New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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Late Oligocene-Early Miocene leaf macrofossils confirm a long history of Agathis in New Zealand

Daphne E. Lee

Department of Geology
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin 9054, New Zealand

Jennifer M. Bannister

Department of Botany
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin 9054, New Zealand

Jon K. Lindqvist

Department of Geology
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin 9054, New Zealand

Abstract The antiquity of lineages in the extant indigenous flora of New Zealand is controversial, and plant macrofossils provide important evidence for testing hypotheses for in situ survival of ancient lineages or their geologically recent arrival by long-distance dispersal. Cuticle analysis of organically preserved leaf fossils confirms the presence of Agathis in New Zealand since at least the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene. Well-preserved Agathis foliage occurs in a leaf litter bed within a thick seam of resiniferous lignite in the middle Gore Lignite Measures, Newvale Mine, Waimumu, Southland. The Agathis leaf fossils have some affinities with extant Agathis australis.

Keywords leaf macrofossils; cuticle; pollen; Late Oligocene-Early Miocene; lignite; paleoecology; Newvale Mine; Southland; New Zealand

B07022 ; Online publication date 19 November 2007; Received 2 July 2007; accepted 8 October 2007

New Zealand Journal of Botany, 2007, Vol. 45: 565–578
0028–825X/07/4504–0565 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2007

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