This volume summarizes the history of Latin American vegetation from just prior to the asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico, at the end of the Cretaceous period through the rapid-paced events of Holocene and Recent times, tracing highlights in the origin of lineages and plant communities that constitute a fundamental part of the tropical ecosystems of the New World. Emphasis is placed on the array of available methods and approaches, as well as on the need for incorporating ancillary information from the many relevant disciplines and for assessing the paleobiological results within the context of independent lines of inquiry—particularly important for understanding the vast and complex communities of Latin America. The summary is based on approximately 350 fossil floras and 4,000 literature references to vegetation history and related topics. It includes a catalog of some 10,000 fossil plants arranged in tables and appendices by geographic location (country or region), taxonomic group, and geologic age. From this unique database, lineage histories, terrestrial paleoenvironments, migrations, and responses to evolutionary processes are reconstructed that have shaped the Latin American vegetation over the past 100 million years.

About the Author

Alan Graham received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Texas, and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, a visiting research scientist at the University of Amsterdam, a participant in the Smithsonian`s Senior Visiting Scholar Program in Panama, and for 38 years was professor of biological sciences and geology at Kent State University, where he won awards for excellence in both teaching and research. His studies have been supported by the National Science Foundation and other granting agencies, and he has published and edited over 150 articles, books, monographs, and symposia. In 1975 he was appointed a research associate at the Missouri Botanical Garden, where since 2002 he has been Curator of Paleobotany and Palynology. In 2009 he was given both the Asa Gray Award of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists and the Merit Award from the Botanical Society of America for outstanding contributions to the botanical sciences.

Praise for previous books by Alan Graham:

Floristics and Paleofloristics of Asia and Eastern North America (editor, 1972):

“The book is clearly successful in pointing out that we have reached a new level of understanding of the relationship between these remarkable floras.” — Rolla Tryon, Plant Science Bulletin

Vegetation and Vegetational History of Northern Latin America (editor, 1973):

“A benchmark publication.”— Peter Furley, Global Ecology and Biogeography

Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic History of North American Vegetation (1999):

“…surely destined to become a classic in its field.”— Raymond Cranfill, Taxon