What is it about?
We report a new malpighigialean tree from the Miocene of Panama. Longitudinal sections of the specimen look very distinct because of abundant sclerotic tyloses.
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Why is it important?
Fossil plants from Panama were forgotten for a long time. Since the expansion of the Panama Canal (2007-2015), several studies have been conducted and a window to the past of panamanian forests has been opened once again. The combination of features allows assignment of theis fossil tree to Malpighiales, and we note similarities with four predominantly tropical families: Salicaceae, Achariaceae, and especially, Phyllanthaceae, and Euphorbiaceae. These findings improve our knowledge of Miocene neotropical diversity and highlight the importance of Malpighiales in the forests of Panama prior to the collision of the Americas.
Perspectives
This paper offers an informative discussion on several neotropical families in the Malpighiales Order. I consider it is useful because of the section of comparisonwith Euphorbiaceae, Salicaceae and Phyllanthaceae. This offers a new report for Panama and enhances further discussion on ancient Malpighiales
Oris Rodríguez Reyes
Universidad de Panama
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Panascleroticoxylon crystallosa gen. et sp. nov.: a new Miocene malpighialean tree from Panama, IAWA Journal, November 2017, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/22941932-20170178.
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