Paleobiogeographic relationships of Andean angiosperms of Cretaceous to Pliocene age
Abstract A review of the geological data suggests that mountains existed in western South America since the late Cretaceous. These data combined with a review of the earliest occurrences of angiosperm fossils indicate that the floral elements centered in the South Andes lived there during the late Cretaceous, while elements centered in the North Andes existed there by the mid-Tertiary. Examinations of reports elsewhere in South America and in surrounding continents show that each Andean fossil flora is mostly composed of Andean- or Amazonian-centered taxa. In addition, the South Andean fossil flora also shares many taxa with the Antarctica-Australia paleoflora, while the fossils from the North Andes are also found in Meso- and North America. In combination, these geological and fossil data suggest that the mountain-centered floras have had a long history.