Tracing insular woodiness in giant Daucus (s.l.) fruit fossils from the Early Pleistocene of Madeira Island (Portugal)

Link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/tax.12175

Abstract: Plants on oceanic islands can evolve insular syndromes such as secondary woodiness, a generalized trend found in island floras worldwide. This phenomenon occurs through evolution in situ. It is triggered by ecological and physiological stimuli that transform herbaceous annuals into woody perennials. However, well-dated and informative fossils that could help track and frame the evolution of this syndrome are lacking. Remarkably, in Madeira Island (Portugal), there are good examples of Apiaceae that evolved secondary woodiness, like the giant neoendemic Melanoselinum (≡ Daucus). Apiaceae has a very scarce fossil record, despite being a cosmopolitan family and an economically important crop. Here we describe the oldest Daucus s.l. fossil known to date and the first fossil evidence of a plant with insular woodiness. The fossils are preserved as mummified/compressed mericarps within 1.3-millionyear- old fluvio-lacustrine sediments of the Funchal unit, Upper Volcanic complex, near Porto da Cruz. We assign them to the extant neoendemic species Melanoselinum (≡ Daucus) decipiens. The mericarp morphology shows remarkable stasis since the Calabrian stage of the Early Pleistocene. Our results demonstrate that in the Madeiran Daucinae clade, insular woodiness developed at least 1.3 million years ago, indicating a coeval or earlier immigration toMadeira Island of a Daucus sp. Our results reinforce the role of palaeobotanical research in oceanic islands, supported by stratigraphy and geochronology studies, as a key element for the understanding of plant palaeobiogeography, ecology and evolution worldwide.We expect this contribution to shed light on the evolutionary origins of carrots, and related plant groups, an important element of human food, and to better comprehend the evolution of plant insular woodiness.

Keywords island syndromes; Macaronesia; Melanoselinum; neoendemic; palaeobotany; palaeocarpology

New paper is out: Góis-Marques, C.A., Rubiales, J., de Nascimento, L., Menezes de Sequeira, M., Fernández-Palacios, J.M., Madeira, J., 2020. Oceanic Island forests buried by Holocene (Meghalayan) explosive eruptions: palaeobiodiversity in pre-anthropic volcanic charcoal from Faial Island (Azores, Portugal) and its palaeoecological implications Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 273, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2019.104116

Free to read through the following link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1a3Q37uTvVLBo

A new paper was published by our group, by Zita Ferreira, Inés Álvarez and Miguel Menezes de Sequeira, available here: novon.mobot.org/index.php/novon/article/view/297

Title: Nomenclature and Typification of Names in the Ibero–North African Andryala arenaria (Asteraceae) and Taxonomic Implications (DOI: https://doi.org/10.3417/2019297)

Abstract: A taxonomic and nomenclatural revision of the genus Andryala L. (Asteraceae) revealed that A. arenaria (DC.) Boiss. & Reut. var. ficalhoana (Daveau) Cout. had never been typified. Based on an analysis of the protologue and original material, a specimen at LY is designated here as the lectotype. The relevance of this typification resides in the fact that the recently described A. cintrana S. Talavera & M. Talavera is here considered a heterotypic synonym of A. arenaria var. ficalhoana. In addition, A. cossyrensis Guss. var. oligadena Maire & Weiller from Libya is here synonymized with A. arenaria var. pinnatifida Lange ex Willk., leading to the extension of the known distribution area of A. arenaria.

Keywords: Andryala, Asteraceae, holotype, lectotypification, Mediterranean

Available here: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12371-019-00401-1 or rdcu.be/bPbkl

Reference: Góis-Marques, C.A., Elias, R.B., Steinbauer, M.J., de Nascimento, L., Fernández-Palacios, J.M., Menezes de Sequeira, M. & Madeira, J. 2019. The loss of a unique palaeobotanical site in Terceira Island within the Azores UNESCO global geopark (Portugal). Geoheritage (IN PRESS): 1-9

Abstract: Terceira Island (Azores archipelago, central Atlantic Ocean) presents a unique but poorly studied Quaternary palaeobotanical record. Among the sites referenced in the literature, Fanal Bay, within Angra do Heroísmo city, is known at least since the 1940s. Field prospection in the summer of 2016 revealed two layers of leaf fossils with an unexpected fossil abundance. The preliminary results showed that these represented autochthonous or para-autochthonous (T0) fossil assemblages, preserved by the emplacement of ash or lapilli layers by volcanic events, in a leaf litter of a laurel palaeoforest. Unfortunately, in 2018, the site was destroyed due to development works to consolidate and requalify the Fanal Bay cliff from further sea erosion. This prevented a detailed study and the ex situ preservation of an important palaeontological site, within the Azores UNESCO Global Geopark. With this work, we hope to call the attention to the need of implementing geoconservation strategies in order to prevent the destruction of important geoheritage within the Azores Islands and to transpose this warning to other geoconservationists in oceanic islands worldwide.

A new paper describing a new and extinct Theaceae for Madeira Island was recently published in the journal Quaternary Science Review. You can check it out in: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379118309284

This discovery was also reported portuguese press:

Publico:www.publico.pt/2019/01/28/ciencia/noticia/descoberta-ilha-madeira-arvore-ja-extinta-familia-cha-1859768

Wilder: www.wilder.pt/historias/descobertos-na-ilha-da-madeira-fosseis-de-arvore-ja-extint

Please visit us at: www.uma.pt/floramac2018 

Late Registrations still available.

Official website comming soon! First circular:

https://www.facebook.com/FloraMac2018/ or twitter.com/FloraMac2018

We are proud to announce that we have two new doctors in our Group:

Zita Ferreira defended successfully her PhD. thesis entitled: “Biosystematics of the genus Andryala L. (Asteraceae)”.  

Zita Ferreira thesis committee, from left to right: Miguel Sequeira, Carlos Neto, Jorge Capelo, Enrique Rico Hernández, Judith Fehrer, Zita Ferreira, Inés Férnandez, Manuela Gouveia e José Jesus.

Aida Pupo Correia also defended successfully her PhD. thesis entitled: “Evolution of the landscape of Madeira Island, long-term vegetation dynamics”

Aida Pupo Correia thesis committee, from left to right: Jorge Capelo, Carlos Neto, José María Fernández-Palacios, Manuela Gouveia, Miguel Sequeira, Aida Pupo Correia, Thomas Dellinger, José Aranha. 

Congratulations to our new Doctors!

Our Group is co-organizing the XVII Congress of European Mycologists, that will be held in Madeira Island in September 2015. Registration opening soon at www.xviicem.org. 

Recently a new species of Andryala was described by our group. The study was published in the journal Novon: A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature, entitled "Andryala perezii (Asteraceae), a New Species from the Canary Islands". The comparison of Madeira and Canaries Island plants allowed distinguishing the new species. The paper is available here: www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3417/2010119?journalCode=novo