genus from Asia are sparse, which limits the interpretations of the morphological evolution and biogeographical history of the genus. Here we report well‐preserved fruits (Cedrelospermum tibeticum sp. nov.) and a leaf (Cedrelospermum sp.) of Cedrelospermum from the upper Oligocene Lunpola and Nyima basins in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP). This is the first fossil record of Cedrelospermum in the QTP, showing that this genus grew in this region during the late Oligocene. Cedrelospermum tibeticum fruits are double‐winged, morphologically similar to the Eocene and Oligocene double‐winged Cedrelospermum species from North America. This supports the hypothesis that Cedrelospermum migrated to Asia from North America by way of the Bering Land Bridge. Given that Cedrelospermum was a typical element of Northern Hemispheric flora in the Paleogene and Neogene, the presence of this genus indicates that the central region of the QTP was phytogeographically linked with other parts of the Northern Hemisphere during the late Oligocene. The morphological observations of C. tibeticum fruits and other double‐winged Cedrelospermum fruits suggest an evolutionary trend from obtuse to acute apex for the primary wing. Cedrelospermum tibeticum likely had warm and wet climatic requirements. This type of an environment possibly existed in the central QTP in the late Oligocene, thereby supporting the survival of C. tibeticum.     

The Paleogene fossil record of birds in Europe

The Paleogene (Paleocene-Oligocene) fossil record of birds in Europe is reviewed and recent and fossil taxa are placed into a phylogenetic framework, based on published cladistic analyses. The pre-Oligocene European avifauna is characterized by the complete absence of passeriform birds, which today are the most diverse and abundant avian taxon. Representatives of small non-passeriform perching birds thus probably had similar ecological niches before the Oligocene to those filled by modern passerines. The occurrence of passerines towards the Lower Oligocene appears to have had a major impact on these birds, and the surviving crown-group members of many small arboreal Eocene taxa show highly specialized feeding strategies not found or rare in passeriform birds. It is detailed that no crown-group members of modern 'families' are known from pre-Oligocene deposits of Europe, or anywhere else. The phylogenetic position of Paleogene birds thus indicates that diversification of the crown-groups of modern avian 'families' did not take place before the Oligocene, irrespective of their relative position within Neornithes (crown-group birds). The Paleogene fossil record of birds does not even support crown-group diversification of Galliformes, one of the most basal taxa of neognathous birds, before the Oligocene, and recent molecular studies that dated diversification of galliform crown-group taxa into the Middle Cretaceous are shown to be based on an incorrect interpretation of the fossil taxa used for molecular clock calibrations. Several taxa that occur in the Paleogene of Europe have a very different distribution than their closest extant relatives. The modern survivors of these Paleogene lineages are not evenly distributed over the continents, and especially the great number of taxa that are today restricted to South and Central America is noteworthy. The occurrence of stem-lineage representatives of many taxa that today have a restricted Southern Hemisphere distribution conflicts with recent hypotheses on a Cretaceous vicariant origin of these taxa, which were deduced from the geographical distribution of the basal crown-group members.     

The First Record of Fossil Wood of Winteraceae from the Upper Cretaceous of Antarctica

Fossil wood of the Winteraceae from the Upper Cretaceous sedimentsof James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula, is described herefor the first time. The specimen is characterized by the absenceof vessels, rays of two distinct sizes and tracheids with one–threerows of circular bordered pits, mainly on the radial walls,grading to horizontally elongate and scalariform. Despite anatomicalconformity to the family Winteraceae, the fossil wood is notidentical to any one extant genus and therefore has been assignedto the fossil organ genus Winteroxylon Gottwald with which thefossil shows greatest similarity. Copyright 2000 Annals of BotanyCompany Antarctica, Cretaceous, angiosperm, wood, anatomy, Winteraceae, Winteroxylon, fossil, palaeoclimate     

Warm and humid Trans-Himalaya during the late Miocene: plant fossil evidence

Neogene fossil records from the Indus Basin sedimentary rocks (IBSR), deposited in the Indus Tsangpo Suture Zone (ITSZ), are very rare, but are important to understand the history of plant diversity and paleoclimate in the Himalaya. We report fossil wood ascribed to Ebenoxylon siwalicus Prakash from late Miocene sediments of the Karit Formation belonging to ITSZ. The anatomical details of the fossil wood, such as small to medium-sized vessels occluded with tyloses, scanty paratracheal to diffuse-in-aggregate axial parenchyma, 1–3 seriate homo to heterocellular rays, bordered intervessel pits with lenticular apertures and simple perforations, suggest its close affinity with Diospyros Linnaeus of the family Ebenaceae. Further anatomical details suggest a close resemblance with extant D. ehretioides Don and D. macrophylla Blume. The present fossil, along with previously known fossil records of Lagerstroemia (Lythraceae) and palms, indicate that the Trans-Himalaya was warm and humid during the late Miocene, quite different from the modern cool and dry climate in the study area.     

The fossil record of Cunoniaceae: new evidence from Late Cretaceous wood of Antarctica?

Fossil angiosperm wood from Upper Cretaceous sediments of Livingston Island and James Ross Island in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region is identified as having the combination of anatomical characters most similar to modern Cunoniaceae. The material is characterised by predominantly solitary vessels, opposite to scalariform intervessel pitting, scalariform perforation plates, heterocellular multiseriate and homocellular uniseriate rays, diffuse axial parenchyma. Anatomically, the specimens conform most closely to the fossil organ genus Weinmannioxylon Petriella which has been placed within the Cunoniaceae. The presence of Weinmannioxylon in Late Cretaceous sediments suggests that taxa within or stem taxa to the Cunoniaceae might have been a notable component of the forest vegetation that covered the Antarctic Peninsula during the Late Mesozoic and may therefore represent the earliest record of this family.     

A specimen of Eocuculus Chandler, 1999 (Aves, ? Cuculidae) from the early Oligocene of France

A postcranial skeleton of a small bird from the early Oligocene locality Pichovet in Southern France is described and identified as Eocuculus cf. cherpinae Chandler, 1999. It is the second fossil record of Eocuculus which was hitherto known from a postcranial skeleton from the late Eocene of North America only. Although Eocuculus shares some derived similarities with Cuculidae (cuckoos), it distinctly differs in a number of osteological features from crown group members of this taxon. If future, more complete skeletons prove its cuculiform affinities, Eocuculus is a stem lineage representative of this taxon and not within the crown group. Recognition of Eocuculus in the early Oligocene of France provides evidence for the presence of an extinct late Eocene/early Oligocene avian taxon with an intercontinental Northern Hemisphere distribution.     

圆籽荷属木材构造的研究

山茶科圆籽荷属(Apterospefma)木材为散孔材至半环孔材,管孔细,射线细,薄壁组织肉眼下不见,密度中偏大,纹理直,结构细。微观构造:在导管相互间纹孔式对列夏导管分子穿孔梯状的横栅24—77条,射线异形Ⅰ型。射线与导管问纹孔为较大不规则形单纹孔,对列,薄壁组织星散.1—2个细胞。     

Seed morphology of modern and fossil Ampelocissus (Vitaceae) and implications for phytogeography

Seeds are useful in distinguishing among extant genera of Vitaceae and provide a good basis for interpretation of fossil remains in reconstructing the evolutionary and phytogeographic history of this putatively basal Rosid family. Seeds of Ampelocissus s.l. including Pterisanthes and Nothocissus are distinguished from those of all other vitaceous genera by long, parallel ventral infolds and a centrally positioned oval chalazal scar. Principal component analysis facilitates recognition of four Ampelocissus s.l. seed morphotypes differentiated by dorsiventral thickness, width of ventral infolds, chalazal depth, and degree of dorsal surface rugosity. While these intergrade, their end-member morphologies are distinctive and coincide well with inflorescence morphology, extant geographic distribution, and ecology. Seven fossil morphospecies are recognized. Ampelocissus parvisemina sp. n. (Paleocene of North Dakota; Eocene of Oregon) and A. auriforma Manchester (Eocene of Oregon) resemble extant Central American species; A. bravoi Berry (Eocene of Peru) is similar to one group of Old World extant species; and A. parachandleri sp. n. (Eocene of Oregon) and the three European fossil species A. chandleri (Kirchheimer) comb. n., A. lobatum (Chandler) comb. n., and A. wildei sp. n. (Eocene to Miocene) resemble another group of extant Old World Ampelocissus. All these fossils occur outside the present geographic range of the genus, reflecting warmer climates and former intercontinental links.     

A diverse fossil terrestrial arthropod fauna from New Zealand: evidence from the early Miocene Foulden Maar fossil lagerstätte

Fossil evidence for the evolutionary history of terrestrial arthropods in New Zealand is extremely limited; only six pre‐Quaternary insects (Triassic to Eocene) have been recorded previously, none of Miocene age. The Foulden Maar fossil lagerstätte in Otago has now yielded a diverse arthropod assemblage, including members of the Araneae, Plecoptera, Isoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Trichoptera and Diptera. The fauna significantly emends the fossil record for the Southern Hemisphere, provides an unparalleled insight into a 23‐million‐year‐old New Zealand lake/forest palaeoecosystem and allows a first evaluation of arthropod diversity at a time coeval with or shortly after the maximum marine transgression of Zealandia in the late Oligocene. The well‐preserved arthropods chiefly represent ground‐dwelling taxa of forest floor and leaf litter habitats, mostly from sub‐families and genera that are still present in the modern fauna. They provide precisely dated fossil evidence for the antiquity of some of New Zealand's terrestrial arthropods and the first potential time calibrations for phylogenetic studies. The high arthropod diversity at Foulden Maar, together with a subtropical rainforest flora and fossil evidence for complex arthropod–plant interactions, suggests that terrestrial arthropods persisted during the Oligocene marine transgression of Zealandia.     

Comparative wood anatomy ofCoriaria

Wood anatomy ofCoriaria was surveyed to clarify generic features on the basis of 14 species collected from various regions of the World to cover the whole range of geographic distribution and habitual variation. Wood anatomy ofcoriaria is considerably uniform, and the species share a combination of the following features: 1) pores are thin-walled, polygonal in outline and mostly in multiples; 2) vessel elements and libriform fibers are very short; 3) perforation plates are exclusively simple; 4) intervessel pits are alternate; 5) vascular tracheids are present; 6) wood parenchyma is vasicentric and sometimes confluent; 7) rays are heterogeneous and large. Its species differ in several characters, such as distinctness of growth rings, pore size, pore patterns, type and abundance of wood parenchyma, and distinctness of storied structure. Comparisons among species indicate that the species of the Northern Hemisphere show a tendency toward having semi-ring porosity, while those of the Southern and Western Hemisphere have diffuse porosity. The other infrageneric variations appear to be related to different habits of the species rather than to geographic distribution. Small trees mostly have confluent and vasicentric parenchyma composed of fusiform cells and distinctly storied tissues, while shrubs and herbs have less abundant parenchyma which is vasicentric and comprises strands of two to four cells and indistinctly storied tissues.     

The fossil record of Eucommia (Eucommiaceae) in North America

Reproductive and vegetative remains of Eucommia from 25 localities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico document the wide distribution of this genus in North America during the Cenozoic. Autofluorescent elastic latex filaments bearing capitate termini are preserved in nearly all of the remains and provide conclusive evidence of their affinity to Eucommia. Four species of Eucommia are recognized on the basis of the characteristic samaras: E. eocenica from middle Eocene strata of the Mississippi Embayment in Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi; E. montana from early Eocene to early Oligocene localities in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, and Montana; E. constans from Neogene rocks in central Mexico; and E. jeffersonensis n. sp. from the latest Eocene or earliest Oligocene John Day Formation of Oregon. Atypical specimens of E. montana and E. eocenica are the first records of two-seeded fruits for the genus. Eucommia leaves from Eocene localities in British Columbia and Mississippi are the first records of Eucommia foliage in North America whose identifications are confirmed by the presence of capitate latex strands. These leaves and a specimen from Oregon are referred to E. rolandii n. sp. Fruit evolution in Eucommia may have involved increases in samara size and symmetry, and reduction in seed number from two to one, perhaps as adaptations for wind dispersal. All fossil Eucommia samaras from North America are smaller and less symmetrical than those of the living species, E. ulmoides. Preliminary flight tests of E. ulmoides samaras and of models of the fossils suggest that E. ulmoides fruits are aerodynamically better suited for wind dispersal than the fossils.