Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242;
Am J Bot. 2000 Oct;87(10):1526-39.
An assemblage of 46 fossil pollen and spore types is described from a core drilled through the middle Eocene Saramaguacán Formation, Camagüey Province, eastern Cuba. Many of the specimens represent unidentified or extinct taxa but several can be identified to family (Palmae, Bombacaceae, Gramineae, Moraceae, Myrtaceae) and some to genus (Pteris, Crudia, Lymingtonia?). The paleoclimate was warm-temperate to subtropical which is consistent with other floras in the region of comparable age and with the global paleotemperature curve. Older plate tectonic models show a variety of locations for proto-Cuba during Late Cretaceous and later times, including along the norther coast of South America. More recent models depict western and central Cuba as two separate parts until the Eocene, and eastern Cuba (joined to northern Hispaniola) docking to central Cuba also in the Eocene. All fragments are part of the North American Plate and none were directly connected with northern South America in late Mesozoic or Cenozoic time. The Saramaguacán flora supports this model because the assemblage is distinctly North American in affinities, with only one type (Retimonocolpites type 1) found elsewhere only in South America.
从古巴东部卡马圭省的中始新世萨拉马瓜坎组的一个岩芯中描述了 46 种化石花粉和孢子类型的组合。许多标本代表未鉴定或已灭绝的分类群，但有几个可以鉴定到科（ Palmae 、 Bombacaceae 、 Gramineae 、 Moraceae 、 Myrtaceae ），有些可以鉴定到属（ Pteris 、 Crudia 、 Lymingtonia ？）。古气候温暖到亚热带，与该地区同年龄的其他植物群以及全球古温度曲线一致。较旧的板块构造模型显示，在晚白垩世和以后的时期，原始古巴有多种位置，包括在南美洲北部海岸。最近的模型将古巴西部和中部描绘为两个独立的部分，直到始新世，东古巴（与北部伊斯帕尼奥拉岛相连）也在始新世与中古巴对接。所有的碎片都是北美板块的一部分，在中生代或新生代晚期，它们都没有与南美洲北部直接相连。萨拉马瓜坎植物群支持这一模式，因为该组合在亲缘关系上明显是北美的，只有一种类型（Retimonocolpites 型 1）仅在南美洲其他地方发现。
