Mummified fruits of Canarium from the upper Pleistocene of South China
Helanlin Xiang,
Tatiana M. Kodrul,
Mikhail S. Romanov,
Natalia P. Maslova,
Meng Han,
Luliang Huang,
Xinkai Wu,
Jianhua Jin
Affiliations
Helanlin Xiang
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Tatiana M. Kodrul
Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119017, Russia
Mikhail S. Romanov
N.V. Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden, RAS, Moscow 127276, Russia
Natalia P. Maslova
Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 117647, Russia
Meng Han
Shenzhen Museum, Shenzhen 518027, China
Luliang Huang
School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Xinkai Wu
School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China; Corresponding author
Jianhua Jin
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China; Corresponding author
Summary: Canarium L. contains approximately 78 species distributed in low to middle altitudes of the Paleotropics and northern Australia. Canarium fruit fossils are known mainly from Paleogene to Neogene of North America, Africa, and Eurasia. Here, we described a new species Canarium maomingense sp. nov. from the upper Pleistocene of the Maoming Basin, Guangdong, South China. Similarly to extant Canarium species, each of three locules of C. maomingense possesses two ovules, but only one or two of six ovules develop into a seed, indicating that the ovules undeveloped into seeds in Canarium species have existed at least since the late Pleistocene. The natural habitats of extant relatives and associated fossil plants suggest subtropical evergreen broad-leaved and mixed forests in the late Pleistocene of this region. Some special damage traces are observed on pyrene surfaces, indicating possible plant interactions with animals and fungi.
