CONCLUSIONS

Lowstand deposits from the basal Bashi Formation at the Red Hot Truck Stop locality date to the first ~1.6 million years of the Eocene and may lie within the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. From two sites we collected and analyzed 113 fossil leaf specimens, which included 18 discrete morphological groups (morphotypes). Despite generally poor preservation, we recognize the following botanical entities as well as 10 undiagnosed morphotypes: Lygodium kaulfussi (a climbing fern), Lauraceae (laurel family), Monocots, Myrtaceae (guava family), Fabaceae (legumes), Platycarya (a member of the walnut family, Juglandaceae, currently endemic to East Asia), Rhus, a sumac or sumac relative (Anacardiaceae), and a new genus and species of Ochnaceae (ochna family); all are consistent with tropical to subtropical climates. Additionally, we recognize two cuticle morphotypes suggestive of monocots and liverworts, respectively. Platycarya is an Eocene index taxon here represented for the first time as a macrofossil in the eastern USA. The new Ochnaceae, Rhabdophyllites diapyros, apparently is the only leaf record of this major extant pantropical group. Most of the groups found in the Red Hot leaf flora are also found in western North America during the earliest Eocene, showing that they were widespread in North America at this time. The Red Hot flora indicates the potential to rebuild the stratigraphic context of the classic paleobotanical record of the U.S. Gulf Coast, leading to improved understanding of plant migration and evolution during the Early Cenozoic.