Cenozoic History of Ginkgo in East Asia

Abstract

The ginkgo or maidenhair tree, Ginkgo biloba L., is one of the best known trees, with a long geological history of fossil antecedents [1, 2]. During the Mesozoic era, ginkgophytes were common and diverse in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, culminating during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods. The genus Ginkgo, one of the major groups in ginkgophytes, appeared in the Early Jurassic [3]. It was distributed widely by the Middle Jurassic and attained a high-latitude distribution during the Cretaceous in the Northern Hemisphere [3, 4]. The Cenozoic pattern of distribution of Ginkgo is typical of the Northern Hemisphere, excepting the early Eocene record in Patagonia in South America ([5, 6]; geologic age after [7]).