
The oak family Fagaceae is thought to have its evolutionary origins in northern temperate forests and Southeast Asia. Wilf et al. now report 52-million-year-old fossils from the Southern Hemisphere belonging to the still-living genus Castanopsis. Hypotheses of Fagaceae origins have focused only on the Northern Hemisphere. Ancestral Castanopsis may represent one of numerous paleo-Antarctic plant genera that are found with Castanopsis today in Southeast Asian rainforests.
Continue reading here.
Date:
Thursday, June 13, 2019