New records of fossil leaves from Abunã Basin, Upper Pleistocene, Rondônia, Brazil

ABSTRACT

Detailed descriptions were carried out for four (4) new leaves morphotypes belonging to Calophyllaceae (Calophyllum sp.), Chrysobalanaceae (Couepia sp.) and Fabaceae (Morphotype 1 and Senna sp.), from the Rio Madeira Formation, Upper Pleistocene, Abunã Basin, Rondônia State, Brazil. Detailed characteristics from the leaf architectures show the similarity of the specimens here analysed with their representatives that are established in the current forest cover. The presence of these families in this basin indicates a paleoclimate as well as a paleoenvironment with similar conditions to the present, thus supporting the inference that they could have been important components of paleoflora. These new records are unpublished for the Neopleistocene in the amazon region, increasing the geographic distribution for the families reported here.

KEYWORDS:

• Leaf architecture
• Calophyllaceae
• Chrysobalanaceae
• Fabaceae
• Quaternary

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Sustainable Energy of Brazil for permission to publish.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [309966/2014-0]; and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [88882.428377/2019-01].