Miocene Astelia (Asparagales: Asteliaceae) macrofossils from southern New Zealand

Abstract

The discovery of Early Miocene Asteliaceae fossils at Foulden Maar in southern New Zealand provided a good opportunity to assess the usefulness of cuticular information for identifying members in this family. On the basis of cuticular morphology, the Foulden specimens are assigned to Astelia Banks & Sol. ex R.Br. and described as a new species, A. antiquua Maciunas et al. They are shown to have some affinities with A. alpina, A. linearis and also an apparently unnamed Astelia taxon from southern Westland, New Zealand. Although cuticular characteristics alone were of help in identifying individual species, the addition of gross morphological characters facilitated the differentiation between Asteliaceae genera, greatly improving the phylogenetic placement of the fossil. On the basis of analysis of the combined data, Astelia and Collospermum formed a clade and were sister to a Milligania and Neoastelia clade, albeit with most branches showing little overall bootstrap support.

Dispersal pathways across the Pacific: the historical biogeography of Astelia s.l. (Asteliaceae, Asparagales)

“…fossil records. Synapomorphic characters of the leaf fossils, specifically the stomata with elongate–triangular subsidiary cells, unsculptured epidermal cells (Maciunas et al ., ) and the spinulose pollen grains (Cranwell, ), support their use to constrain the Astelia s.l. crown node.…”

Monocot fossils suitable for molecular dating analyses

“…Fossil leaves from the Foulden Maar of New Zealand were recently described as having affinities to a subclade of Astelia Banks & Sol. ex R.Br., based on a phylogenetic analysis of cuticular characters (Maciunas et al ., ). The Foulden Maar has been radiometrically dated to 23.2 Ma (Lindqvist & Lee, ) and palaeontological studies also suggest a late Oligocene or early Miocene age.…”

Leaf fossils of Luzuriaga and a monocot flower with in situ pollen of Liliacidites contortus Mildenh. & Bannister sp. nov. (Alstroemeriaceae) from the Early Miocene

“…ex R.Br. (J. G. Conran, unpublished data), Asteliaceae ( Maciunas et al, 2011 ), Orchidaceae ( Conran et al, 2009a ), Ripogonaceae ( Pole, 1993b ), Typhaceae ( Pole, 2007 ), and Xanthorrhoeaceae: Dianella Lam. ex Juss.…”

“…Cuticular analysis showed that the fossil Astelia is related to A. alpina R.Br. and A. linearis Hook.f., but differs variously from these modern species ( Maciunas et al, 2011 ) for at least 10 features of cuticular morphology. The orchid leaves from Foulden are the oldest unequivocal vegetative orchid fossils ( Conran et al, 2009a ) and represent two epiphytic genera within subfamily Epidendroideae, Dendrobium Sw., and Earina Lindl.…”