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Australian Systematic Botany Australian Systematic Botany Society
Taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of plants
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Early Eocene Ripogonaceae leaf macrofossils from New Zealand

John G. Conran A D , Elizabeth M. Kennedy B and Jennifer M. Bannister C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity & Sprigg Geobiology Centre, School of Biological Sciences, Benham Building DX 650 312, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

B GNS Science, PO Box 30-368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

C Department of Botany, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.

D Corresponding author. Email: john.conran@adelaide.edu.au

Australian Systematic Botany 31(1) 8-15 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB17016
Submitted: 10 March 2017  Accepted: 21 September 2017   Published: 16 February 2018

Abstract

Fossil leaves from lowermost Eocene strata in the Otaio River, South Island, New Zealand, include the oldest records of the extant monocot genus, Ripogonum (Ripogonaceae). The Ripogonum fossil is represented by an incomplete leaf with preserved cuticle and is similar to, but different from, all extant and fossil Ripogonaceae, including recently described Eocene Tasmanian and South American taxa and is here described as a new species, R. palaeozeylandiae Conran, E.M.Kenn. & Bannister. This supports the theory that Ripogonaceae have a long and evolutionary history across the southern hemisphere, with the Otaio fossil flora indicating a palaeoclimate similar to the mesothermal broadleaf forests that Ripogonum still occupies today.


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