Soroceaxylon entrerriensis gen. et sp. nov. (Moraceae) de la Formación Ituzaingó (Plioceno-Pleistoceno), Cuenca del río Paraná, Argentina

Abstract

Fossil woods, found in the Pliocene-Pleistocene of Ituzaingó Formation (Paraná Basin, Argentina), are described and assigned to a new morphogenus with affinities with Moraceae family. The fossil woods have predominantly solitary vessels and in radial multiples of between two and nine elements and tangential multiple less common; very small and alternate intervessel pits; axial parenchyma scanty paratracheal, complete and incomplete and apotracheal axial parenchyma scanty and diffuse-in-aggregates; uniseriate and multiseriate rays, heterocellular rays, multiseriate rays with one to three channels probably laticifers or tanniniferous tubes and prismatic crystals in radial cells. The fossil woods are anatomically similar to the extant species of the genus Sorocea A. St. Hil. Moraceae probably originate in Eurasia with subsequent migration facilitated by multiple land routes. This record indicates that Moraceae were well established in the Pliocene-Pleistocene of South America.