A preliminary note on the fossil plants of the Mount Potts beds New Zealand, collected by Mr. D. G. Lillie, Biologist to Captain Scott’s Antarctic expedition in the “Terra Nova.”

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1913
• Subjects: Antarctic; Glossopteris; New Zealand; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1913.0030; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.1913.0030

In the present communication, I propose to discuss very briefly the first fruits, which have reached this country, of Captain Scott’s Second Antarctic Expedition (1910-13). A full account of the fossil flora in question must be reserved for a future occasion. At present I have only permission to contribute a preliminary note on the subject. It is well known that, during the winter months of the last two years, the “Terra Nova,” the ship of Captain Scott’s Second Antarctic Expedition, has been actively engaged in furthering scientific researches in New Zealand waters, returning, however, to the Antarctic each summer. My friend, Mr. D. G. Lillie, B. A., of St. John’s College, Cambridge, one of the biologists of Captain Scott’s Scientific Staff, who has been attached throughout to the “Terra Nova,” has been busily occupied with various researches, partly biological and partly geological. During the short periods when he has been free to proceed with geological work, he has set himself the task of trying to clear up some of the doubtful points, which remain unsolved, in regard to the stratigraphical geology of New Zealand, more especially by means of the fossil floras of the rocks in question. As is well known, the precise geological age of many subdivisions of the stratigraphical sequence of these islands remains in doubt, and in some cases these questions have been matters of keen dispute in the past as at the present time. Among them, none has given rise to greater controversy than the doubt which has existed as to the precise geological age of the plant beds of Mount Potts, in Ashburton County, Canterbury. Do these beds contain Glossopteris , and perhaps a typical Permo-Carboniferous Glossopteris flora? Did New Zealand, as one would expect, in Permo Carboniferous times form part of the great Southern continent, “Gondwanaland,” the home of the Glossopteris flora, like the greater part of Australia, South Africa, and South America? These are the questions as yet in doubt. If, on the other hand, New Zealand, in ...