A FOSSIL FLOWER OF THE GENUS PROTIUM (BURSERACEAE) IN MID-TERTIARY AMBER FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

2013·3.5 MB·English

by  Kenton L Chambers

FLOWER OF PROTIUM (BURSERACEAE) IN
FOSSIL
1
5
AMB DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
MID-TERTIARY :HE
George
O. Poinar,
Jr.
Journal of the Botanical Research
Institute
of Texas
7(1)
Mam
Lower Miocene Group The amber
e to y (Draper et al. 1994). age of the is controversial, the
oldest
dates being 45-30 Ma, based on (Cepek and
i coccoliths in Schlee 1999), the youngest being 20-15
Ma,
&
n foraminifera MacPhee
(Iturralde-Vinent
1966).
HISPANIOLA.
Dominican
e:
1
Oregon
It State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, U.S.A.).
mm
n fully developed petals) 6.0 a
(Figs.
1,
2),
mm
lyx glabrous, cupular long mm,
(Fig. 4), 1.4 overall, sepals connate, the fused portion 1.0 the lobes broadly
mm
mm
triangular, acute, 0.4 long, 0.7 wide at base; petals 5 (1 missing and 1 truncated near base), lanceolate
mm
from broad
a base, acute, spreading, portion
distal recurved, length 2.4 including the recurved part, the
tip
inflexed margin
(Fig. 4), papillate (Fig. 4), abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial surface minutely papillate; stamens
strongly incurved, 2
10, of different lengths, the antepetalous ones up mm,
to 1.1 the antesepalous ones up
to
mm, mm
0.9 anthers
lance-linear, basifixed
(Fig. 2), 0.5 long, laterally dehiscent; disc intrastaminal, glabrous,
mm
mm
annular, swollen,
1.7 in diameter, the central depression
0.7 in diameter, occupied by a reduced
pistil-
mm
lode ovary
(Fig. ovoid, glabrous,
2), ca. 5-lobed,
style fused, stout, 0.15 long, distally 10-lobed or sulcate
mm
(Figs. floral pedicel
1, 2), papillate at base, otherwise
glabrous, 2.8 long
(Fig.
3).
Etymology.—From
Greek
and
“kallos,” beauty,
“anthos,”
flower.
DISCUSSION
may
Petals of Protium be
either erect or
reflexed
at anthesis (Engler and
1931), the fossil is in the latter category.
Petals are vanously
glabrous or pubescent
in the
genus,
e.g., villous abaxially and adaxially in alvarevcmm
P.
&
Daly Fine and
P. adaxially
short-papillate in
P. caroknse Daly. The fossil resembles the latter species in this
respect as well as in widely
its recurved
petals, but
differs in other 5-merous versus
features flowers
(e.g.,
The
4-merous). form
of calyx seen
in
callianthum
P. is well represented many of
in the genus, as described for its
by
species Swart
Anthers
(1942). with
basal rather than common
dorsal insertion are in the genus and charac-
tenze
callianthum
P. (Figs. They
2, 3). are illustrated
for P. altsonu Sandw., bahianum Daly, and others (Daly
P.
1989 Stammate
1992a).
flowers
possessing
a thick
intrastaminal whose a
disc depression contains te-
central
common b<Mmm
r“‘T
Pfe'il. In Prolinm of
(see ffluslrations P.
mom
IDaly 1992a| as well as Daly
and
P. other
taxa
[Daly The Par
I992bl). ease with which keys to
the fossil
hum
onnoral
traits (Swartl942; Daly
etal.2011).as
well as men.
its Similarity to the various illustrated taxa
tioned
above, strongly support
assignment
its
to this genus
Several
features of the
fossil are worth
noting.
Papillate margins hetweea the
allow fusion
postgenital
valvate petals before they
finally m
separate
at anthesis. This occurs imerd^tion
through papillae,
of the
xplained by Bachelier and A
Endress
(2009).
si not
which mention, is
they also
1
,
was
notedforPrmiummorii
by
BacheherandEtnhess
2009
from
noralbud'cr^s^s^cinrHowevert^
(
)
rom
ers e escnption
of tbe
t species by Daly who mm
(1992),
gives 1.7-1.83 and 1.85-2.05 for the antepetal-
mtes,mlousones,respectively.Other
species
forwhichthedescriptions
mention
ous than
an,tteepneettaallo™u,ss
p &
fm
p The
dvareziamm
(Daly Fine 2011).
quency, in Protium,
of the
inoe
Tribe Prot
urotieae Protium
(the
Alliance per Daly D
et al 1201 i« , j j mnlecular
1 ii t
•
.^s(Clarksonetal.2002;Weeksetal.‘’2005;{h:it::r]:;:r^^^^^
.bywhichtodistingnisham„ngthe7:rra'?™;tir^™

and Poinar,/
Chambers
1908)
(Solereder
trichomes
snaU-shaped
genus Crepidospermum by the lack of
anth^
the
thefossilinhaving
usually differsLnxProtL and from
m
an
owers,
staminate
“ovariodisc”
conical
uients, the disc and fused into a
pistillode
nate (Daly
1989).
r.,
uv,
.
.
FoUowi„gh.descrtp«o„otPr..u™car„,e„«,D,V(~
m
majontyo
Ulsect on He found that a
that feeds the flowers.
^ Other
remaininenerianth
the
f
»
whicheatstheinterioroftheflowerbutdoesnotpreventregularenlargement
. ...yi^of amber con-
with no
colleaiomof
have developing fruits
the species
and
stamens top of
,he
^tningthe
type
ofP.
fossil Whether
the
ofsome kind.
posstblybyanh*^^^
•hedisc and have been eaten, quite
pistilseen. to
^^^
charac
have
might also
carolense
‘usect/flower
described for
relationship P.
«nknown,butitdeservesn.entionforitspossiblebottm^
Protimn from other
callianlltum is distinct « from
Republic but differs P, culli-
D„„i„ican
mo^tn
Urb., m
species gluucescens
of Protium, 4-merous
P. have
Cuba also
endemic
5-merous,flow^^The^
»*«tn
than
4-merous, rather
its
op
wttna t-
Anulies,
Lesser
»»»ers, while Urb, of the
attetmutum (Rose)
P.
a™
5-lobed
in
its ovate, dotsifixedanthetsand De-Nova
2012; et al.
(Becerra et al.
The
two Pbylo8'«“”“^'““f®";:^'::“;es
most molecular Weeks
recent
2002; etal.
(Clarkson
beyon
go p
^912), although genus Bursera,
emphasizing the
1
372
2005; Thulin et al. 2008) by increasing the number of sampled species and proposing time-calibrated
phylog-
enies of the family. According to the calculations of Becerra et (op. Burseraceae are over 92 Ma
al. cit.), old, and
many modem Ma
the evolutionary proliferation of genera occurred in the period of 30±10
(their Fig.
3, p. 339).
De-Nova et al. (op. however, give the age of the family’s crown group as 64.92 (60.33-69.67) Ma and
cit.), of
the
crown
Bursera group as 49.43 (45.38-53.77) Ma. In a phylogenetic study of Protium by Fine
(under
et al. review),
the split between this genus and Bursera is dated as ca. 52 Ma, and the diversification of the Protium clade
be-
gins ca. 20 Ma. The deposits of amber from the Dominican Republic are not precisely dated
(see Materials and
Methods), the youngest estimate being 20-15 Ma. The which
large clade to callianthum probably
P. belongs,
among
containing, others, the extant Caribbean species of Protium, diverged around 15 Ma, a
figure
that
would
clearly favor the younger of the 2 estimates for the age of the amber. Protium callianthum may be
still
on
older, the stem of this clade, since has no synapomorphies match
it that those in the larger, inclusive clade
(P.Fine,pers. comm.).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We
thank David
Harris for his taxonomic advice and
Peter Endress for pointing us in the direction of an ap-
propriate systematic placement
for the fossil. Douglas Daly and Paul Fine provided valuable review comments
and
suggestions, as well as information from
unpublished Brown made
research. Alex kindly available the
by
tise Swart.
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