Glacial climates in the Antarctic region during the late Paleogene: Evidence from northwest Tasmania, Australia

Macphail, Michael; Colhoun, EA; Kiernan, K; Hannan, David

doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1993)021<0145:gcitar>2.3.co;2

Cited by 45 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…20 C to ca. 13 C in southern Victorian marine sites, although regional humidity remained high (Frakes 1999), and Macphail et al (1993) provided evidence for a Tasmanian glaciation ca. 35-30 Myr ago.…”

Section: The Physical Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origins of the southeastern Australian vegetation

Hill

2004

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

156

113

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Australia is an ancient continent with an interesting geological history that includes a recent major shift in its position, both globally and compared with neighbouring land masses. This has led to a great deal of confusion over many years about the origins of the Australian biomes. The plant fossil record is now clarifying this, and it is clear that the ancient Gondwanan rainforests that covered Australia while it was still part of that supercontinent contained many of the elements of the modern vegetation. However, major climatic sifting, along with responses to other factors, including soil nutrient levels, disturbance regimes, atmospheric CO 2 levels, fire frequency and intensity, glaciations and the arrival of humans, have had profound impacts on the Australian vegetation, which today reflects the sum of all these factors and more. The origins of Australian vegetation and its present-day management cannot be properly understood without an appreciation of this vast history, and the fossil record has a vital role to play in maintaining the health of this continent's vegetation into the future.

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Section: The Physical Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origins of the southeastern Australian vegetation

Hill

2004

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

156

113

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“…2 in Zachos et al 2008) on the Tasmanian flora and vegetation, a development that is "book-ended" by transient montane glaciation in northern Tasmania during the Early Oligocene (Macphail et al 1993a) and periglacial and (mountain ranges) glacial environments across southern Tasmania during the Quaternary (see Colhoun et al 2104). Notwithstanding the c. 23 million-year gap in the geologic record between Samples 1 and 3, the Hannant Inlet sequence is strategically sited to explore (a) phytogeographic links at high palaeolatitudes across the Southern Hemisphere and (b) climate-forced changes in coastal/lowland floras in South-West Tasmania preceding the Last Glacial Maximum at c. 22 ka.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…whose closest NLR is the Venus-Flytrap genus Dionea now endemic to southern USA, and the extinct clade represented by Periporopollenites hexaporus. Significantly, specimens on both landmasses occur in glacial contexts (Macphail et al 1993a, Macphail & Hill 1994, Truswell & Macphail 2008.…”

Section: Phytogeographic Links Between South-westmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal erosion reveals a potentially unique Oligocene and possible periglacial sequence at present-day sea level in Port Davey, remote South-West Tasmania

Macphail

Sharples²,

Wood³

et al. 2014

PPRST

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Cut-back of a sea-cliff at Hannant Inlet in remote South-West Tasmania has exposed Oligocene clays buried under Late Pleistocene "colluvium" from which abundant wood fragments protrude. The two units are separated by a transitional interval defined by mixed Oligocene and Pleistocene microfloras. Microfloras preserved in situ in the clay provide a link between floras in Tasmania and other Southern Hemisphere landmasses following onset of major glaciation in East Antarctica during the Eocene-Oligocene transition (c. 34 Ma). The Late Pleistocene "colluvium" preserves abundant fossil pollen of the shrub conifer genus Pherosphaera (al. Microstrobos). Assuming the parent plants had the same upper subalpine-alpine ecology as living Pherosphaera hookeriana, the microflora provides evidence for cold, wet conditions in the Port Davey lowlands during a low sea-level stand. The same data highlight the failure of Pherosphaera to regain its Pleistocene distribution during the Postglacial period. Our data are inconclusive whether Late Pleistocene conditions in Hannant Inlet were periglacial, i.e., the Oligocene sediments were turbated by freeze-thaw processes, or have been reworked by fluvial processes into the Pleistocene "colluvium". Nevertheless, the inferred cold-climate is consistent with the former hypothesis. The sequence is sealed under cross-bedded coarse quartzite gravels of presumed Last Glacial Stage age.

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“…Major global cooling that followed subsidence of the South Tasman Rise and Drake Passage to abyssal depths and formation of the Circumantarctic Current during the Eocene-Oligocene transition meant Loranthaceae species growing in cool temperate rainforest in the MerseyForth River Valleys had become resilient to even cooler (microtherm) conditions by about 33 million years ago (see Macphail et al 1993b;Exon et al 2004). Whether Loranthaceae were continuously present in Tasmania from the early Oligocene to Early Miocene and Quaternary is unclear due to lack of tightly dated palynosequences south of the offshore Bass Basin.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At present, there are no records of Loranthaceae at Tertiary or Quaternary sites in southeast Tasmania, and the selection of fossil Loranthaceae pollen types illustrated in Figures 4a-o comes from sites in the north and west of the state: The stratigraphic distribution of these species in Paterson et al 1967;Fitzsimons et al 1993;Macphail et al 1993b;Macphail and Hill 1994). These and other records from correlative sediments from the Lea River and near Zeehan provide compelling evidence that at least three species of Loranthaceae were growing in Nothofagus warm temperate rainforest in western Tasmania during the late Paleogene: It is possible that the host trees included Nothofagus spp.…”

Section: Chronostratigraphic Distribution Of Fossil Loranthaceae Pollmentioning

confidence: 99%

When did the mistletoe family Loranthaceae become extinct in Tasmania? Review and conjecture

Macphail¹,

Jordan²,

Hopf³

et al. 2012

Peopled Landscapes: Archaeological and Biogeographic Approaches to Landscapes

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Glacial climates in the Antarctic region during the late Paleogene: Evidence from northwest Tasmania, Australia

Cited by 45 publications

References 0 publications

Origins of the southeastern Australian vegetation

Origins of the southeastern Australian vegetation

Coastal erosion reveals a potentially unique Oligocene and possible periglacial sequence at present-day sea level in Port Davey, remote South-West Tasmania

When did the mistletoe family Loranthaceae become extinct in Tasmania? Review and conjecture

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