Incursion of tropically-distributed plant taxa into high latitudes during the middle Eocene warming event: Evidence from the Río Turbio Fm, Santa Cruz, Argentina
- Fernández, Damián Andrés
- Santamarina, Patricio Emmanuel
- Palazzesi, Luis
- Tellería, María Cristina
- Barreda, Viviana Dora
DOIAbstract
Plant species with predominantly tropical and subtropical modern distributions (or meso-megathermal species) penetrated into the highest southern latitudes of the American continent during the global warmest periods of the Cenozoic. These species – usually phylogenetically unrelated – became fossilized typically as dispersed spores and pollen grains. Here, we describe and illustrate fossil spores and pollen grains preserved during the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) in Patagonian southernmost latitudes (Río Turbio Formation). We study those species that today occurred in lower latitudes (e.g. northern Argentina and Brazil) and became locally extinct from Patagonia during the subsequent cooling episodes. We also estimate their frequenc...
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