title: Fruits of icacinaceae (tribe iodeae) from the late paleocene of Western north america.
abstract: The Icacinaceae occur pantropically today, but are well represented by fossil fruits of the warm Early Middle Eocene, when tropical plants that currently occupy low latitudes were more widely distributed in higher latitudes. Members of this family are first known in the Late Cretaceous; however, fossil fruits of tribe Iodeae are quite rare before the Eocene. In this paper we describe the first formally recognized Late Paleocene icacinaceous taxa from western North America. We name two new species of Icacinicarya based on anatomically preserved fruits and establish a new genus, Icacinicaryites, for impressions with a strong similarity to Icacinicarya that lack anatomical preservation. These new records from the Almont/Beicegel Creek flora in North Dakota and several localities in Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana complement records known from the Early Eocene of England and document an increased diversity of Iodeae and related forms in the Paleogene of western North America.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Box 874501, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-4501 USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Pigg
authors.forename: Steven R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Manchester
authors.forename: Melanie L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Devore