The micro- and megafossil record of Nothofagaceae from South America

PUJANA, ROBERTO ROMÁN; FERNÁNDEZ, DAMIÁN; PANTI, CAROLINA; CAVIGLIA, N.

BOTANICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2021 vol. 196 p. 1 - 20

0024-4074

We compiled the numerous fossil records (486) assigned to the Nothofagaceae including pollen grains (from surface sediments and continental and oceanic borehole cores), leaves, woods and reproductive structures from South America. All the records are revised and the latest systematic treatments and ages of the bearing strata of each record are followed. When possible, we proposed a subgenus affinity to each record based on updated bibliography. Fossils of three (Nothofagus, Fuscospora and Lophozonia) of the four subgenera are found in similar proportions through time since the Late Cretaceous. Fossils with confident affinity with subgenus Brassospora were not found in South America. Most of the records are concentrated in the southern tip of South America (Patagonia Region) and nearby areas. After a significant presence of Nothofagaceae in the Cretaceous, the family declined in diversity and abundance in the Paleocene and then increase from the Eocene to the Miocene. In the Miocene, the records reach their maximum diversity and abundance, and the Nothofagaceae usually dominate the assemblages of pollen, leaves and woods from Patagonia. Pliocene Nothofagaceae records are virtually absent, surely because sedimentary rocks of that age are rare in Patagonia. The Nothofagaceae fossil record varies according to environmental turnovers; when tropical/subtropical floras are present in Patagonia in the Paleocene?early Eocene, Nothofagaceae contracted southward and when open steppes developed in the Miocene of east Patagonia, the Nothofagaceae contracted westward.