Tertiary fossil woods from Vredendal, southwestern Cape, South Africa
1999
Bamford, M. (University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South Africa). Bernard Price Inst. for Palaeontological Research)
Nine pieces of silicified wood were collected from the Olifants River Gravels near Vredendal, in the southwestern Cape, South Africa. The woods have been identified as members of the Combretaceae and Meliaceae families, which are well represented in the extant flora. Combretum imberbe is widespread north of the Orange River up to Tanzania, but does not now occur farther south. Terminalioxylon chowdhurii is very similar to Terminalia ivorensis (Combretaceae), a forest tree occurring naturally in Central and West Africa. Entandrophragma cylindricum and Trichilia lanata (Meliaceae) are also large forest trees occurring only in West, Central and East Africa. The occurrence of fossil woods of these trees so far south is a good indicator that the climate of the southwestern Cape was more tropical during the Miocene.
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