GINKGOITES PATAGONICA (BERRY) COMB. NOV. FROM THE EOCENE OF PATAGONIA, LAST GINKGOALEAN RECORD IN SOUTH AMERICA

V. DE SEOANE, LILIANA; CÚNEO, RUBÉN; ESCAPA, IGNACIO; WILF, PETER; GANDOLFO, MARIA A.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PLANT SCIENCES

UNIV CHICAGO PRESS

Lugar: Chicago; Año: 2015

1058-5893

Premise of research. The ginkgophytes are an ancient group of gymnosperms with a long history startingduring the late Paleozoic and reaching the present with the unique species Ginkgo biloba L. In order to bettercharacterize the early and middle Eocene (ca. 52.2 and 47.7 Ma) leaf species Ginkgo patagonica Berry fromnorthwest Patagonia, Argentina, new specimens were studied, focusing on their morphological and anatomi-cal characters.Methodology. The specimens were studied with LM, epifluorescence, SEM, and TEM.Pivotal results. The diagnosis of the species Ginkgoites patagonica comb. nov. is enlarged to includeanatomical and ultrastructural epidermal characters. Herein, the species Ginkgo patagonica is shown to havecharacteristics that clearly separate it from the genus Ginkgo L., and it is therefore recombined to the genusGinkgoites Seward.Conclusions. Eocene Ginkgoites patagonica was present in plant communities, and it is the last repre-sentative of a still poorly understood southern ginkgophyte lineage that was distinct from the ancestors ofG. biloba of the Northern Hemisphere.