Phytocrene microcarpa - A new species of Icacinaceae based on Cretaceous fruits from Kreischerville, New York

Abstract

Fossil dicotyledonous fruits from the lower Upper Cretaceous Raritan formation at Kreischerville, New York, are indentified as the endocarps of Phytoecrene Wall. (tribe Phytocreneae, lcacinaceae). Modern species of Phytocrene arc climbing vines from tropical Asia and Africa. The Raritan species here described as P. micrccarpa n. sp. is the first Cretaceous record of the genus, which has also been identified from fossil leaves of Eocene age in California. The fossil endocarps of P. microcarpa constitute one of the common Mesozoic occurrences of reproductive structures referable to a modern genus of the angiosperms.