Format: ORAL

Fabiany Herrera1, Monica R. Carvalho2, Gregory W. Stull3,4, Carlos Jaramillo5, and Steven R. Manchester6

1 Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA. 2 Museum of Paleontology and Department of Earth and Environmental, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. 3 Department of Botany Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA. 4 National Identification Services, USDA-APHIS-PPQ, Beltsville, USA. 5 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama. 6 Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.

The remarkably diverse plant communities of the Neotropics are the result of diversification driven by multiple biotic (e.g., speciation, extinction, and dispersal) and abiotic (e.g., climatic fluctuations and tectonics) processes. However, in the absence of a well-preserved, thoroughly sampled, and critically assessed fossil record, the associated processes of dispersal and extinction are poorly understood. We report an exceptional case documenting patterns of extinction in the grape family (Vitaceae Juss.) based on fossil seeds discovered in four Neotropical paleofloras dated between 60 and 19 Ma. These include a new species that provides the earliest evidence of Vitaceae in the Western Hemisphere. Eight additional species reveal the former presence of major clades of the family currently absent from the Neotropics and previously unknown dispersal events. Our results indicate that regional extinction and dispersal have substantially impacted the evolutionary history of Vitaceae. They also suggest that while the Neotropics have been dynamic centers of diversification through the Cenozoic, extant Neotropical botanical diversity has also been shaped by extensive extinction over the last 66 million years.