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Wood of Pahudioxylon (Fabaceae) from the Miocene of Jialai-Nanbao Basin, Hainan Island, South China

Premise of research. Petrified wood has never been described from the Miocene of South China, and the Miocene flora from this region is also poorly known. The fabaceous fossil wood introduced in this article not only contributes to the scant knowledge of petrified woods in South China but also provides significant fossil evidence to study the Miocene floristic diversity in the modern tropical area of China. Methodology. Anatomically preserved petrified woods collected from the Early-Middle Miocene of Jialai-Nanbao Basin, Hainan Island, were sectioned in accordance with standard methods of cutting, grinding, and polishing. We determined their taxonomic positions based on comparative work in anatomy with similar extant and fossil wood slides. Pivotal results. Woods in two different degrees of fossilization represent the same species and correspond closely to wood structure of modern genera Afzelia and Intsia and their fossil counterparts Pahudioxylon. The wood is recognized as Pahudioxylon bankurensis Chowdhury, Ghosh, et Kazmi, which had been reported from the Neogene of India. Six species of Pahudioxylon (P. sahnii Ghosh et Kazmi, P. deomaliense Prakash, P. welkitii Lemoigne et Beauchamp, P. assamicum Prakash et Tripathi, P. indicum Prakash, and P. bengalensis Ghosh et Roy) have been reconsidered as its synonyms. Conclusions. This studied Pahudioxylon species represents the first occurrence of this genus in China as well as rarely reported Miocene plant megafossils in South China. Several previously described Pahudioxylon species should be merged into P. bankurensis.