Climatic implications of fruit and seed assemblage from Miocene of Yunnan, southwestern China

Abstract

A Miocene assemblage of fruits and seeds from Mangdan coal mine, Longchuan County, Yunnan Province, southwestern China is reported in this paper. This carpoflora consists of 11 taxa of angiosperms, Corylopsis, Ficus, Hypericum, Lauraceae, Lithocarpus, Magnolia, Myrica, Nyssa, Sabia, Symplocos and Zanthoxylum. The investigation of the nearest living relatives (NLRs) of the 11 taxa suggests that an evergreen broad-leaved forest was growing in Mangdan region in the Miocene. Based on the climatic preferences of the NLRs, the climate at that time was a warm and humid subtropical climate, with the mean annual temperature of 18.8–20.5°C, the mean temperature of the coldest month was 7.9–11.3°C, the mean temperature of the warmest month was 27.6–28.0°C, the difference of temperature of coldest and warmest month was 15.2–17.9°C, the mean annual precipitation was 1170–1300 mm and the relative humidity 70–74%.