A new record of fossil wood of Vochysiaceae from the Upper Pleistocene (Arroyo Feliciano Formation), Argentina, South America.

MOYA, E.; BREA, M.

REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE PALEONTOLOGIA

SOC BRASILEIRA PALEONTOLOGIA

Lugar: Porto Alegre; Año: 2015 vol. 18 p. 83 - 90

1519-7530

A new species, Qualeoxylon felicianensis sp. nov. is described from the Upper Pleistocene Arroyo Feliciano Formation of the Gualeguay Basin on eastern Argentina. It is the second record of the Qualeoxylon Suguio & Mussa in South America and was previously only known from the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene on the region Itaquaquecetuba, São Paulo, Brazil. This new fossil species was recovered in the Consorcio Paso Sociedad fossil locality (Federal, Entre Ríos, Argentina). The diagnostic features are as follows: growth rings boundaries distinct, diffuse porous, vessel solitary, in radial multiples of 2?4 cells and some in clusters, exclusively simple perforation plates, intervessels pitting bordered, alternate and vestured, homocellular rays, all procumbent cells, 1?3 width, vessel-ray pitting similar to intervessel pitting, axial parenchyma 7?16 cells per strand, paratracheal axial parenchyma scanty, vasicentric, confluent, and apotracheal diffuse, diffuse in aggregated, non-septate and libriform fibers, traumatic axial gum ducts, crystals in chambered axial parenchyma cells and vessels. Wood anatomical features suggest a close relationship with Vochysiaceae and the fossil specimen is an affinity with the extant genus Qualea. This fossil wood is consistent with the warm and humid climate inferred for this region during the Upper Pleistocene. The discovery of Qualeoxylon in Arroyo Feliciano Formation supports the hypothesis that the Vochysiaceae was more widespread in the past than today.