Fossil fruits from the Eastern Andes of Colombia 
EDWARD W. BERRY 
(WITH TWENTY-FIVE TEXT FIGURES) 
The interesting fruits described on the following pages are 
part of a series of paleobotanical specimens that I owe to the 
friendship and courtesy of Brother Aristé of Bogota, whose 
interest in all branches of Natural History is well worthy of 
emulation in other lands. These specimens come from the 
localities Zipac6én or Cipacén and the Paramo of Guasca, in the 
Province of Cundinamarca, and at no great distance from 
Bogota. 
They are from the post Cretaceous coal bearing series of 
shales and sandstones, and I regret that their precise age is 
undeterminable. The Saccoglottis is Tertiary and probably 
late Eocene or Oligocene, the other two species appear to be 
somewhat younger than the former and may be Miocene or 
Pliocene. 
The Eastern Andes around Bogota are said by Veatch* to be 
synclinal mountains, hence there has been an enormous amount 
of erosion in late geological times, as the uplift was admittedly 
very recent.t| The present fossils, which are tropical forms, 
support the view of the recency of elevation, but are less sig- 
nificant than they would be if precisely dated. 
The locality at Zipacén at the mines is 8185 feet in altitude 
and it therefore falls in the subtropical altitudinal zone which, 
according to Chapman,f lies between 6000 and 9500 feet. I 
suppose that Saccoglottis might live at 8185 feet in that latitude 
but its optimum conditions would be at a lower level and I 
imagine the rainfall would have to be greater than it is at the 
present time. I do not know the altitude of the locality of 
Guasca from which the other two specimens were obtained. It 
is spoken of as Paramo, but may not be true Paramo, since the 
western upland of the Sabana of Bogoté has the Paramo of San 
* Quito to Bogotdé. 1917. 
t In this connection see Gutiérrez, M., Geologia de Bogotdé y sus alre- 
dedores, Am. Ing. 20: 313-331. 1913. 
t Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. Bull. 36. 1917. 
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