title: Fruits and wood of Parinari from the early Miocene of Panama and the fossil record of Chrysobalanaceae.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Chrysobalanaceae are woody plants with over 500 species in 20 genera. They are among the most common trees in tropical forests, but a sparse fossil record has limited our ability to test evolutionary and biogeographic hypotheses, and several previous reports of Chrysobalanaceae megafossils are doubtful.
  
  
  METHODS
  We prepared fossil endocarps and wood collected from the lower Miocene beds along the Panama Canal using the cellulose acetate peel technique and examined them using light microscopy. We compared the fossil endocarps with previously published fossils and with fruits from herbarium specimens. We compared the fossil wood with photographs and descriptions of extant species.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parinari endocarps can be distinguished from other genera within Chrysobalanaceae by a suite of features, i.e., thick wall, a secondary septum, seminal cavities lined with dense, woolly trichomes, and two ovate to lingulate basal germination plugs. Fossil endocarps from the Cucaracha, Culebra, and La Boca Formations confirm that Parinari was present in the neotropics by the early Miocene.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The earliest unequivocal evidence of crown-group Chrysobalanaceae is late Oligocene-early Miocene, and the genus Parinari was distinct by at least 19 million years ago. Parinari and other Chrysobalanaceae likely reached the neotropics via long-distance dispersal rather than vicariance. The presence of Parinari in the Cucaracha flora supports the interpretation of a riparian, moist tropical forest environment. Parinari was probably a canopy-dominant tree in the Cucaracha forest and took advantage of the local megafauna for seed dispersal.
authors: Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA najud@flmnh.ufl.edu.
authors: Nathan A
authors: NA
authors: Jud
authors: Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA.
authors: Chris W
authors: CW
authors: Nelson
authors: Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois 60022 USA.
authors: Fabiany
authors: F
authors: Herrera
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D045469:Chrysobalanaceae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification; D004777:Environment; D005580:Fossils / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005638:Fruit / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D010176:Panama; D063148:Plant Dispersal; D014934:Wood / Q000033:anatomy & histology
keywords: Chrysobalanaceae; Miocene; Panama; Parinari; fossils; fruits; neotropics; wood