Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 71, núm. 3, 2019, p. 761-772 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2019v71n3a8

 Nueva especie de Laurinoxylon (Lauraceae) de la Formación El Bosque (Eoceno), Chiapas, México

Diana Karen Pérez-Lara¹, Emilio Estrada-Ruiz^2,*, Carlos Castañeda-Posadas³

¹Maestría en Biociencias, Departamento de Zoología, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas , Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Prolongación de Carpio y Plan de Ayala s/n, 11340, CDMX, México.

²Departamento de Zoología, Laboratorio de Ecología, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Prolongación de Carpio y Plan de Ayala s/n, 11340, CDMX, México.

³Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Laboratorio de Paleontología. Blvd. Valsequillo y Av. San Claudio, Edificio BIO-1, Ciudad Universitaria, Col. Jardines de San Manuel, C.P. 72570 Puebla, México.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

We describe a new species of the fossil genus Laurinoxylon from the El Bosque Formation (Eocene), Chiapas, Mexico. The new species is characterized by: diffuse porous wood with indistinct growth rings; solitary vessels and in radial multiples of two to three vessels per radial multiple; simple perforation plates; alternate intervessel pits: septate and non-septate fibers; round vessel-ray parenchyma pits, horizontally and vertically elongated with reduced borders; axial parenchyma scanty paratracheal, vasicentric, apotracheal diffuse; heterogeneous rays, and oil cells associated to the ray parenchyma and among the fibers. This fossil genus has been described before from the Cretaceous to the Neogene, worldwide. This is the first formal record of Laurinoxylon and the first Eocene macrofossil report of Lauraceae from Mexico. This new species supports the hypothesis that the Lauraceae had a wide distribution during the past and that Mexico may be an important region for the diversification of the family as evidenced by its fossil record dating from the Late Cretaceous and by the high number of genera and species that currently grow in Mexico.

Keywords: Eocene, Laurinoxylon, El Bosque Formation, Chiapas, Mexico, fossil wood.