Fossil fruits of <i>Canarium</i> (Burseraceae) from Eastern Asia and their implications for phytogeographical history
<p>The genus <i>Canarium</i> contains approximately 78 species distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics. <i>Canarium</i> is characterized by a distinctive drupaceous fruit with a trilocular endocarp derived from three fused pyrenes. Here, we describe new <...
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2017
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| Summary: | <p>The genus <i>Canarium</i> contains approximately 78 species distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics. <i>Canarium</i> is characterized by a distinctive drupaceous fruit with a trilocular endocarp derived from three fused pyrenes. Here, we describe new <i>Canarium</i> fossil fruits from the late Oligocene of the Yongning Formation, the Miocene of the Erzitang Formation, and the late Miocene of the Foluo Formation in Guangxi Province, South China, providing the first confirmed fossil occurrences of <i>Canarium</i> in eastern Asia. The fruits of <i>Canarium guangxiensis</i> Han & Manchester sp. nov. are ovoidal to spindle shaped, 22.8–34.3 mm long, and 10.7–14.6 mm wide. Computed tomography (CT) scan was used to study the morphological and anatomical characters of fossil and modern <i>Canarium</i>, facilitating identification of the fossil fruits. This new occurrence supplements other megafossil records of <i>Canarium</i> fruits from the Eocene in North America, the Eocene to Oligocene in Europe, the Oligocene in Africa, the Oligocene to Miocene in Asia and from the Pleistocene in Australia and the Pacific islands. The fossil record indicates a wide dispersal of <i>Canarium</i> over the Northern Hemisphere during the Eocene and Oligocene, followed by a geographical contraction during the Miocene as the result of its extinction from North America and Europe. The origin and migratory routes of this genus are not clearly resolved, but based on the fossils known so far, we hypothesize that <i>Canarium</i> may have had a North American Eocene origin, with subsequent spread to Eurasia and Africa, followed by dispersal to the Southern Hemisphere.</p> |
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