FIGURE 1. Ripogonum americanum sp. nov. from Laguna del Hunco and extant R. album, 1, holotype MPEF-Pb 6438a. Note that although the petiolar region is not preserved, a decurrent pair of suprabasal secondary veins and basal pair of submarginal veins are clearly visible. Note also the tertiary veins, higher order reticulate venation, vein loops between the secondary vein pairs, and looped ultimate veins at the margins (arrowed); 2, BRI specimen AQ845060 from Queensland, Australia. Note virtually identical details to those visible in the fossils (Figure 1.1, Figure 2). Scale bars equal 10 mm.
FIGURE 2. Ripogonum americanum sp. nov. from Laguna del Hunco, 1, holotype MPEF-Pb 6438b; 2, paratype MPEF-Pb 6439. Note details as described for Figure 1.1. Examples of clearly preserved looped ultimate veins near the leaf margins are arrowed. Scale bars equal 10 mm.
FIGURE 3. Geographic configuration (Mollweide projection) at 52 Ma showing early Eocene records (*) of Ripogonum. AUS = Australia, NZ = New Zealand, ANT = Antarctica, SAM = South America. Reconstruction made using the ODSN Plate Reconstruction Service (www.odsn.de/odsn/services/paleomap/paleomap.html).
