Paleo‐Antarctic rainforest into the modern Old World tropics: The rich past and threatened future of the “southern wet forest survivors”

Kooyman, Robert M.; Wilf, Peter; Barreda, Viviana; Carpenter, Raymond J.; Jordan, Gregory J.; Sniderman, J. M. Kale; Allen, Andrew P.; Brodribb, Timothy J.; Crayn, Darren M.; Feild, Taylor S.; Laffan, Shawn W.; Lusk, Christopher H.; Rossetto, Maurizio; Weston, Peter H.

doi:10.3732/ajb.1400340

Cited by 99 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 81 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

146

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This inference is similar to recent interpretations of numerous other genera now known as Paleogene fossils from Patagonia, southern Australia, and occasionally Antarctica (Hill and Brodribb 1999;Wilf et al 2009Wilf et al , 2013Carpenter et al 2014;Kooyman et al 2014). For the Encephalarteae, as for so many other examples (R.S.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…For the Encephalarteae, as for so many other examples (R.S. Hill 1994;Kooyman et al 2014), Australia holds a singularly significant role as both fossil archive and refuge for surviving, formerly widespread Gondwanan plant lineages. The diversification of Encephalartos in Africa remains enigmatic without relevant African fossils.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The assemblage represents the early Eocene climatic optimum, the terminal phase of Gondwana, and the western end of an extinct, trans-Antarctic rainforest biome; thus, the Laguna del Hunco flora is uniquely relevant to studies of Gondwanan paleobiogeography and evolutionary timing, among many other topics (Romero 1978;Wilf et al 2013;Kooyman et al 2014;Merkhofer et al 2015;Wilf and Escapa 2015 Knight and Wilf 2013); and the eudicots Akania (Akaniaceae), Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae), and Gymnostoma (Casuarinaceae; Romero and Hickey 1976;Gandolfo et al 1988Gandolfo et al , 2011Zamaloa et al 2006;Hermsen et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The last Patagonian cycad,Austrozamiastockeyigen. et sp. nov., early Eocene of Laguna del Hunco, Chubut, Argentina

Wilf

Stevenson

Cúneo

2016

Botany

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The cycads pose classic problems in evolutionary biogeography, owing to their far-flung extant distributions and the sparse fossil records of living genera. A noteworthy example is Tribe Encephalarteae of Family Zamiaceae, today consisting of Encephalartos (Africa) and the Australian genera Lepidozamia and Macrozamia. Numerous petrified trunks of Encephalarteae described from the Cretaceous of Patagonia, Antarctica, and India indicate far larger past distributions across Gondwana and subsequent extinctions. The only fossils close to the current range are Paleogene leaf fragments from Australia assigned to Lepidozamia and Macrozamia. Here, we report a large frond piece and several isolated leaflets of a compressed cycad, along with an associated spiny petiole, from the late-Gondwanan, 52.2 Ma Laguna del Hunco flora of Patagonia, Argentina. Austrozamia stockeyi gen. et sp. nov., has the novel combination of an Encephalartos-type leaf and Lepidozamia-type cuticle. The Australian Lepidozamia fossils, widely used for molecular clock calibrations, could also represent an extinct genus. Austrozamia stockeyi demonstrates survival of the Encephalarteae in Patagonia and presumably across Gondwana until its terminal phase, adding a striking new component to the growing list of South American plant extinctions associated with Antarctic separation and related climate changes.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The last Patagonian cycad,Austrozamiastockeyigen. et sp. nov., early Eocene of Laguna del Hunco, Chubut, Argentina

Wilf

Stevenson

Cúneo

2016

Botany

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The current distribution of the Australian rainforest flora is the product of longer-term geological and shorter-term climatic processes [30,31]. The fossil record suggests that in the Eocene to early Miocene, many species with large fleshy fruits had continent-wide distributions [32], as did the larger vertebrates capable of dispersing them [8].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From ratites to rats: the size of fleshy fruits shapes species' distributions and continental rainforest assembly

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ResearchCite this article: Rossetto M, Kooyman R, Yap J-YS, Laffan SW. 2015 From ratites to rats: the size of fleshy fruits shapes species' distributions and continental rainforest assembly. Seed dispersal is a key process in plant spatial dynamics. However, consistently applicable generalizations about dispersal across scales are mostly absent because of the constraints on measuring propagule dispersal distances for many species. Here, we focus on fleshy-fruited taxa, specifically taxa with large fleshy fruits and their dispersers across an entire continental rainforest biome. We compare species-level results of whole-chloroplast DNA analyses in sister taxa with large and small fruits, to regional plot-based samples (310 plots), and whole-continent patterns for the distribution of woody species with either large (more than 30 mm) or smaller fleshy fruits (1093 taxa). The pairwise genomic comparison found higher genetic distances between populations and between regions in the large-fruited species (Endiandra globosa), but higher overall diversity within the small-fruited species (Endiandra discolor). Floristic comparisons among plots confirmed lower numbers of large-fruited species in areas where more extreme rainforest contraction occurred, and recolonization by small-fruited species readily dispersed by the available fauna. Species' distribution patterns showed that larger-fruited species had smaller geographical ranges than smaller-fruited species and locations with stable refugia (and high endemism) aligned with concentrations of large fleshy-fruited taxa, making them a potentially valuable conservation-planning indicator.

show abstract

“…The popular conservation literature often refers to the conifer-rich lowland forests of New Zealand as "dinosaur forest" (http://www.aucklandbotanicgardens.co.nz/whats-on/events/ dinosaurs-in-the-gardens/). A recent publication on the fossil history of the Southern Hemisphere rainforests referred to their characteristic taxa as "southern wet forest survivors" (Kooyman et al, 2014), thus emphasizing their antiquity and embattled persistence. It has been claimed that the conifers-because of their antiquity and slow adaptation to Pleistocene climates-are photosynthetically adapted to function at higher temperatures than are optimal for present day New Zealand (Hawkins and Sweet, 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palynology and the Ecology of the New Zealand Conifers

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The New Zealand conifers (20 species of trees and shrubs in the Araucariaceae, Podocarpaceae, and Cupressaceae) are often regarded as ancient Gondwanan elements, but mostly originated much later. Often thought of as tall trees of humid, warm forests, they are present throughout in alpine shrublands, tree lines, bogs, swamps, and in dry, frost-prone regions. The tall conifers rarely form purely coniferous forest and mostly occur as an emergent stratum above evergreen angiosperm trees. During Maori settlement in the thirteenth century, fire-sensitive trees succumbed rapidly, most of the drier forests being lost. As these were also the more conifer-rich forests, ecological research has been skewed toward conifer dynamics of forests wetter and cooler than the pre-human norm. Conifers are well represented in the pollen record and we here we review their late Quaternary history in the light of what is known about their current ecology with the intention of countering this bias. During glacial episodes, all trees were scarce south of c. 40 • S, and extensive conifer-dominant forest was confined to the northern third of the North Island. Drought-and cold-resistant Halocarpus bidwillii and Phyllocladus alpinus formed widespread scrub in the south. During the deglacial, beginning 18,000 years ago, tall conifers underwent explosive spread to dominate the forest biomass throughout. Conifer dominance lessened in favor of angiosperms in the wetter western lowland forests over the Holocene but the dryland eastern forests persisted largely unchanged until settlement. Mid to late Holocene climate change favored the more rapidly growing Nothofagaceae which replaced the previous conifer-angiosperm low forest or shrubland in tree line ecotones and montane areas. The key to this dynamic conifer history appears to be their bimodal ability to withstand stress, and dominate on poor soils and in cool, dry regions but, in wetter, warmer locations, to slowly grow thorough competing broadleaves to occupy an exposed, emergent stratum where their inherent stress resistance ensures little effective angiosperm competition.

show abstract

Paleo‐Antarctic rainforest into the modern Old World tropics: The rich past and threatened future of the “southern wet forest survivors”

Cited by 99 publications

References 81 publications

The last Patagonian cycad,Austrozamiastockeyigen. et sp. nov., early Eocene of Laguna del Hunco, Chubut, Argentina

The last Patagonian cycad,Austrozamiastockeyigen. et sp. nov., early Eocene of Laguna del Hunco, Chubut, Argentina

From ratites to rats: the size of fleshy fruits shapes species' distributions and continental rainforest assembly

Palynology and the Ecology of the New Zealand Conifers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About