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Australian Systematic Botany Australian Systematic Botany Society
Taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of plants
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 22(3)

Early Eocene Ripogonum (Liliales: Ripogonaceae) leaf macrofossils from southern Australia

John G. Conran A C , Raymond J. Carpenter A and Gregory J. Jordan B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A ACEBB, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Benham Building DX 650 312, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

B School of Plant Science, Life Sciences Building 9, University of Tasmania, Hobart Campus, Private Bag 50, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: john.conran@adelaide.edu.au

Australian Systematic Botany 22(3) 219-228 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB08050
Submitted: 14 November 2008  Accepted: 16 March 2009   Published: 10 June 2009

Abstract

We present evidence that fossil leaves from an early Eocene estuarine mudstone deposit at Lowana Road in western Tasmania include the oldest records of the extant monocot genus, Ripogonum (Ripogonaceae). These fossils are similar to the extant eastern Australian and Papua New Guinean R. album R.Br. and New Zealand R. scandens J.R. et G.Forst., and are described as a new species, R. tasmanicum Conran, R.J.Carp. & G.J.Jord. The venation, cuticular and other leaf features of this fossil are included in a morphology-based phylogenetic analysis for the genus, and character evolution is discussed in relation to the ecology of the extant species and the palaeoenvironments of known Ripogonaceae fossil sites. The fossil (albeit on leaf characters) was placed close to the base of a black-fruited, Australian endemic Ripogonum clade. This suggests that the family have a long and conservative evolutionary history in association with moist forests, with the fossil locality showing palaeoclimate similar to the environments that most Ripogonum species still occupy today.


Acknowledgements

The research was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council. The School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide and the School of Plant Science, University of Tasmania, are thanked for the provision of facilities to undertake part of the research.


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