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Extensive past distributions for major gondwanic floral elements: macrofossil evidence
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Abstract
The past geographical positions and climates of the high latitude Southern Hemisphere land masses (New Zealand and the southern parts of South America and Australia) are crucial to an understanding of plant evolution and migration in the region.
A review of the macrofossil record reveals many examples of taxa which are present as fossils on one or two of these land masses but now occur elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. The main examples include Austrocedrus, Libocedrus (Cupressaceae), Araucaria sectionColumbea (Araucariaceae) and Nothofagus subgenera Nothofagus and Fuscaspora in Australia, Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae) and mn-Gymnostoma Casuarinaceae in New Zealand and probably South America, Araucaria section Intermedia in New Zealand and Akania (Akaniaceae) and Dacrycarpus (Podocarpaceae) in South America. The local extinction of these taxa is probably due to a variety of factors, including climatic change, microsite changes due to the northward movement of land masses, and changes in the frequency of catastrophic disturbance.
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: | Hill, RS and Carpenter, RJ |
Keywords: | Royal Society of Tasmania, RST, Van Diemens Land, natural history, science, ecology, taxonomy, botany, zoology, geology, geography, papers & proceedings, Australia, UTAS Library |
Journal or Publication Title: | Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania |
ISSN: | 0080-4703 |
DOI / ID Number: | https://doi.org/10.26749/rstpp.124.2.239 |
Collections: | Royal Society Collection > Papers & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania |
Additional Information: | This Symposium is a tribute to the botanical work of Dr. Winifred M. Curtis AM, work largely concerned with Tasmanian plants. Scientific and public knowledge of the Tasmania flora has been greatly enhanced by her contributions. |
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