The genus Fagus is thought to consist of 13 extant species with a northern-hemispheric distribution. One species occurs in Europe and southwest Asia, and one species occurs in North America, including Mexico, while the remaining 11 spp. occur in eastern Asia. In contrast to the present distribution, the genus occupied a vast continuous area from Europe, via Siberia, Far East to North America during the Tertiary period. Numerous fossil leaves and cupules/nuts have been described under various names and compared to extant taxa.The current project is the continuation of a doctoral thesis. Based on morphometric studies of living beech taxa, the fossil beech ‘species´ are revised. The study focuses on the morphological differentiation of Fagus since the Paleocene, dispersal of the genus and the relation between fossil taxa and modern species. Since palaeontology typically deals only with a fraction of the past variability, and since the extant species prove to be extremely heterogeneous with respect to leaves and cupule/nut complexes, it is difficult to decide if a fossil taxon should be treated as an independent species or as a geographical race of a supposedly heterogeneous fossil species.
Coworkers:
Barbara Meller, Vienna
Guido Grimm, Tübingen
Vera Hemleben, Tübingen
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