An Australian origin for the candle nut (Aleurites, Crotonoideae, Euphorbiaceae) and the fossil record of the Euphorbiaceae and related families in Australia and New Zealand

A fossil seed from south east Queensland referable to the extant genus Aleurites (candlenut) is described as a new species, A. australis, and is one of the few macrofossil records of Euphorbiaceae from Australia. The new fossil data and phylogenetic studies of the biogeographical relationships of Aleurites based upon analysis of rbcL and trnL-F sequence data support a Gondwanic origin for the clade. The macrofossil record of Euphorbiaceae in Australia is restricted to seeds of Aleurites; and fruits of Fontainocarpa which are thought to have affinities with Fontainea, and both extant genera are referable to the Crotonoideae. One group of crotonoids has inaperturate spheroidal pollen, that is comparable to the dispersed pollen genus, Crotonipollis, which has an Oligocene to Recent range in Australia. The fossil pollen record in Australia and New Zealand of other Euphorbiaceae and related families includes species of Malvacipollis that have affinities to the Picrodendraceae; Nyssapollenites endobalteus (McIntyre) Kemp and Harris has affinities with the subfamily Acalyphoideae (Euphorbiaceae); and putative records of Homalanthus suggest affinities with the subfamily Euphorbioideae (Euphorbiaceae). Fossil fruits of Glochidion provide possible evidence of the Phyllanthaceae. The stratigraphic range of these taxa in respect to the Weddellian Biostratigraphic Province, which includes southern South America, western Antarctica, New Zealand, and eastern Australia is also briefly reviewed

Oldest Known Eucalyptus Macrofossils Are from South America

The evolutionary history of Eucalyptus and the eucalypts, the larger clade of seven genera including Eucalyptus that today have a natural distribution almost exclusively in Australasia, is poorly documented from the fossil record. Little physical evidence exists bearing on the ancient geographical distributions or morphologies of plants within the clade. Herein, we introduce fossil material of Eucalyptus from the early Eocene (ca. 51.9 Ma) Laguna del Hunco paleoflora of Chubut Province, Argentina; specimens include multiple leaves, infructescences, and dispersed capsules, several flower buds, and a single flower. Morphological similarities that relate the fossils to extant eucalypts include leaf shape, venation, and epidermal oil glands; infructescence structure; valvate capsulate fruits; and operculate flower buds. The presence of a staminophore scar on the fruits links them to Eucalyptus, and the presence of a transverse scar on the flower buds indicates a relationship to Eucalyptus subgenus Symphyomyrtus. Phylogenetic analyses of morphological data alone and combined with aligned sequence data from a prior study including 16 extant eucalypts, one outgroup, and a terminal representing the fossils indicate that the fossils are nested within Eucalyptus. These are the only illustrated Eucalyptus fossils that are definitively Eocene in age, and the only conclusively identified extant or fossil eucalypts naturally occurring outside of Australasia and adjacent Mindanao. Thus, these fossils indicate that the evolution of the eucalypt group is not constrained to a single region. Moreover, they strengthen the taxonomic connections between the Laguna del Hunco paleoflora and extant subtropical and tropical Australasia, one of the three major ecologic-geographic elements of the Laguna del Hunco paleoflora. The age and affinities of the fossils also indicate that Eucalyptus subgenus Symphyomyrtus is older than previously supposed. Paleoecological data indicate that the Patagonian Eucalyptus dominated volcanically disturbed areas adjacent to standing rainforest surrounding an Eocene caldera lake

A new species and new combination in Craspedia (Asteraceae) from Tasmania

Volume: 9Start Page: 813End Page: 81

The first record of fossil Vitaceae wood from the Southern Hemisphere, a new combination for Vitaceoxylon ramunculiformis, and reappraisal of the fossil record of the grape family (Vitaceae) from the Cenozoic of Australia

Austrovideira dettmannae gen. & sp. nov. from the early Oligocene Capella Flora in central Queensland is the first fossil Vitaceae wood described from the Southern Hemisphere. A new combination, Stafylioxylon ramunculiformis (Poole & Wilkinson) Pace & Rozefelds for a Northern Hemisphere fossil wood is also proposed. Austrovideira and Stafylioxylon share with Vitaceoxylon secondary xylem with two diameter classes of vessels, wide vessels usually solitary, narrow vessels forming radial chains, very wide and tall rays, scanty paratracheal parenchyma and septate fibres. Austrovideira differs from Vitaceoxylon in having scalariform intervessel pits and homocellular rays composed exclusively of procumbent cells. This combination of features is seen in the Ampelocissus-Vitis clade, and a clearly stratified phloem with fibre bands alternating with all other axial elements and phloem rays rapidly dilating towards the periderm is restricted to Parthenocissus and Vitis. Stafylioxylon shares with Austrovideira the presence of scalariform intervessel pits but it differs from that genus in both ray composition and bark anatomy, as it lacks a stratified phloem. These fossil wood genera demonstrate that the lianescent habit in the Vitaceae was established by the Eocene in the Northern Hemisphere and by the Oligocene in the Southern Hemisphere. The pollen and seed fossil record shows that the Vitaceae were in Australia by the Eocene and fossil seeds suggest that the family had radiated by this time. The Oligocene Capella flora with two seed taxa and fossil wood (Austrovideira) provides further evidence of an Australian radiation. The fossil evidence, suggests a significant Gondwanic history for the family

The last eurypterid–a southern high-latitude record of sweep-feeding sea scorpion from Australia constrains the timing of their extinction

A large, incomplete fragment of arthropod cuticle with distinctive tuberculate ornamentation from the late Permian Kaloola Member, Baralaba Coal Measures of the Bowen Basin in central Queensland, is assigned to the mycteropoid clade of sea scorpions. It is Changhsingian (254–252 Ma) in age and occurs in a freshwater, possibly fluvial, environment. The cuticle ornamentation consists of round to oval tubercles in two size classes and differs, in detail, from all previously described mycteropoids. We therefore propose a new species, ?Woodwardopterus freemanorum sp. nov., to accomodate this new specimen. It is at least 11 Ma younger than any previously known eurypterid fossil. This significant discovery demonstrates that large sweep-feeding eurypterids persisted until the end-Permian extinction in the southern high latitudes of Gondwana. Ecological factors that may have contributed to the survival of these freshwater eurypterids into the late Palaeozoic are also briefly discussed