and Acrocomia aculeata, appeared 69 Mya, as evidenced by fossil Nypa pollen. Palms appear to have undergone an early period of adaptive radiation. By 60 Mya, many of the modern, specialized genera of palms appeared and became widespread and common, much more widespread than their range today. Because palms separated from the monocots earlier than other families, they developed more intrafamilial specialization and diversity. By tracing back these diverse characteristics of palms to the basic structures of monocots, palms may be valuable in studying monocot evolution. Several species of palms have been identified from flowers preserved in amber, including Palaeoraphe dominicana and Roystonea palaea. Evidence can also be found in samples of petrified palmwood. Uses Human use of palms is at least as old as human civilization itself, starting with the cultivation of the date palm by Mesopotamians and other Middle Eastern peoples 5000 years or more ago. Date wood, pits for storing dates, and other remains of the date palm have been found in Mesopotamian sites. The date palm had a tremendous effect on the history of the Middle East. W.H. Barreveld wrote: An indication of the importance of palms in ancient times is that they are mentioned more than 30 times in the Bible, and at least 22 times in the Quran. Arecaceae have great economic importance, including coconut products, oils, dates, palm syrup, ivory nuts, carnauba wax, rattan cane, raffia, and palm wood. This family supplies a large amount of the human diet and several other human uses, both by absolute amount produced and by number of species domesticated. This is far higher than almost any other plant family, sixth out of domesticated crops in the human diet, and first in total economic value produced sharing the top spot with the Poaceae and Fabaceae. These human uses have also spread many Arecaceae species around the world. Along with dates mentioned above, members of the palm family with human uses are numerous. The type member of Arecaceae is the areca palm, the fruit of which, the areca nut, is chewed with the betel leaf for intoxicating effects (Areca catechu). Carnauba wax is harvested from the leaves of a Brazilian palm (Copernicia). Rattans, whose stems are used extensively in furniture and baskets, are in the genus Calamus. Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil produced by the oil palms in the genus Elaeis. Several species are harvested for heart