science

Hymenaea allendis

Hymenaea allendis is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hymenaea allendis rather than just read about it. In short: Hymenaea allendis is an extinct legume species in the family Fabaceae described from a single isolated fossil flower in amber. The species is known from a Late Oligocene to Early Miocene location in southern Mexico.

Key takeaways

Hymenaea allendis belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hymenaea allendis to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hymenaea allendis from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hymenaea allendis is an extinct legume species in the family Fabaceae described from a single isolated fossil flower in amber. The species is known from a Late Oligocene to Early Miocene location in southern Mexico. Unlike the coeval extinct species Hymenaea mexicana and Hymenaea protera which are placed closer to the living species Hymenaea verrucosa of Africa, H. allendis is closer in relation to the neotropical species of Hymenaea.

History and classification Hymenaea allendis is known from a solitary fossil flower which is an inclusion in a transparent chunk of Mexican amber. The specimen is currently housed in the Eliseo Palacios Aguilera Paleontological Museum in Chiapas, Mexico. Mexican amber is recovered from fossil-bearing rocks in the Simojovel region of Chiapas, Mexico. The amber dates from between 22.5 million years old, for the youngest sediments of the Balumtun Sandstone, and 26 million years old for the oldest La Quinta Formation. This age range straddles the boundary between the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene and is complicated by both formations being secondary deposits for the amber; the age range is therefore only the youngest that it might be. The fossil was examined by paleobotanists Laura Calvillo-Canadell and Sergio Cevallos-Ferriz of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and Lourdes Rico-Arce of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, United Kingdom; Calvillo-Canadell, Cevallos-Ferriz and Rico-Arce's description of the species was published in a 2010 article in the Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. The etymology of the chosen specific name allendis is in reference to the town Simojovel de Allende which is located within the amber mining area. When described, H. allendis was the second Hymenaea species to be identified from fossils found in Mexican amber. The first species was Hymenaea mexicana, which was described by Poinar and Brown 2002, and which was to be the source for the resin which Mexican amber is derived from. Both H. protera, found in Dominican amber, and H. mexicana are placed closer to the single living old-world species, H. verrucosum, which is placed in the Hymenaea sect. Trachylobium. The smooth ovary with a small stipe and wide nectariferous disc are traits found only in the new world Hymenaea section Hymenaea.

Description The flower of H. allendis is small, with a hairy 11.3 millimetres (0.44 in) long and 3.8 millimetres (0.15 in) wide pedicel and as with H. mexicana the flower is bisexual. The preserved sepals are urn-shaped, showing a distinct row of hairs along the middle of the sepal underside and a smooth upper surface. The sepals form a calyx around the 1.4 millimetres (0.055 in) wide hypanthium. The sepals of the single flower described are detached which may be the result of an early caducous condition, which makes the total number of sepals born uncertain. Preserved stamens which were dislodged from the flower during entombment in the resin show two rows of bilocular anthers on their upper surfaces. The possibly elliptic-ovate petals distinguish the species from the living species Hymenaea courbaril.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hymenaea allendis

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hymenaea allendis claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hymenaea allendis before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hymenaea allendis ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hymenaea allendis

In research: Hymenaea allendis appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hymenaea allendis in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hymenaea allendis is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Extinct flora of North America, Flora of Mexico, Fossil taxa described in 2010, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hymenaea allendis outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hymenaea allendis in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hymenaea allendis means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hymenaea allendis out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hymenaea allendis in simple terms?

Why does Hymenaea allendis matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hymenaea allendis?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hymenaea allendis.