Lauraceae from rainforest surrounding an early Miocene maar lake, Otago, southern New Zealand

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• 作者：Jennifer M. Bannister^a ; John G. Conran^b ; ^{john.conran@adelaide.edu.au} ; Daphne E. Lee^c ; ^{daphne.lee@otago.ac.nz}
• 关键词：Fossil angiosperm leaves ; Lauraceae ; Laurophyllum ; Early Miocene ; Palaeoecology ; New Zealand
• 刊名：Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：80_00346667
• 类别：ear
• 出版时间：15 June, 2012
• 卷：178
• 期：Complete
• 页码：13-34
• 文件大小：11278 K

摘要

Examination of over 700 fossil leaves from an early Miocene finely laminated lacustrine diatomite at Foulden Maar, near Middlemarch, Otago, New Zealand, provides evidence that a diverse subtropical Lauraceae-dominated evergreen forest once surrounded this small maar lake. Twenty-three million years ago, four leaf taxa with apparent affinities to Beilschmiedia, five with apparent affinities to Cryptocarya and one with apparent affinities to Litsea comprised 44%of the leaves preserved in a lacustrine rainforest growing on basalt- or schist-derived substrates, contributing leaves, flowers and fruits to the fossil deposit. Angiosperm and conifer pollen and macrofossils from numerous families present in the diatomite indicate a diverse rainforest flora (more or less equivalent to a modern simple notophyll vine forest from eastern Australia) growing under an apparently seasonally dry, mesothermal palaeoclimate on relatively nutrient-rich soils.