First report of staminate flowers of Calatola (Metteniusales: Metteniusaceae) from the Miocene Mexican amber

Inclusions of flowers of Podopterus (Polygonaceae) in the Miocene amber of Simojovel de Allende, Chiapas, Mexico

“…Finally, although it is too early to be conclusive, this new evidence of Podopterus as well as other genera previously described (e.g., Hymenaea L., Tapirira Aubl., Swietenia, Lunania Hook, Colpothrinax, Socratea H. Karst., and Calatola) (i.e., Miranda, 1963;Poinar, 2002;Chambers et al, 2012;Hernández-Damián et al, 2016) suggest that these geological and environmental processes that gave rise to some of the extant vegetation of Mexico probably extended to Central and South America (Estrada-Ruiz, 2023;Estrada-Ruiz et al, 2023).…”

“…Recently, Poinar (2022) enumerated several fossil flowers and fruits from the Chiapas amber coming from different paleontological collections, although some records have not been described formally and their affinities still need more work. Among the published descriptions, there are fossil flowers and fruits belonging to Anacardiaceae, Arecaceae, Bromeliaceae, Fabaceae, Meliaceae, Metteniusaceae, Orchidaceae, Polygonaceae, Rhamnaceae, Salicaceae, and Staphyleaceae, (e.g., Miranda, 1963;Poinar and Brown, 2002;Castañeda-Posadas and Cevallos-Ferriz, 2007;Hernández-Damián et al, 2016, 2018Hernández-Hernández and Castañeda-Posadas, 2018;Estrada-Ruiz et al, 2023), showing that the Chiapas forest was very diverse and complex.…”