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Studies in neotropical paleobotany. XIV. A palynoflora from the middle Eocene Saramaguacán formation of Cuba

American Journal of Botany
By: , , , and 
https://doi.org/10.2307/2656879

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Abstract

An assemblage of 46 fossil pollen and spore types is described from a core drilled through the middle Eocene Saramaguacán Formation, Camagüey Province, eastern Cuba. Many of the specimens represent unidentified or extinct taxa but several can be identified to family (Palmae, Bombacaceae, Gramineae, Moraceae, Myrtaceae) and some to genus (Pteris, Crudia, Lymingtonia?). The paleoclimate was warm-temperate to subtropical which is consistent with other floras in the region of comparable age and with the global paleotemperature curve. Older plate tectonic models show a variety of locations for proto-Cuba during Late Cretaceous and later times, including along the norther coast of South America. More recent models depict western and central Cuba as two separate parts until the Eocene, and eastern Cuba (joined to northern Hispaniola) docking to central Cuba also in the Eocene. All fragments are part of the North American Plate and none were directly connected with northern South America in late Mesozoic or Cenozoic time. The Saramaguacán flora supports this model because the assemblage is distinctly North American in affinities, with only one type (Retimonocolpites type 1) found elsewhere only in South America.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Studies in neotropical paleobotany. XIV. A palynoflora from the middle Eocene Saramaguacán formation of Cuba
Series title American Journal of Botany
DOI 10.2307/2656879
Volume 87
Issue 10
Year Published 2000
Language English
Publisher Botanical Society of America
Description 14 p.
First page 1526
Last page 1539
Country Cuba
State Camagüey Province
Other Geospatial Saramaguacán Formation
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