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The fossil record of the Epacridaceae

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Version 2 2023-06-23, 11:02
Version 1 2023-05-25, 23:49
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-23, 11:02 authored by Gregory JordanGregory Jordan, Robert HillRobert Hill
Fossil pollen and macrofossils of Epacridaceae are uncommon and are mainly known from Tasmania and other parts of south-eastern Australia. Most epacrids have generalized ericalean pollen although the pollen of some genera is distinctive. Ericalean pollen is known from the late Cretaceous. The first occurrence of Paripollis orchesix pollen, which is consistent with some extant Epacris species, probably means that Epacridaceae, and possibly the tribe Epacrideae, had differentiated by the Middle Eocene. The fossil record at present provides minimum ages of the first occurrences of major subfamilial taxa. Macrofossils of subfamily Richeoideae and of several morphotypes of the tribe Epacrideae are known from the Early Oligocene. Tribe Cosmelieae pollen and macrofossils are known from the Early Pleistocene, and are probably Sprengelia. The oldest Australasian fossils of tribe Styphelieae are leaves in latest Oligocene-Early Miocene parts of the Latrobe Valley coal. Endocarps identified as Epacridaceae from the Eocene of England need further investigation. Pollen of Monotoca, or a close relative, is known from the mid-Miocene. Possible Trochocarpa leaves occur in Late Oligocene/Early Miocene sediments, and fossil leaves indistinguishable from the extant Tasmanian rainforest species, T. gunnii and T. cunninghamii, are known from the Early Pleistocene in Tasmania. © 1996 Annals of Botany Company.

History

Publication title

Annals of Botany

Volume

77

Issue

4

Article number

4

Number

4

Pagination

341-346

Department/School

Biological Sciences

Publisher

Oxford Univ Press

Publication status

  • Published

Rights statement

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Annals of Botany following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version of Jordan, Gregory J and Hill, Robert S (1996) The Fossil Record of the Epacridaceae. Annals of Botany, 77 (4). pp. 341-346 is available online at: http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/77/4/341

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

280111 Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences

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