The fossil flora from the Ligorio Márquez Formation (XI Region, Chile) in its type-locality: systematics, age and palaeoclimatical implications.

Abstract

Fossil leaves and pollen obtained from sediments in the type-locality of Ligorio Márquez Formation, south of Chile Chico, in the XI Región, southern Chile, are reported in this paper. The megafossils include twenty leaf species, fourteen of them being Lauraceae. In fossil pollen, coming from ca. 15 m higher stratigraphic levels than the paleomegaflora, Pteridophyta, Pinophyta and Magnoliophyta are represented through seven, two and four palynological species, respectively. Affinities of this fossil flora with the Concepción-Arauco paleoflora are proposed. A Late Paleocene age and a wet paleoclimate with high mean annual temperatures and low mean variation range are suggested by this fossil assemblage.