The Antarctic/Australian rift valley: Late cretaceous cradle of nortteastern Australasian relicts?

• Published in: Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
• Main Authors: Dettmann, Mary E., Jarzen, David M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier BV 1990
• Subjects: Palaeontology; Ecology; Evolution; Behavior and Systematics; 1105 Ecology; 1911 Palaeontology; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Austral; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:711769

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.