| Summary: | The montane vegetation of northeastern Australasia represents a modified sample of the late Cretaceous flora that fringed the embryonic Southern Ocean in the southern Australasian/Antarctic region. Beauprea, Knightia, Macadamia, Gevuina and/or Hicksbeachia (Proteasceae), Gunnera (Gunneraceae), Ilex (Aquifoliaceae), Winteraeae, Epacridaceae, Trimeniaceae, Nothofagus (brasii group), Araucariaceae, Podocorpus, Dacrydium and Dacrycarpus (Podocarpaceae) are confirmed in the Campanian-Maastrichtian pollen record of estuarine sediments in the Otway Basin, southeastern Australia. The primative angiosperms migrated there by individualistic routes after Early Cretaceous appearances in northern Gondwana and southern Laurasia; other taxa evolved in austral regions. Evidence is advanced for origin of Ilex, Beauprea, Knightia and Gevuina/Hicksbeachia in southern Australia/Antarctica during early phases (Late Cretaceous) of opening of the Southern Ocean.
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