| Summary: | Typescript (photocopy) Thesis (PhD) -- University of Melbourne, School of Botany, 2003 Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-270) The Late Paleocene (Thanetian, 58-60 Ma) Cambalong Creek macroflora from the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, represents an angiosperm�dominated plant community growing at relatively high palaeolatitude (55-60�S) from a period experiencing global transition from conifer- to angiosperm-dominance. This period saw the earliest stages of separation of Australia from Antarctica, and the commencement of significant climatic and tectonic changes around Australia that contrasted with the relative climatic and tectonic stability of the Senonian-Early Paleocene. Fossils were identified primarily on the basis of cuticle morphology, and most taxa belong to families Cunoniaceae, Elaeocarpaceae, Proteaceae, Araucariaceae, Cupressaceae and Podocarpaceae that are either restricted to, or have greatest extant diversity in, the Southern Hemisphere. Many represent extinct branches of larger extant groups, and have suites of cuticle characters intermediate between those of the fossil and extant species to which they are most closely similar. Angiosperms comprise 65.6% of taxa in the macroflora. The largest single component is Lauraceae, constituting 25% of total taxa and 59.9% of total specimens. The eight species described include representatives of Beilschmiedia, Cryptocarya, Endiandra and Litsea, all of which are extant in Australia but have their largest centres of diversity in warm temperate habitats across Malesia and southeast Asia and Europe. Proteaceae, which have their highest extant diversity in the Southern Hemisphere, comprise 18.8 % of taxa in the macroflora, and include forms with affinities to five of the six extant tribes of subfamily Grevilleoideae: Banksieae, Embothrieae, Helicieae, Knightieae and Oriteae. These include 'sclerophyllous' forms related to Banksieae (Banksia and Dryandra), that are major components of the modern sclerophyllous flora of ...
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