Ea. Wheeler et Tm. Lehman, Late Cretaceous woody dicots from the Aguja and Javelina Formations, Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA, IAWA J, 21(1), 2000, pp. 83-120
Angiosperm woods occur throughout Upper Cretaceous (84-66 million years old
) continental strata of Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA. Vertebrate rema
ins occur along the same stratigraphic levels, providing a rare opportunity
to reconstruct associations of sedimentary facies, wood remains, and verte
brate remains. The wood collection sites span a vertical stratigraphic succ
ession that corresponds to an environmental transect from poorly-drained co
astal salt- or brackish water swamps to progressively better drained freshw
ater flood-plains lying at increasingly greater distance from the shoreline
of the inland Cretaceous sea and at higher elevations. The eight dicot woo
d types of the Aguja Formation differ from the five types of the Javelina F
ormation, paralleling a change from a fauna dominated by duckbill and horne
d dinosaurs to a fauna dominated by the large sauropod, Alamosaurus. These
woods increase the known diversity of Cretaceous woods, and include the ear
liest example of wood with characteristics of the Malvales. The lower part
of the upper shale member of the Aguja contains numerous narrow axes, some
seemingly in growth position, of the platanoid/icacinoid type, and of anoth
er wood that has a suite of features considered primitive in the Baileyan s
ense. Duckbill dinosaur remains are common in the facies with these woods.
In contrast to other Cretaceous localities with dicot wood, Paraphyllanthax
ylon is not common. Dicotyledonous trees are most abundant at the top of th
e Aguja and the lower part of the Javelina Formations in sediments indicati
ng well-drained inland fluvial flood-plain environments. One locality has l
ogs and insitu stumps, with an average spacing of 12-13 metres between each
tree, and trees nearly 1 metre in diameter. To our knowledge this is the f
irst report of anatomically preserved in situ Cretaceous dicot trees. Javel
inoxylon wood occurs at all levels where remains of the giant sauropod Alam
osaurus occur. The vertebrate faunas of the late Cretaceous of New Mexico a
nd Texas are said to comprise a 'southern' fauna distinct from the 'norther
n fauna' of Alberta and Montana. The wood remains are consistent with such
provincialism. It has been suggested that dicots were not commonly trees in
the late Cretaceous of the northern part of the western interior of North
America. The Big Bend woods provide direct evidence for dicot trees having
more than a subordinate role in Cretaceous vegetation at lower latitudes. M
ost of the dicot wood types of Big Bend are characterized by high proportio
ns of parenchyma, over 50% in one type. Whether these high proportions of p
arenchyma are correlated with the higher CO2 levels of the Cretaceous and/o
r the pressures exerted by aggressive browsing by large dinosaur herbivores
is unknown.