Xenopanax Doweld, 2021

Xenopanax Doweld , gen. nov.

Diagnosis:—Leaves palmate-compound, leaflets lanceolate in outline with short petioles, narrow cuneate bases, acute арех, and serrate margins. Venation pinnate with а single primary vein thicker than the secondary veins.

TYPE SPECIES:— Xenopanax beringianum (Chelebaeva & Akhmetiev) Doweld. Eponymy :—From Ancient Greek ξένος (xénos) “stranger, guest, or host” and Panax (extant genus). IFPNI registration record:— 7592D5D3-A592-CE97-A536-A46F643314E0.

Xenopanax beringianum (Chelebaeva & Akhmetiev) Doweld , comb. nov. ≡ Pittosporum beringianum Chelebaeva & Akhmetiev in Paleontol. Zhurn. 1983(1): 126. 1983 ≡ Dicotylophyllum beringianum (Chelebaeva & Akhmetiev) Budantsev (2000: 98) .

Holotype:— RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Kamchatka Territory, Bering Island, left bank of Tablazhanka River , in the mouth; Eocene ( Komandorian Series ) (6946/1, ex. 1, Institute of Vulcanology and Seismology , Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences , Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky , Russian Federation – illustrated by Chelebaeva & Akhmetiev 1983: pl. 12: 6; text-fig. 5).

IFPNI registration record:— B3C8FBFA-3016-F265-86B2-90096585D44B.

Note:—When Chelebaeva & Akhmetiev (1983) described the sole imperfect leaf imprint of a distinct morphology from the Eocene sediments of the Bering Island, Komandor Archipelago of northern Pacific, they erroneously mistook the palmatecompound leaf for a leaf whorl. Budantsev (2000) found additional fossil specimens from new collections from Bering Island, amended the description of the fossil-species, and debunked any idea of the relationships with Pittosporum . He transferred the fossil-species into the artificial fossil-genus of indeterminate dicot leaves, Dicotylophyllum Saporta ex R. Florin (1926) , due to the lack of close relationships with extant and known fossil genera. Since P. beringianum cannot be placed in the extant and fossil known genera based on the differences in leaf structure, it should be excluded from Pittosporum to form the new fossil-genus.