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164940

<i>Ficoxylon fusiforme</i> (Moraceae), a New Species from Upper Cretaceous Nubian Sandstone in Southern Egypt

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Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

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Abstract

A NEW species of Ficoxylon Kaiser (Moraceae) is described from Upper Cretaceous Nubian Sandstone in the Aswan area, southern Egypt. The new species is designated Ficoxylon fusiforme. This is the third report of a Cretaceous wood attributed to Ficoxylon spp. worldwide, the other two being F. cretaceum Schenk and?F. sp. of Kräusel, both also from Egypt. Species of Ficoxylon are common in the tertiary, from the Paleocene to the Pliocene. An emended generic diagnosis is proposed for Ficoxylon, which was erected in 1880 with few details. The new species is compared with the 18 currently recognized species of Ficoxylon/Ficus. It is distinguished by a combination of characters: predominantly solitary, few, relatively wide vessels; axial parenchyma bands 3–8 cells wide; 2–7 seriate, spindle-shaped, closely spaced, and slightly heterocellular rays; and thin-walled, nonseptate fibers. Comments are made on the Egyptian fossil remains of Moraceae and on all Egyptian Cretaceous wood taxa reported to date. Preliminary biogeographic and climatic implications are made.

DOI

10.21608/ejbo.2021.53712.1594

Keywords

Aswan area, Egypt, <i>Ficoxylon</i>, Late Cretaceous, Moraceae, Nubian Sandstone

Authors

First Name

Zainab M.

Last Name

El-Noamani

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

El-Saadawi Lab., Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, 11566, Egypt

Email

zainabelnoamani@yahoo.com

City

Cairo

Orcid

-

Volume

62

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

29753

Issue Date

2022-01-01

Receive Date

2020-12-15

Publish Date

2022-01-01

Page Start

31

Page End

44

Print ISSN

0375-9237

Online ISSN

2357-0350

Link

https://ejbo.journals.ekb.eg/article_164940.html

Detail API

https://ejbo.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=164940

Order

4

Type

Original Article

Type Code

111

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Botany

Publication Link

https://ejbo.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

<i>Ficoxylon fusiforme</i> (Moraceae), a New Species from Upper Cretaceous Nubian Sandstone in Southern Egypt

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023