Abstract
ABSTRACT The living fossil Craigia consists only two species Craigia yunnanensis W.W. Smith et W.E. Evans and Craigia kwangsiensis H.H. Hsue, endemic to East Asia. Craigia is a typical palaeoendemic genus, with an extensive fossil record in the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Europe and Asia); but there is a temporospatial gap between its fossil occurrences and the modern populations, so its migration history is enigmatic. The earliest fossil record is from Northeast Asia and extant species are relictual, occurring only in southwestern China, northeastern India and northern Vietnam. Here, we describe a new fossil species, Craigia lincangensis Wang et Xie sp. nov., based on fruits from Late Miocene of Yunnan, China. This new finding along with other fossil records in Asia clarifies the southward migration route in Asia. The Miocene occurrence in this investigation represents the youngest record of Craigia so far in Asia and sheds new light on the final migration into its relict habitat.
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