Recent paleobotanical investigations in Vietnam provide a good opportunity to improve our understanding of the biodiversity and paleoclimatic conditions in the geological past of Southeast Asia. Under a joint scientific cooperative program on uderstanding of palaeobotany in Vietnam, a group of scientists from Vietnam National Museum of Nature, VAST and Xishuangbana Tropical Botanic Garden, China, discovered and described well-preserved fossil palm leaves from the Oligocene Dong Ho Formation of Hoanh Bo Basin, northern Vietnam. Characters of the fossil leaves, such as a fan-shaped costapalmate lamina, an unarmed petiole, a costa slightly enlarged at the base that then tapers distally into the blade, and well-preserved amphistomatic leaves with cuticles, suggest that they represent a new fossil species, which we herein designate Sabalites colaniae A.Song, T.Su, T.V.Do et Z.K. Zhou sp. nov. Together with other paleontological and palaeoclimatic evidence, we conclude that a warm climate prevailed in northern Vietnam and nearby areas during the Oligocene.
The result was published on Plant Diversity 44: 406-416 (2022). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468265921001086
Figure 1: General morphology of Sabalites colaniae A.Song, T.Su, T.V.Do et Z.K. Zhou (Source: Song et al. 2022)
News: Do Van Truong, Vietnam National Museum of Nature, VAST