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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Reconstructing Terrestrial Paleoclimate and Paleoecology with Fossil Leaves Using Digital Leaf Physiognomy and Leaf Mass Per Area
Published on: October 25, 2024
Eocene Patagonia fossils of the daisy family
V D Barreda1, L Palazzesi, M C Tellería
1Sección Paleopalinología, División Paleobotánica, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia, Avenida Ángel Gallardo 470, C1405DJR Buenos Aires, Argentina. vbarreda@macn.gov.ar
Abstract:
Fossil capitula and pollen grains of Asteraceae from the Eocene of Patagonia, southern Argentina, exhibit morphological features recognized today in taxa, such as Mutisioideae and Carduoideae, that are phylogenetically close to the root of the asteracean tree. This fossil supports the hypothesis of a South American origin of Asteraceae and an Eocene age of divergence and suggests that an ancestral stock of Asteraceae may have formed part of a geoflora developed in southern Gondwana before the establishment of effective dispersal barriers within this landmass.
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