A NEW CONIFER SPECIES, MESOCYPARIS ROSANOVII SP. NOV. (CUPRESSACEAE, CONIFERALES), AND TRANSBERINGIAN FLORISTIC CONNECTIONS

Abstract

A new species, Mesocyparis rosanovii sp. nov. from the Lower Paleocene of the Amur Region, Russia, is characterized by a combination of advanced and primitive features: mixed opposite-alternate branching of vegetative shoots, leafy microsporophylls, as well as a relatively high number of sporangia per microsporophyll and seeds per cone scale. The Late Cretaceous-Early Paleogene genus Mesocyparis McIver et Basinger, which obviously embraces a natural group of closely related species, was a significant component of the vegetation in the middle and high latitudes of eastern Asia and western North America. The range of the genus testifies to terrestrial Transberingian connections between the continents during the Cretaceous warming phases.