Paleobotanical Implications of Drifted Seeds and Fruits from Modern Mangrove Litter, Twin Cays, Belize

Abstract

Fruits and seeds were quantitatively sampled from litter at two sites on a mangrove island off the coast of Belize. The collections indicate that a significant number of species are drifted to the island by the prevailing currents and have the potential to record the major elements of the nearby mainland coastal and streamside flora. There is almost no overlap between the drifted fruit and seed flora and the flora growing on the island, whereas the leaf litter reflects the island flora both qualitatively and quantitatively with a reasonable degree of accuracy. These observations indicate that approaches to paleoecological and paleofloristic reconstructions of ancient floras based on accumulation of organic remains can differ substantially depending on the organ type studied. Studies which can take advantage of both vegetative and reproductive fossil remains with an appropriate methodology for sampling and analyzing the data can provide information on ancient environments at more than one spatial scale.