Fossil cupressaceous conifers from “El Chango”, Chiapas (Aptian)
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Abstract
In Mexico, conifer fossil record is incomplete and is biased on the north of the country. In recent years work in a quarry located in the Southwestern Mexico, near Ocozocuautla Espinoza, Chiapas, yielded a new interesting biota. The new locality forms part of the Sierra Madre Formation (Aptian), containing flora and fauna from coastal lagoons/estuaries and continental platform. The plant association found on this site is characterized by a high dominance of gymnosperm morphotypes, particularly two conifers. Branches of ultimate and penultimate order of these morphospecies, and a third one represented only by a single fossil, have been assigned to Cupressaceae family based on the presence of mature acicular or thickened at the base scale leaves, with a single central vein, spiral or alternate in crisscross phyllotaxy. Furthermore, based on their architecture, morphometry and phyllotaxis, fossil morphotypes have been compared, finding morphological affinity, with the extant genera Cryptomeria, Glyptostrobus and Chamaecyparis. Today all these genera have a restricted distribution in Asia, but there are previous reports of fossil Glyptostrobus in America. These plants are new records for the Cretaceous of Mexico and complement the biogeographic history of conifers in the country.
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