Phytogeographic implications of a fossil endocarp of Diploclisia (Menispermaceae) from the Miocene of eastern China.

Based on a detailed morphologic and tomologic investigation of a fossil endocarp, a new species of Diploclisia (Menispermaceae) is described from the Late Miocene of Jiahu, Zhejiang Province, eastern China. This represents the first record of the genus in the Neogene. The fossil endocarp closely resembles that of the Chinese endemic, Diploclisia affinis. The past and present distribution of Diploclisia shows that the genus probably originated in north‐east China in the Palaeocene (66–56 Ma) at the latest, which has undergone various phases of expansion and contraction. The more advanced Diploclisia glaucescens probably expanded into south and south‐east Asia in the Pleistocene, when global sea‐levels were lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]