1School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, Guangdong Province, China; 2State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, Guangdong Province, China; 3State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu Province, China; 4Natural History Museum of Guangxi, Nanning 530012, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China; 5School of Earth Science and Resources, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710054, Shaanxi Province, China
AbstractMelia L. is a small genus of only 2-3 species, which is native to Indo-Malesia, India, Pakistan and southern parts of tropical Africa. Fossil records of Melia are known from the early Miocene to the Pleistocene. Here we describe some mummified fossil endocarps of Melia from the upper part of the Yongning Formation (late Oligocene) in Nanning Basin, South China. These well-preserved stony endocarps are 8-14 mm long and 5-9 mm wide, and have 5 locules with a single spindle seed per locule. We interpret these endocarps as the internal remains of a Melia drupe, and assign them as a new species: M. santangensis sp. nov. This is the only fossil record of anatomically preserved Melia found in China, and also the oldest fossil record of Melia so far reported globally. The fossil record confirms the presence of Melia in Asia at the late Oligocene, and provides evidence supporting the distribution and dispersal hypothesis of the Meliaceae.
. Late Oligocene Melia (Meliaceae) from the Nanning Basin of South China and it's biogeographical implication[J]. , 2021, 10(3): 334-340.
. Late Oligocene Melia (Meliaceae) from the Nanning Basin of South China and it's biogeographical implication[J]. Journal of Palaeogeography, 2021, 10(3): 334-340.
[1] Collinson M.E.1983. Fossil Plants of the London Clay. Field Guides to Fossils Series (No. 1). London: The Palaeontological Association, pp. 1-121. [2] Graham A.1991. Studies in neotropical paleobotany. X. The Pliocene communities of Panama—Composition, numerical representations, and paleocommunity-paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 78 (2): 465-475. https://doi.org/10.2307/2399574. [3] Graham A.1999. Studies in neotropical paleobotany. XIII. An Oligo-Miocene palynoflora from Simojovel (Chiapas, Mexico). American Journal of Botany 86 (1): 17-31. https://doi.org/10.2307/2656951. [4] Graham A.,D.M. Jarzen.1969. Studies in neotropical paleobotany. I. The Oligocene communities of Puerto Rico. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 56 (3): 308-357. https://doi.org/10.2307/2394849. [5] Grote P.J.2007. Studies of a flora from the Pleistocene of northeastern Thailand. In: D.M. Jarzen, G. Retallack, S. Jarzen, S.R. Manchester, (eds.), Advances in Mesozoic and Cenozoic Paleobotany (Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 258). Stuttgart: Schweizerbart Science Publishers, pp. 171-182 [6] Leopold E.B.1984. Pollen identifications from the Eocene Chalk Bluffs flora, California. In: Symposium “Palynology of Tertiary Floras of Western North America”, Abstract, Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists. Palynology 8: 8. [7] Liu, E.D.,G.W. Hu. 2020. Meliaceae. In: D.Z. Li, Z.D. Chen, H. Wang, A.M. Lu, Y. Luo, and Q.B. Yu, (eds.), The Families and Genera of Chinese Vascular Plants (Vol. 2). Beijing: Science Press, pp. 1353-1363 (in Chinese). [8] Mabberley D.J.1984. A monograph ofMelia in Asia and the Pacific: The history of white cedar and Persian lilac. Gardens' Bulletin 37(1): 49-64. [9] Mabberley D.J.2011. Meliaceae. In: K. Kubitzki, (ed.), The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants (X). Berlin: Springer, pp. 185-211. [10] MacGinitie H.D.1941. A Middle Eocene Flora from the Central Sierra Nevada. Washington: Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication 534, pp. 1-178. [11] MacGinitie H.D.1953. Fossil Plants of the Florissant Beds, Colorado. Washington: Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication 599, pp. 1-198. [12] MacGinitie H.D.1974. An early Middle Eocene flora from the Yellowstone-Absaroka volcanic province, northwestern Wind River Basin, Wyoming.University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 108: 1-103. [13] Manchester S.R.2001. Update on the megafossil flora of Florissant, Colorado. In: E. Evanoff, K.M. Gregory-Wodzicki, and K.R. Johnson, (eds.), Fossil Flora and Stratigraphy of the Florissant Formation, Colorado. Proceedings of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (Series 4). Denver: Denver Museum of Nature and Science, pp. 137-161. [14] Meyer H.2003. The Fossils of Florissant. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 1-258. [15] Muellner A.N.,C.M. Pannell,A. Coleman, and M.W. Chase.2008. The origin and evolution of Indomalesian, Australasian and Pacific island biotas: Insights from Aglaieae (Meliaceae, Sapindales). Journal of Biogeography 35 (10): 1769-1789. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.01935.x. [16] Muellner A.N.,R. Samuel,S.A. Johnson,M. Cheek,T.D. Pennington, and M.W. Chase.2003. Molecular phylogenetics of Meliaceae (Sapindales) based on nuclear and plastid DNA sequences. American Journal of Botany 90 (3): 471-480. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.90.3.471. [17] Muellner A.N.,V. Savolainen, R. Samuel, and M.W. Chase. 2006. The mahogany family “out-of-Africa”: Divergence time estimation, global biogeographic patterns inferred from plastid rbcL DNA sequences, extant, and fossil distribution of diversity. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40 (1): 236-250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2006.03.001. [18] Peng H.,D.J. Mabberley, C.M. Pannell, J. Edmonds, and B. Bartholomew. 2008. Meliaceae. In: Z.Y. Wu, P.H. Raven, and D.Y. Hong, (eds.), Flora of China, vol. 11. Beijing: Science Press; St. Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden Press, pp. 335-357. [19] Pennington T.D.,B.T. Styles.1975. A generic monograph of the Meliaceae.Blumea 22: 419-540. [20] Pigg K.B.,M.L. DeVore, J.C. Benedict, and R.M. Creekmore. 2014. Fruits of Melia (Melioideae: Meliaceae) from the middle Miocene Yakima Canyon flora of central Washington State, USA. In: W.D. Stevens, O.M. Montiel, and P.H. Raven, (eds.), Paleobotany and Biogeography: A Festschrift for Alan Graham in His 80th Year. St. Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden Press, pp. 326-337. [21] Quan C.,Q.Y. Fu,G.L. Shi,Y.S. Liu,L. Li,X.Y. Liu, and J.H. Jin.2016. First Oligocene mummified plant Lagerstätte at the low latitudes of East Asia. Science China Earth Sciences 59 (3): 445-448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-015-5250-z. [22] Salard-Cheboldaeff M.1978. Sur la palynoflore Maestrichtienne et Tertiaire du basin sédimentaire littoral du Cameroun.Pollen et Spores 20: 215-260. [23] Shukla A., andR.C. Mehrotra. 2018. A new fossil wood from the highly diverse early Eocene equatorial forest of Gujarat (western India). Palaeoworld 27 (3): 392-398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palwor.2018.01.003. [24] Troup R.S.1921. The Silviculture of Indian Trees (Vol. 1). London: Clarendon Press. [25] Tsukagoshi M.,Y. Ono, and T. Hashimoto.1997. Fossil endocarp ofDavidia from the early Pleistocene sediments of the Tokai Group in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan. Bulletin of the Osaka Museum of Natural History 51: 13-23. [26] Zhao Z.R.1983. A new species of Anthracothere from Nanning Basin, Guangxi.Vertebrata Palasiatica 21(3): 266-270 (in Chinese with English abstract). [27] Zhao Z.R.1993. New Anthracothere materials from the Paleogene of Guangxi.Vertebrata Palasiatica 31(3): 183-190 (in Chinese with English abstract).
2021, Vol. 10 
