Early Oligocene Callitris and Fitzroya (Cupressaceae) from Tasmania

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dc.contributor.authorPaull, R.
dc.contributor.authorHill, R.
dc.date.issued2010
dc.description.abstractThis paper documents Early Oligocene fossilized foliage and ovulate cones from Lea River, Tasmania and identifi es them as belonging to two extant southern hemisphere Cupressaceae genera, Callitris and Fitzroya. Most importantly, it sheds some light on evolutionary trends within Callitris , a genus with numerous extant Australian species and two extant New Caledonian species. Callitris has a very poor fossil record and, because of the present absence of a molecular data set that includes all species, its phylogeny remains somewhat ambiguous. Although Fitzroya foliage has previously been described from a number of Tasmanian sites, this is the fi rst recording of fertile material. The ovulate cones of the Callitris and Fitzroya macrofossils are characterized by bract-scale complexes in two whorls of three and are subtended by scale-like leaves in whorls of three. The fossilized foliage specimens consist of scale-like leaves in whorls of three. These morphological characteristics are only exhibited by three extant southern hemisphere cupressaceous genera, Callitris , Actinostrobus , and Fitzroya . The assignment of the fossils to extinct Callitris and Fitzroya species is made by comparisons with species from these three extant genera. Although much of the Lea River fl ora are wet rainforest taxa, the Callitris fossils have characteristics of both wet- and dry-adapted extant species.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityRosemary Paull and Robert S. Hill
dc.identifier.citationAmerican Journal of Botany, 2010; 97(5):809-820
dc.identifier.doi10.3732/ajb.0900374
dc.identifier.issn0002-9122
dc.identifier.issn1537-2197
dc.identifier.orcidHill, R. [0000-0003-4564-4339]
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/61191
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherBotanical Soc Amer Inc
dc.relation.grantARC
dc.rights© 2010 Botanical Society of America
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.0900374
dc.subjectAustralia
dc.subjectCallitris
dc.subjectCupressaceae
dc.subjectEarly Oligocene
dc.subjectevolution
dc.subjectFitzroya
dc.subjectmacrofossils
dc.subjectmorphology
dc.subjectovulate cones
dc.subjectrainforests
dc.titleEarly Oligocene Callitris and Fitzroya (Cupressaceae) from Tasmania
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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