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The fossil records of Burretiodendron Rehder are reviewed based on diagnostic winged fruits from the Oligocene Ningming Formation, Guangxi, South China. Today, this genus is endemic to Southeast Asia with six extant species that are well distributed in limestone mountain forests under a monsoonal climate. The fossil records of this genus were represented only in Yunnan of southwestern China. The fossil fruits are assigned to a new species, Burretiodendron guangxiensis J.L. Dong et B.N. Sun sp. nov., are smaller than those of living species. Burretiodendron is a good indicator of paleoclimate and karstification due to its restricted distribution which is determined by specific temperature, precipitation and the topographic condition. We investigated the climate requirements of Burretiodendron. It is possible to accurately infer that the Ningming paleoflora represented a warm and humid climate with seasonal precipitation during the Oligocene. Edaphic preferences of the nearest living relative identified for the fossil species may point to the existence of a karstic system in the Ningming Region during the Oligocene.

New legume fossils can provide a historical perspective of their early evolution and biogeographic history. Three legume species, Albizia ningmingensis sp. nov., Leguminocarpum sp. 1 and Leguminocarpum sp. 2, from the Oligocene Ningming Formation of Guangxi, South China, are described on the basis of morphological and/or anatomical characteristics. Albizia ningmingensis sp. nov. bears a close resemblance to the extant species Albizia kalkora in morphology and anatomy and represents a reliable occurrence of Albizia in the Oligocene deposits of China. An incomplete fruit fossil is described as Leguminocarpum sp. 1, predominantly on the basis of anatomical characteristics. Fruits of Leguminocarpum sp. 2 are straight and strongly asymmetrical, with one straight suture and the other strongly constricted. The occurrence of Albizia fruits indicate that Albizia elements existed in the South China during the Oligocene. Our legume fossils, together with earlier records of three Bauhinia species, indicate that a flora with the unusual abundance of legumes was present in South China in the Oligocene. The legumes from the Ningming Formation, having a relatively high diversity, can contribute to the palaeoclimatic interpretation and indicate that the Oligocene Ningming flora most likely lived in a tropical-to-warm subtropical climate.

New palm leaves from the Oligocene Ningming Formation are placed into the morphogenus Sabalites because of their costapalmate leaf shape. Four taxa are described on the basis of leaf compressions w...

A new fossiliferous horizon from the Middle Triassic Dingjiayao Formation, Pingchuan District, Gansu Province, China is described. The plant assemblage preserves a diverse community of horsetails, ferns and seeds of unknown systematic affinity. Ferns are the most diverse elements of the assemblage and are also ecologically dominant, while horsetails contribute a smaller component to floristic diversity and have a lower abundance. Here, five fern taxa are assigned to Marantoidea, Symopteris, Neuropteridium, Cladophlebis and Sphenopteris. Also, six species belonging to three horsetail taxa are described from this assemblage, which are assigned to Equisetites, Echinostachys and Neocalamites. Additionally, remains of doubtful botanical attribution comprise Carpolithus seeds. Some of these groups are recorded from the Middle Triassic of China for the first time. The preservation of these fossils suggests that the assemblage was buried autochthonously or para-autochthonously by volcanic ash fall. Fossilization of these specimens occurred rapidly after the specimens embedded in the volcaniclastic sediments. Also the plant assemblage indicates a local riparian environment in a warm, humid climate.

The study of plant–insect interactions can provide valuable information about terrestrial ecosystems. A plant assemblage from the Toupi Formation of Jiangxi, China, provides indirect evidence of the plant–insect interactions that occurred in a Miocene forest community. A total of 123 dicot leaf specimens were examined and 25 of them showed traces of insect herbivory. Twenty-four damage types were identified and categorized into eight functional feeding groups. These traces indicate that insects interacted with these plants for various purposes, including feeding, sheltering and egg laying. To survey the responses of plant–insect interactions to climate conditions, the data on insect damage frequency and temperature variables from the Toupi assemblage and four other assemblages (from the middle Miocene to the early Pleistocene) from China were analyzed based on a linear stepwise regression analysis. The analysis suggests that there is a significant positive correlation between the damage frequency and the coldest month (mean) temperature (CMT) (R2 = 0.709 and P = .047). The present result provides additional support for the hypothesis that the CMT, rather than the mean annual temperature, could be one of the factors influencing the frequency of damage in paleoflora communities. When compared to the four other assemblages, the Toupi assemblage has the lowest damage frequency which could be due to the lowest CMT. It is possible that a low CMT could result in a low insect metabolic rate per unit area and unit time, leading to a low frequency of insect attack and a low herbivory rate.

Fossil palm leaves from the Oligocene deposits in Ningming County, Guangxi, China, have been reported for the first time. The palmate leaf shape along with a definite costa support the placement of the fossils in the Coryphoideae. Three new species are described: Chuniophoenix slenderifolia sp. nov., Livistona roundifolia sp. nov. and Trachycarpus formosa sp. nov. The palm fossils belong to three taxa and indicate that palms in southern China began to diversify no later than the Oligocene and that a diversified palm flora was already present at that time in Guangxi. This report provides new information about the biogeographical history of Chinese palms over geological time.

Several three-dimensionally preserved Pious female cones from the upper Miocene Shengxian Formation of Zhejiang Province, eastern China, were identified as two fossil species, Pinus preyunnanensis X.H. Xu and B.N. Sun sp. nov. and Pinus prekesiya Xing, Liu and Zhou. Morphologically, comparisons of P. preyunnanensis sp. nov. with previously published Cenozoic cones and related extant pine cones reveal that the present specimens differ from all of them. The new species has the closest affinity with the extant Pious yunnanensis. The occurrence of P. preyunnanensis sp. nov. and P. prekesiya from the upper Miocene in Zhejiang, eastern China, indicates that 1) P. yunnanensis and Pinus kesiya (or their ancestral taxa) had a wider distribution during the late Miocene compared to the present; 2) P. yunnanensis and P. kesiya (or their ancestral taxa) disappeared from eastern China probably because of the prominent declining cold month mean temperature from the Miocene to the present; and 3) the differentiation of P. yunnanensis and P. kesiya can be traced back in eastern China to at least the late Miocene. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Paliurus favonii Unger is recognized and described based on fruits from the Oligocene Ningming flora of Guangxi, South China. Characteristics of the present specimens include circular winged fruits that are 10.0–11.5 mm in diameter with a central endocarp at 3.0 to 4.0 mm in diameter. The specimens fall into the morphological range of the fossil species P. favonii, which has been observed in other Cenozoic sites in the Northern Hemisphere. The present discovery represents the lowest latitude distribution of P. favonii in the world, and we are presenting the first P. favonii fossil described with detailed cuticular characteristics from China. Further, this finding demonstrates that the genus existed in the Oligocene Ningming region, South China, and provides new information for understanding the fossil history. The dispersal mode for winged fossils demonstrates that wind dispersal is well-represented in the Oligocene Ningming flora.