''Palaeoraphe'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of palms, represented by one species, ''Palaeoraphe dominicana'' from early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

Burdigalian The Burdigalian is, in the geologic timescale, an age (geology), age or stage (stratigraphy), stage in the early Miocene. It spans the time between 20.43 ± 0.05 annum, Ma and 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). Preceded by the Aquitanian (sta ...

stage

Dominican amber Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic derived from resin of the extinct tree ''Hymenaea protera''. Dominican amber differentiates itself from Baltic amber by being nearly always transparent, and it has a higher number of fossil incl ...

deposits on the island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

, in the modern-day

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

Discovery and naming

The genus is known from a single, diameter, full flower. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

is currently deposited in the collections of the

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

Corvallis, Oregon Corvallis ( ) is a city and the county seat of Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2020 United ...

, as number "Sd–9–158", where it was studied and described by Dr George Poinar. Dr Poinar published his 2002

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

for ''Palaeoraphe'' in the ''

Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society The ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a scientific journal publishing original papers relating to the taxonomy of all plant groups and fungi, including anatomy, biosystematics, cytology, ecology, ethnobotany, electron microscopy, mo ...

'' volume number 139. The genus name is a combination of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word ''palaios'' meaning "ancient" and '' Raphia'' a genus of palm, while the species name ''dominicana'' references the Dominican Republic, where the fossil was discovered. The type specimen was excavated from the La Toca mine northeast of

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the cap ...

Taxonomy

''Palaeoraphe'' has been placed in the

Corypheae Corypheae is a tribe of palm trees in the subfamily Coryphoideae. In previous classifications, tribe Corypheae included four subtribes: Coryphinae, Livistoninae, Thrinacinae and Sabalinae, but recent phylogenetic studies have led to the genera ...

subtribe

Livistoninae Livistoninae is a subtribe of plants in the family Arecaceae. Species in the subtribe are found throughout Indomalaya and Australasia. Genera in the subtribe are: *''Livistona'' – Indomalaya, Australasia, Gulf of Aden *''Licuala'' – Indoch ...

, which has twelve modern genera found in both the Old World and the New World. Of the three modern genera, the ''Palaeoraphe'' flower is similar in character to ''

Brahea ''Brahea'' is a genus of palms in the family Arecaceae. They are commonly referred to as hesper palms and are endemic to Mexico and Central America.Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of t ...

'', ''

Acoelorrhaphe ''Acoelorrhaphe'' is a genus of palms with single species ''Acoelorrhaphe wrightii'', known as the Paurotis palm, Everglades palm or Madeira palm in EnglishWorld Checklist of Palms''Acoelorrhaphe''Germplasm Resources Information Network''Acoelor ...

'' and ''

Colpothrinax ''Colpothrinax'' is a genus of Arecaceae, palms native to Central America and the Caribbean. ''Colpothrinax'' is a member of subfamily Coryphoideae, tribe (biology), tribe Trachycarpeae, although its placement within the subtribe is uncertain, on ...

'', with the structure being closest in structure to that of ''Brahea''. Both genera have distinct sepals,

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s with furrows facing the axis of the flower, and similarly shaped and sized

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s. However, the two genera can be differentiated by the stigmas, which are united for their entire length in ''Brahea'', and by the more relaxed positioning of the anthers in ''Palaeoraphe''. The flower of ''P. dominicana'' is a calyx of three broad sepals with irregular to fringed apices. The three petals are joined at their bases and of the six stamins, those paired with petals are relaxed into depressions on the petal surface, while the remaining three stamins are partially erect. It is proposed by Dr. Poinar that ''Palaeoraphe'' may have been a stenotopic genus which was restricted to the

Greater Antilles The Greater Antilles ( es, Grandes Antillas or Antillas Mayores; french: Grandes Antilles; ht, Gwo Zantiy; jam, Grieta hAntiliiz) is a grouping of the larger islands in the Caribbean Sea, including Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and ...

and possibly to just the island of Hispaniola. The extinction of ''Palaeoraphe'' may have been caused by floral and faunal shifts during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q262088, from2=Q3360793 Monotypic Arecaceae genera Miocene plants Miocene life of North America Prehistoric angiosperm genera Neogene Dominican Republic Flora of Hispaniola Fossil taxa described in 2002 Prehistoric plants of North America Coryphoideae Taxa named by George Poinar Jr.