First Evidence for Wollemi Pine-type Pollen (Dilwynites: Araucariaceae) in South America

We report the first fossil pollen from South America of the lineage that includes the recently discovered, extremely rare Australian Wollemi Pine, Wollemia nobilis (Araucariaceae). The grains are from the late Paleocene to early middle Eocene Ligorio Márquez Formation of Santa Cruz, Patagonia, Argen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS ONE
Main Authors: Macphail, Mike, Carpenter, Raymond J., Iglesias, Ari, Wilf, Peter
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2013
Subjects:
Research Article
Antarctic
Argentina
East Antarctica
New Zealand
Patagonia
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3716883
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23894439
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069281
Description
Summary:We report the first fossil pollen from South America of the lineage that includes the recently discovered, extremely rare Australian Wollemi Pine, Wollemia nobilis (Araucariaceae). The grains are from the late Paleocene to early middle Eocene Ligorio Márquez Formation of Santa Cruz, Patagonia, Argentina, and are assigned to Dilwynites, the fossil pollen type that closely resembles the pollen of modern Wollemia and some species of its Australasian sister genus, Agathis. Dilwynites was formerly known only from Australia, New Zealand, and East Antarctica. The Patagonian Dilwynites occurs with several taxa of Podocarpaceae and a diverse range of cryptogams and angiosperms, but not Nothofagus. The fossils greatly extend the known geographic range of Dilwynites and provide important new evidence for the Antarctic region as an early Paleogene portal for biotic interchange between Australasia and South America.

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