Progress 10/01/08 to 09/30/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: During this term, I visited several museums in Argentina. The goal of these visits were threefold: 1- revision of the Argentinean monocot fossils, 2- revision of new collections from the Laguna del Hunco, Rio Pichileufu, Salamanca, La Colonia and Lefipan formations. I co-authored 4 papers and 9 meeting presentations (Botanical Society of America meeting, and International Congress of Ecology, Australia). As part of my Fulbright Fellowship (related to this project) I spent 5 months in Patagonia checking for fossil localities and for extant flora biogeographical studies. ). I participated in the ARC-NZ Research Network for Vegetation Function Working Group 32: Calibrating evolutionary history of Southern Hemisphere plant clades (Melbourne, Australia) which I organized with Drs. P. Wilf, (Penn State, USA) and D. Cantrill (Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne) and it is fully funded by the ARC-NZ Research Network for Vegetation Function (Australia-New Zealand governments). PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Ruben Cuneo (MEF, Argentina) Dr. Ari Iglesias (Museo de La Plata, Argentina) Dr. Kirk Johnson (DMNS, Denver, Colorado) Dr. Peter Wilf (Penn State, Pennsylvania) Dr. Maria Zamaloa (UBA, Argentina) Ms. Mary Futey, a graduate student at the L.H. Bailey Hortorium, is working on the palm fossil record of Argentina (she will be presenting a paper at the VI Southern Connection Congress in February 2010), her work includes new techniques (CT scans and 3-D imaging) for observing fossils. TARGET AUDIENCES: I am working on two exhibition on fossils, 1- The paleobiota of the Laguna del Hunco and RIo Pichileufu, and 2- Monocotyledon: Asembling the tree of life exhibition. The first one is an exhibition devoted to the fossils of the two mentioned Tertiary paleofloras. It is built as a "traveling exhibition". Initially the exhibition will be housed at the Museo Paleontologico E. Feruglio, Trelew, Argentina, but it will be offered to any musuem worldwide interested in it (the MEF has experience with this kind of exhibitions). The second one is being developed in collaboration with the New York Botanical Garden will provide public portals to all project information, educational web pages, and databases. Educational pages are being designed in concert with the traveling exhibit on monocot evolution. This will also be a traveling museum exhibit (ca. 500 sq. ft.) illustrating insights into monocot relationships and evolutionary patterns, highlighting the remarkable cases of convergent and divergent evolution, and new insights into adaptive radiation, and biogeographic history. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
During my stay in Trelew, I taught the revised course on angiosperm evolution (Angiospermas fosiles argentinas: su registro fosil y paleobiologia) in the Museo P. E. Feruglio, Chubut, Argentina in which 15 students participated. Griselda Puebla, my Argentinean student, is in the process of writing her thesis. I have three undergraduate students working in my lab on different topics on plant fossils. Based on the results from this past year I organized two symposia at the VI Southern Connection Congress that it will be held in Februry at San Carlos de Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina (Insights on Southern Hemisphere plant species richness, endemism and colonization, in collaboration with Dr. Kalin Arroyo, Chile and Austral Cenozoic floras and their value in elucidating modern plant distribution in collaboration with Dr. Zamaloa and Dr. Cuneo, Argentina).
Publications
- Archangelsky, S., V. Barreda, M.G. Passalia, M.A. Gandolfo, M. Pramparo, E.J. Romero, N.R. Cuneo, A. Zamuner, A. Iglesias, M. Llorens, G.G. Puebla, M. Quattrocchio, and W. Volkheimer. 2009. Early angiosperm diversification: evidence from Southern South America. Cretaceous Research 30: 1073-1082.
- Wilf, P.D., S.A. Little, A. Iglesias, M.C. Zamaloa, M.A. Gandolfo, N.R. Cuneo, K.R. Johnson. 2009. Papuacedrus (Cupressaceae) in Eocene Patagonia, a new fossil link to Australasian rainforests. American Journal of Botany 96: 2031-2047.
- Crisp, M., M. T.K. Arroyo, L. Cook, M.A. Gandolfo, G.J. Jordan, M. McGlone, P.H. Weston, M. Westoby, P. Wilf and H.P. Linder. 2009. Phylogenetic Habitat Conservatism on a Global Scale. Nature 458: 754-756.
- Gandolfo M. A., M.C. Zamaloa, M.C, R.N. Cuneo, and A. Archangelsky. 2009. Potamogetonaceae fossil fruits from the Tertiary of Patagonia, Argentina. International Journal of Plant Sciences 170: 419-428.
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Progress 10/01/07 to 09/30/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: During this year, I revised newly collected fossils from the Laguna Del Hunco and Rio Pichileufu Formations that are housed at the Museo P. E. Feruglio, Argentina. In addition, I also checked the Lefipan and La Colonia Fms. collections which comprise sediments of Maastrichtian and K/T boundary age. Fossils specimens were described, morphotype and photographed with the basic goal of future publication. Dr Cuneo (MEF-Argentina) visited my lab, here at Cornell as part of the grant. We worked on papers and discussed future collaborations. I co-authored 5 presentations (2 at the Botanical Society of America meeting;1 at the International Organization of Palaeobotany Congress and 2 at the Simposio de Paleobotanica y Palinologia de Brazil). I participated in the ARC-NZ Research Network for Vegetation Function Working Group 32: Calibrating evolutionary history of Southern Hemisphere plant clades (Melbourne, Australia) which I organized with Drs. P. Wilf, (Penn State, USA) and D. Cantrill (Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne) and it is fully funded by the ARC-NZ Research Network for Vegetation Function (Australia-New Zealand governments). I was invited to give three talks on the project (New Mexico, USA, Melbourne, Australia and Buenos Aires, Argentina). PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
I taught a course on angiosperm evolution (Angiospermas fosiles argentinas: su registro fosil y paleobiologia) in the Museo P. E. Feruglio, Chubut, Argentina in which 15 students participated. Since several students were interested and they could not participate in it (the number of students was limited to 15) I was invited by Dr. E.J. Romero, the Director of the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia to repeat it course next year. My Argentinean student Cynthia Gonzalez defended her thesis and now has a post-doc position at the Museo P. Egidio Feruglio (Chubut, Argentina) where she will continue working on the Laguna del Hunco and Rio Pichileufu paleofloras. Griselda Puebla, my other Argentinean student, is in the process of writing her thesis. I was awarded the Cichan Award from the Botanical Society of America for one of my papers and also I received a J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship from the Council for International Exchange Scholars (CIES) for visiting paleobotany collections and herbaria within Argentina.
Publications
- Gandolfo, Maria A.; Nixon, Kevin C.; Crepet, William L. 2008. Selection of fossils for calibration of molecular dating models. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 95: 34-42 .
- Crepet, William L. and Gandolfo, Maria A. 2008. Paleobotany in the post genomic era: introduction. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 95: 1-2.
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Progress 10/01/06 to 09/30/07
Outputs
During this year, I revised 2006-2007 the Laguna Del Hunco and Rio Pichileufu collections that are housed at the Museo P. E. Feruglio, Argentina. Fossils and extant specimens were described, morphotype and photographed with the basic goal of future publication. Drs. Zamaloa (UBA-Argentina) and Cuneo (MEF-Argentina) visited my lab, here at Cornell as part of the grant. We worked on papers and discussed future collaborations. I participated in two meetings (Adelaide, Australia) and GSA (Denver, USA) where I co-authored 5 presentations (I presented 2 of them). I participated in the ARC-NZ Research Network for Vegetation Function Working Group 18: Assembly of Southern Floras (Adelaide, Australia). The following symposium "South American Tertiary Paleofloras" which it is organized by Maria A. Gandolfo (Cornell University), Maria C. Zamaloa (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Ruben Cuneo (MEF, Argentina) was accepted for the next IOPC meeting in Bonn (August 2008).
The Working Group "Calibrating the evolutionary history of Southern Hemisphere plant clades/groups" PIs: Gandolfo, M.A (Cornell University, USA), Wilf, P (Penn State, USA) and Cantrill, D. (Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne) was approved and it is fully funded by the ARC-NZ Research Network for Vegetation Function (Australia-New Zealand governments)
Impacts
Based on the activities carried out, my Argentinean student Cynthia Gonzalez, was able to complete her Ph.D. Thesis, that it will be defended early in 2008. She also was awarded a Post-doctoral position at the MEF (Argentina) to continue with this project (description of paleofloras of Cretaceous and Tertiary age of Patagonia). In addition, all the presentations at meetings were the result of the work promised in the grant.
Publications
- Gandolfo, M. A., K. C. Nixon, and W. L. Crepet. 2007. Selection of fossils for calibration of molecular dating models. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden.in press
- Pramparo, M.B., M. Quattrocchio, M.A. Gandolfo, M. C. Zamaloa y E. J. Romero. 2007. Historia evolutiva de las angiospermas (Cretacico-Paleogeno) en Argentina a traves de los registros paleofloristicos. Asociacion Paleontologica Argentina, Publicacion Especial 11, Ameghiniana Fifty Aniversario: 157-172.
- Gonzalez, C., M. A. Gandolfo, M.C. Zamaloa, R. N. Cuneo, P. Wilf, and K. Johnson. 2007. Revision of the Proteaceae macrofossil record from Patagonia, Argentina. The Botanical Review 73: 235-266
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Progress 01/01/06 to 12/31/06
Outputs
During 2006, the team did a major field trip to the floras targeted in the grant proposal and it included paleobotanical reconnaissance surveys of the latest Cretaceous La Colonia, Paso del Sapo, and Lefipan Formations, exposed near the Laguna del Hunco caldera. This work was the natural extension of our project work one step down the stratigraphic column, and it was done in partnership with a new CONICET grant to Cuneo to study latest Cretaceous floras in Chubut. Based on old and new collections and visits to herbaria, we completed descriptions of extant and fossil Myrtaceae leaves. Extant material was used for comparisons with the fossils. All the fruits assigned to Myrtaceae are being described, and a presentation of these materials will be done for the BSA Meeting (July 2006, Chico California). This includes Eucalyptus, of considerable interest if confirmed because it is 30 million years older than the first Australian records of this dominant Australian genus.
Gonzalez and Gandolfo completed descriptions of all the fossils previously assigned to the family Celtidaceae in the Eocene floras and did clearings of all the extant species of Celtidaceae and Ulmaceae from Argentina (paper in preparation; abstract in press at the Latin American Congress of Botany Abstracts, Dominican Republic, June 2006). The extant material was used for comparisons with the fossils. Based on these comparisons, they reached to the conclusion that the fossils can not be assigned to the family Celtidaceae or Ulmaceae and they probably belong to Verbenaceae. We are now in the process of clearing Verbenaceae leaves for further comparisons. Zamaloa, Gandolfo, Gonzalez et al. described numerous Eocene fossils assigned to Gymnostoma (an Australasian tropical Casuarinaceae) and made comparisons with the extant Casuarinaceae genera and extant Gymnostoma species. Zamaloa will visit Gandolfo probably during March-April 2007 to finalize cladistic analyses of fossil and extant
Gymnostoma and work on TEM and SEM of taxonomically informative pollen grains from various floras in this project. Zamaloa is processing palynological samples from our section at Pampa de Jones. The group is in the process of describing Eocene fossils recognized as Leguminosae and Anacardiaceae. Dr. Laura Calvillo Canadell (UNAM), a Mexican paleobotanist expert in legumes, visited Gandolfo during November 2005, and a list of putative legumes was prepared and is now under revision. Marcela Martinez Millan, a graduate student at the paleobotany lab at Cornell, began descriptions of the Anacardiaceae material. Gandolfo, Calvillo, and Martinez Millan are planning a trip to Trelew to visit the collections in 2007. Laura Sarzetti, an Argentinean graduate student, visited Gandolfo during August 2006 to be trained in leaf architecture techniques. Labandeira, a paleoentomologist from Smithsonian Institution is working with Sarzetti on the plant-insect associations at Rio Pichileufu Formation.
Research on the oldest and first record of the family Potamogetonaceae for the Southern Hemisphere was presented at the 7th. European Paleobotanical and Palynological Conference in Prague September 2006
Impacts
The project has already made significant contributions to its primary disciplinary goal: breakthroughs in understanding the previously poorly known deep history of plant and insect diversity in South America. Using techniques not previously applied to South American floras coupled to high-resolution geochronology and detailed analyses of angiosperm leaf architecture, we discovered that these floras also bear diverse assemblages of insect herbivore damage, showing that high diversity of not only plants but also plant-insect associations have an ancient history in South America that was previously not known. Our collections are by far the largest, highest quality, and most stratigraphically controlled that have ever been obtained from those sites, and they will greatly improve understanding of Paleogene floras in Patagonia and the history of South American vegetation. Collections are deposited in a first-rate repository (MEF) where they will be available for generations
of students and investigators. Our team of investigators and students from two countries is fully engaged in all aspects of the project. Our results, through abundant media attention, have raised public awareness that South America's history of high biodiversity goes back millions of years. A documented ancient history of high biodiversity in warm areas of South America is expected to raise the perceived value of biodiversity resources in South America today. We hope to raise the profile and generate excitement for South American paleobiology.
Publications
- Wilf, P., K.R. Johnson, N.R. Cuneo, M.E. Smith, B.S. Singer, and M.A. Gandolfo, 2005. Eocene plant diversity at Laguna del Hunco and Rio Pichileufu, Patagonia, Argentina. American Naturalist 165: 634-650
- Gandolfo, M.A. 2006. Patagonia: A Paleobotanist's paradise. American Paleontologist 14: 23-26.
- Zamaloa, M.C, M.A. Gandolfo, C.C. Gonzalez, E.J. Romero, R.N. Cuneo and P. Wilf. 2006. Casuarinaceae from the Eocene of Patagonia, Argentina. International Journal of Plant Sciences 167: 1279-1289.
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Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
During this period, we finalized the study fossils of the following families: Proteaceae, Casuarinaceae, Myrtaceae and Sterculiaceae. In addition, we completed the study of the leaf architecture and cuticle of extant Argentinean Myrtaceae and Celtidaceae/Ulmaceae. We are now in the process of describing the leaf architecture and cuticle of extant and fossil Cochlospermaceae and Leguminosae. We described fossil fruits assignable to the genus Limnocarpus (Potamogetomaceae) from the Puesto Baibian locality (La Colonia Formation). We also organized the symposium- Southern Hemisphere paleofloras and their relationships to mass extinction events during the XVII International Botanical Congress, Vienna, Austria, July 17-23, 2005.
Impacts
The continuation of this project is adding more information about the composition of the two richest paleofloras of the Southern Hemisphere (Laguna del Hunco and Rio Pichileufu). The taxonomy of this paleofloras is fundamental to understand migration flows and diversity of the floras during the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum. The two studies of the Cretaceous paleofloras increase our knowledge on the Southern Hemisphere fossil angiosperms, and angiosperm/gymnosperm turnover during the K/T boundary.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
During this period, we have started to study fossils of the following families: Protaceae, Casuarinaceae, Myrtaceae and Sterculiaceae. We described all the Proteaceae and Myrtaceae leaves and fruits collected at the Laguna del Hunco and Rio Pichileufu localities, and we re-described the fossil specimens housed in Smithsonian Institution (USA), Museo Miguel Lillo, Repsol-YPF, Museo de La Plata, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Museo Bernardino Rivadavia (Argentina). We also described the male and female inflorescences of Gymnostoma and we isolated pollen grains found in-situ for further studies. In addition, for the family Myrtaceae, we studied the leaf architecture and cuticle morphology of the Patagonian extant species. We are now in the process of describing the leaf architecture of the fossils assigned to Sterculiaceae. In addition, two floras of Cretaceous age (La Colonia and Kachiake Paleofloras) were studied. We described the fossil leaves and fruits of
Nelumbonaceae for the La Colonia Formation flora and several new taxa for the Kachiake Paleoflora.
Impacts
This project will add information about the composition of the two richest paleofloras of the Southern Hemisphere (Laguna del Hunco and Rio Pichileufu). The taxonomy of this paleofloras is fundamental to understand migration flows and diversity of the floras during the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum. The two studies of the Cretaceous paleofloras increase our knowklege on the Southern Hemisphere fossil angiosperms.
Publications
- Gandolfo, M.A. and Cuneo, R. N. 2005. In press. Fossil Nelumbonaceae from the La Colonia Formation (Maastrichtian- Campanian, Upper Cretaceous), Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology.
- Cuneo, N. R., and M. A. Gandolfo. 2005. In press. Angiosperm leaves from the Kachaike Formation, Lower Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
- Gonzalez, C. C., Gandolfo, M. A., Cuneo, N. R. 2005. Submitted. Revision of the Proteaceae macrofossil record from Patagonia, Argentina. International Journal of Plant Sciences.
- Wilf, P., Jonhson, K., Cuneo, N.R., Smith, M.E., Singer, B.S, and Gandolfo, M.A. 2004. Submitted. Eocene Plant diversity at Laguna del Hunco and Rio Pichileufu, Patagonia, Argentina. The American Naturalist.
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