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Ceratophyllum L. is a cosmopolitan genus of perennial aquatic herbs that occur in quiet freshwaters. Fossils of this genus have been widely reported from the Northern Hemisphere, most of them occurring in the temperate zone. Here, we describe two species of fossil fruits discovered from subtropical areas of China. The fossil fruit discovered in the late Eocene Huangniuling Formation of the Maoming Basin is designated as C. cf. muricatum Chamisso, and fruits discovered from the Miocene Erzitang Formation of the Guiping Basin are assigned to the extant species C. demersum L. The discovery of these two fossil species indicates that Ceratophyllum had spread to South China by the late Eocene and their distribution expanded in subtropical China during the Miocene.

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Ampelopsis Michx. (Vitaceae) contains more than 30 species and is discontinuously distributed in Eurasia, North America, and Central America. China hosts an abundance of Ampelopsis species. Until now, fossil records of Ampelopsis have been reported only from the Paleocene to the Pleistocene of Europe, the Eocene to the Pliocene of Asia, and the Eocene to the Miocene of North America. Although Ampelopsis is abundant and widespread in China today, no fossils of Ampelopsis have so far been found there, except for fossil seed from the Upper Miocene of Yunnan. In this study, a fossil seed of Ampelopsis japonica (Thunb.) Makino was recovered from the Upper Pleistocene of the Maoming Basin, Guangdong province. It is the first Ampelopsis fossil found in South China. This finding shows that Ampelopsis was distributed in the low latitudes of South China in the Late Pleistocene. Global cooling during the last glaciation might have led to the southward spread of the genus to the low-latitude areas of South China. According to the structural characteristics of our fossil, it is speculated that the aborted ovule, which is common in the fruits of extant Ampelopsis, existed in this genus in the Late Pleistocene.