Abstract Known Early-Middle Miocene terrestrial strata of southern New Zealand are represented by alluvial plain and lacustrine sediments. A vertebrate fauna including fish, ducks, and crocodiles populated Lake Manuherikia, with abundant mussels, gastropods, and stromatolites occupying the near-shore areas of the lake. A diverse vegetation covered the surrounding broad fluvial plains that extended to the coastal margins. Initially this was largely rainforest, which varied according to habitat and to changing climate. In particular, the climate and ecology appear to have fluctuated across the two major thresholds of fire/no-fire and of peat accumulation and no-peat. A major climate change, possibly the sharp global deterioration in conditions at about 14 Ma, profoundly changed the vegetation. Rainforest continuity fragmented, and herblands became widespread. Leaf fossils effectively disappear from the record at this time.
Keywords ecology; Eucalyptus; Manuherikia Group; Miocene; New Zealand; palaeobotany; palynology; Podocarpaceae; vertebrates
R02028 Received 30 July 2002; accepted 4 December 2002; published 30 April
© Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 33, Number
1, March 2003, pp 415-426
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