Mid-Cretaceous Angiosperm Leaves from a New Fossil Locality in Lebanon

Abstract

Fossil legume fruits and leaflets from two localities in the Middle Eocene Claiborne Formation from western Tennessee are described and assigned to the extant pantropical genus Crudia (Caesalpinioideae, Detarieae). Morphological and anatomical features of the fruits and leaflets are used in evaluating the systematic relationships of these fossils. The fossils are more similar to several Crudia species from tropical America and Africa than they are to the species studied from Asia. These fossils represent the only documented occurrence of Crudia megafossils and confirm its existence by the Middle Eocene.