Early angiosperm diversification: evidence from southern South America

ARCHANGELSKY, S.; BARREDA, V.; PASSALIA, M.G.; GANDOLFO, M.A.; PRAMPARO, M.B.; ROMERO, E,J.; CUNEO, R.; ZAMUNER, A.; IGLESIAS, A.; LLORENS, M.; PUEBLA, G.G.; QUATTROCCHIO, M.E.; VOLKHEIMER, W.

CRETACEOUS RESEARCH (PRINT)

Elsevier

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2009 vol. 30 p. 1073 - 1082

0195-6671

Abstract. In this report, we analyze the angiosperm fossil record (micro- and megafossil) from the central and southern basins of Argentina, southern South America, deposited between the Late Barremian (128.3 Ma) to the end of the Coniacian (85.8 Ma). Based on this analysis, three major phases in the evolution of the angiosperms in the southernmost region of South America are established as follows: the Late Barremian-Aptian, the latest Aptian-earliest Albian, and the Late Albian- Coniacian. The comparison between our fossil data set and those from the North America Potomac Group sequence and the European Western Portuguese and Algarve basins suggest that the evolution and diversification of the angiosperms at mid and high latitudes in both hemispheres occurred roughly synchronously.