Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
Australian Systematic Botany Australian Systematic Botany Society
Taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of plants
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > SB > SB08006 > Fulltext
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 21(3)

Agathis (Araucariaceae) macrofossils from Cainozoic sediments in south-eastern Australia

Robert S. Hill A B E , Tom Lewis C , Raymond J. Carpenter A and Sung Soo Whang D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

B South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.

C Horticulture and Forestry Science, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Locked Bag 16, Fraser Road, Gympie, Qld 4570, Australia.

D Division of Science Education, Chonbuk National University, 560-576, Republic of Korea.

E Corresponding author. Email: bob.hill@adelaide.edu.au

Australian Systematic Botany 21(3) 162-177 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB08006
Submitted: 24 January 2008  Accepted: 3 July 2008   Published: 20 August 2008

Abstract

Organically preserved Cainozoic leaf fossils previously referred to Agathis are re-examined, and in all cases their affinity with that genus is confirmed. Previously undescribed organically preserved leaf fossils from several Cainozoic sites in south-eastern Australia are compared with Agathis and Wollemia and two new species of Agathis are described. Intraspecific variation in leaf cuticle morphology is examined in extant A. macrophylla in particular, and is found to be much higher than previously recorded. This makes assignment of fossil Agathis leaves to species difficult, especially when only leaf fragments are available. The new fossils extend the record of organically preserved Agathis macro-remains back to the Late Paleocene, but do not significantly extend the known spatial distribution.


Acknowledgements

We thank Ken Hill from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, for providing leaf material of Wollemia nobilis and providing leaves of 10 specimens of Agathis macrophylla, Colin Harris, Acting Director of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, for allowing us to collect leaves from living species of Agathis, and Tom Rich at the Victorian Museum for loaning the holotypes of A. parwanensis and A. yallournensis. This research was funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council.


References


Bigwood AJ, Hill RS (1985) Tertiary araucarian macrofossils from Tasmania. Australian Journal of Botany 33, 645–656.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Blackburn DT (1985) ‘Palaeobotany of the Yallourn and Morwell coal seams.’ (Palaeobotanical Project—report 3: SECV)

Burrows GE, Bullock S (1999) Leaf anatomy of Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis, Araucariaceae). Australian Journal of Botany 47, 795–806.
| Crossref |
open url image1

Cantrill DJ (1992) Araucarian foliage from the Lower Cretaceous of southern Victoria, Australia. International Journal of Plant Sciences 153, 622–645.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Carpenter RJ (1991) Palaeovegetation and environment at Cethana, Tasmania. PhD Thesis, University of Tasmania, Hobart.

Carpenter RJ, Pole MS (1995) Eocene plant fossils from the Lefroy and Cowan paleodrainages, Western Australia. Australian Systematic Botany 8, 1107–1154.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Carpenter RJ , Hill RS , Jordan GJ (1994) Cenozoic vegetation in Tasmania: macrofossil evidence. In ‘History of the Australian vegetation’. (Ed. RS Hill) pp. 276–298. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK)

Carpenter RJ, Hill RS, Greenwood DR, Partridge AD, Banks MA (2004) No snow in the mountains: Early Eocene plant fossils from Hotham Heights, Victoria, Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 52, 685–718.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Chambers TC, Drinnan AN, McLoughlin S (1998) Some morphological features of Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis: Araucariaceae) and their comparison to Cretaceous plant fossils. International Journal of Plant Sciences 159, 160–171.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Cookson IC, Duigan SL (1951) Tertiary Araucariaceae from south-eastern Australia, with notes on living species. Australian Journal of Scientific Research Series B 4, 415–449. open url image1

Daniel I (1989) Taxonomic investigations of elements from the Early Cretaceous megaflora from the middle Clarence Valley, New Zealand. PhD Thesis, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Hill RS (1995) Conifer origin, evolution and diversification in the Southern Hemisphere. In ‘Ecology of the southern conifers’. (Eds NJ Enright, RS Hill) pp. 10–29. (Melbourne University Press: Melbourne)

Hill RS, Bigwood AJ (1987) Tertiary gymnosperms from Tasmania: Araucariaceae. Alcheringa 11, 325–335.
| Crossref |
open url image1

Hill RS, Brodribb TJ (1999) Turner Review No. 2. Southern conifers in time and space. Australian Journal of Botany 47, 639–696.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Hill RS, Macphail MK (1983) Reconstruction of the Oligocene vegetation at Pioneer, northeast Tasmania. Alcheringa 7, 281–299.
| Crossref |
open url image1

Hill RS, Merrifield HE (1993) An Early Tertiary macroflora from West Dale, southwestern Australia. Alcheringa 17, 285–326.
| Crossref |
open url image1

Hill RS, Scriven LJ (1997) Palaeoclimate across an altitudinal gradient in the Oligo–Miocene of northern Tasmania: an investigation of nearest living relative analysis. Australian Journal of Botany 45, 493–505.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Holdgate GR , Gallagher SJ (2003) Tertiary: a period of transition to marine basin environments. In ‘Geology of Victoria’. (Ed. WD Birch) pp. 289–335. (Geological Society of Australia (Melbourne Division): Melbourne)

Jones WG, Hill KD, Allen JM (1995) Wollemia nobilis, a new living Australian genus and species in the Araucariaceae. Telopea 6, 173–176. open url image1

Kershaw AP, Wagstaff B (2001) The southern conifer family Araucariaceae: history, status, and value for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 32, 397–414.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Lee DE, Bannister JM, Lindqvist JK (2007) Late Oligocene–Early Miocene leaf macrofossils confirm a long history of Agathis in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 45, 565–578. open url image1

Macphail MK , Alley NF , Truswell EM , Sluiter IRK (1994) Early Tertiary vegetation: evidence from spores and pollen. In ‘History of the Australian vegetation’. (Ed. RS Hill) pp. 189–261. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK)

Page CN (1980) Leaf micromorphology in Agathis and its taxonomic implications. Plant Systematics and Evolution 135, 71–79.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Pole M (1995) Late Cretaceous macrofloras of Eastern Otago, New Zealand: gymnosperms. Australian Systematic Botany 8, 1067–1106.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Pole MS, Hill RS, Green N, Macphail MK (1993) The Late Oligocene Berwick Quarry flora—rainforest in a drying environment. Australian Systematic Botany 6, 399–428.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Scriven LJ (1993) Diversity of the Mid-Eocene Maslin Bay Flora, South Australia. PhD Thesis, University of Adelaide, SA.

Stockey RA (1982) The Araucariaceae: an evolutionary perspective. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 37, 133–154.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Stockey RA (1994) Mesozoic Araucariaceae: morphology and systematic relationships. Journal of Plant Research 107, 493–502.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Stockey RA, Atkinson IJ (1993) Cuticle micromorphology of Agathis Salisbury. International Journal of Plant Sciences 154, 187–225.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Stover LE, Partridge AD (1973) Tertiary and late Cretaceous spores and pollen from the Gippsland Basin, southeastern Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 85, 237–286. open url image1

Taylor G, Truswell EM, McQueen KG, Brown MC (1990) Early Tertiary palaeogeography, landform evolution and palaeoclimates of the Southern Monaro, NSW, Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 78, 109–134.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1