Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 1999, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (01): 28-36.

• 专论与综述 • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Review on the Research of the Early Fossil Pinaceous Cone

SHANG Hua, CUI Jin-Zhong and LI Cheng-Sen   

  1. (Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100093)
  • Online:1999-01-20 Published:1999-01-20
  • Contact: SHANG Hua

Abstract: In this article the research of pinaceous fossil cones from the Creaceous to the Oligocene in the Tertiary is reviewed and summarized systematically. This research has undergone a process from scattered and naive to systematic and nature period. Now, pinaceous fossil cones are divided into three genera: Pityostrobus, Pseudoaraucaria and Pinus. Pseudoaraucaria and Pinus are natural genera and Pseudoaraucaria is extinct. Pityostrobus is an artificial genus including those cones of indefinite affinity. The main purpose of careful observations on external appearance and internal anatomy is to throw light on the evolution of the modem family Pinaceae:To Pinus, attention is paid to the relation of different subgenera, sections and subsections; to Pseudoaraucaria and Pityostrobus, through analysis of the extinct types, trying to clear the evolution relations among all genera (including those extinct) so as to finish the systematic tree is of most importance. Currently there are two hypotheses, i.e. Pinus center theory and Pseudoaraucaria branch theory.