Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 72, núm. 2, A300719, 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2020v72n2a300719

Evidence of large Anacardiaceae trees from the Oligocene–early Miocene Santiago Formation, Azuero, Panama

Evidencia de árboles grandes de Anacardiaceae del Oligoceno-Mioceno temprano en la Formación Santiago, Azuero, Panamá

Oris Rodríguez-Reyes^1,2,*, Emilio Estrada-Ruiz³, Peter Gasson⁴

¹Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Exactas y Tecnología, Departamento de Botánica, Universidad de Panamá. Apartado 00017, 0824, Panama.

²Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Box 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancón Republic of Panama, Panama.

³Departamento de Zoología, Laboratorio de Ecología, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Prolongación de Carpio y Plan de Ayala s/n, 11340, CDMX, Mexico.

⁴Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW93AB, United Kingdom.

*Corresponding author: (O. Rodrguez-Reyes) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

How to cite this article:

Rodríguez-Reyes, O., Estrada-Ruiz, E., Gasson, P., 2020, Evidence of large Anacardiaceae trees from the Oligocene–early Miocene Santiago Formation, Azuero, Panama: Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana 72(2), A300719. http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2020v72n2a300719

Abstract

We have poor knowledge of the plants that inhabited Central America during the Cenozoic. One of the families with a rich fossil record worldwide, especially for the Oligocene and Miocene epochs is Anacardiaceae. Llanodelacruzoxylon sandovalii gen. et sp. nov. is the first formal record of a fossil wood of Anacardiaceae found in Panama and Central America to date. We collected the fossil woods in the Oligocene–Miocene Santiago Formation, in the Azuero Peninsula, Panama. Among the samples collected we have described and identified this new fossil genus of Anacardiaceae, using wood anatomical characters and extensive comparisons with fossil and extant material. These two specimens share diagnostic features with several Anacardiaceae woods, such as: large vessels (>200 µm), simple vessel-ray pitting and rays mostly uniseriate with large crystals. The occurrence of these Anacardiaceae in Panama by the Oligocene to Miocene adds to the understanding of the historical biogeography of the family and supports Central America (including Mexico) being a divergence center of the Anacardiaceae.

Keywords: Anacarcadiaceae, Oligocene–Miocene, fossil wood, Santiago Formation, Panama.