Paleoclimatic and paleoecological reconstruction of a middle to late Eocene South American tropical dry forest

Movement toward our current climate state began in the middle Eocene to early Oligocene interval when the global temperature cooled and the first Antarctic ice sheet appeared. This dramatic climate change caused a significant global turnover in both marine and terrestrial biotas. The biotic response to this event at low latitudes remains mostly unexplored. Here, we studied a recently discovered Eocene fossil macro- and palynoflora from Esmeraldas Formation (Colombia). The Esmeraldas Flora consists of more than seven hundred macrofossil specimens found in two localities, including 45 morphotypes of leaves, seeds, cuticles, fruits, and flowers and > 5000 palynomorphs, that include 210 morphospecies. The Esmeraldas Formation is dominated by meandering river floodplain deposition, and was dated, using palynology and isotopic stratigraphy, as middle to late Eocene (~47.3 to ~33.9 Ma). Quantitative paleoclimatic calculations based on leaf physiognomy and coexistence analyses indicate a warm temperature and a seasonal precipitation within the range of modern tropical dry forests. Furthermore, the floristic composition that includes the presence of macrofossils of the Pterocarpus clade (Fabaceae), and pollen records of the subfamily Bombacoideae (Malvaceae), and Euphorbiaceae, could be indicative of a tropical dry forest. The overall paleobotanical record suggests that the Esmeraldas flora represents one of the earliest records of a tropical dry forest from low latitudes. •Fossil evidence allowed a paleoenvironmental reconstruction of an Eocene Neotropical forest•Paleoclimatic analyses from Eocene fossils yielded warm temperatures and seasonal rainfall.•The Esmeraldas Paleoflora represents the earliest evidence of a tropical dry forest in the region.