Paschalococos

taxobox
name = "Paschalococos disperta"
status = EX
status_system = iucn3.1
extinct = "c." 1650
regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Monocots
unranked_ordo = Commelinids
ordo = Arecales
familia = Arecaceae
subfamilia = Arecoideae
tribus = Cocoeae
genus = "Paschalococos"
genus_authority = Dransfield
species = "P. disperta"
binomial = "Paschalococos disperta"|

"Paschalococos disperta" (Easter Island Palm), formerly "Jubaea disperta," was the native cocoid palm species of Easter Island. It disappeared from the pollen record c. 1650.

It is not known that the species was distinct from "Jubaea," but there is no evidence that it was "Jubaea" either, as the soft tissues used for identification of cocoid genera have not been preserved. All that remain are pollen from lake beds, hollow endocarps (nuts) found in a cave, and casts of root bosses. In order to avoid given credence to unsupported assumptions that the palms were used as rollers to move the moai statues of Easter Island, John Dransfield assigned the species to a new genus.

Dransfield suggests that the trees may have gone extinct as they were cut down for the edible palm hearts as food supplies ran out for an overpopulated island. It is also possible they were cut down to build canoes for fishing.

Despite the extinction of the tree, they appear to have been represented two hundred years later in the rongorongo script of Easter Island, in the glyph .

External links

* [http://www.pacsoa.org.au/palms/Paschalococos/disperta.html Palm & Cycad Society of Australia: "Paschalococos disperta"]