Two fossil species of <i>Metrosideros</i> (Myrtaceae) from the Oligo‐Miocene Golden Fleece locality in Tasmania, Australia

Tarran, Myall; Wilson, Peter G.; Macphail, Michael; Jordan, Gregory J.; Hill, Robert S.

doi:10.3732/ajb.1700095

Cited by 6 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…However, the post‐Gondwanan age of the recently discovered fossils in Tasmania (Tarran et al . 2016, 2017) and the mid‐Cenozoic estimate for the origin of the genus (Thornhill et al . 2015) do not provide a strong indication for such a process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2016; Tarran et al . 2017). This is intriguing considering that the adjacent peripheral landmasses of New Zealand, New Caledonia and New Guinea all have many endemic Metrosideros species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2011; Tarran et al . 2017). Metrosideros is also absent from Tonga despite being present on all the archipelagos that surround that group, nor does it occur in Micronesia despite being present on the more distant Bonin Islands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2016; Tarran et al . 2017), where the genus is now absent. In New Zealand, Pleistocene glaciations reduced the species of subgenus Metrosideros to limited coastal refugia during glacial maxima, a process which may also have caused extinctions (Gardner et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the more recent discovery of mid‐Cenozoic Metrosideros fossils in Tasmania, including some that apparently pre‐date the Miocene, by Tarran et al . (2016, 2017) points to Australia/Tasmania as another potential landmass of origin.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) in Oceania: Origin, evolution and dispersal

Wright¹,

Liddell²,

Lacap-Bugler

et al. 2021

Austral Ecology

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Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) comprises 58 woody species distributed across Oceania and with three singleton outliers in Philippines, South America and Africa. Centres of species richness occur in New Zealand and New Caledonia. This distribution accords with a proposed Gondwanan origin for the family. While the phylogeography of one component of the genus – subgenus Metrosideros – has received some examination, the rest of the genus has not been resolved. In this study, we improve resolution of the phylogeny of Metrosideros and consider origin, possible vicariant relationships, long‐distance dispersal events and dispersal routes for the genus. A Bayesian phylogeny, with all but one recently described species of Metrosideros, was constructed using concatenated ITS + ETS rDNA from samples we collected and sequenced. Relative to previous work on Metrosideros using ITS alone, here, using ITS plus ETS, we produce a more detailed and robust phylogeny with a near threefold increase in significant nodal support. Putative centres of origin/diversification, vicariant events and dispersals were considered with reference to the phylogeny, present‐day diversity and fossil record of Metrosideros. Metrosideros occurs as five clades, including the former genera Tepualia and Carpolepis. The paraphyletic and now superseded subgenus Mearnsia included elements of four of these clades, whereas subgenus Metrosideros forms a single clade with robust support. Our phylogeography indicates multiple dispersal/vicariant events within the history of the genus, a number of which involved New Zealand. Among other such events, we infer an exceptional 6300 km trans‐equatorial dispersal from Fiji to the Bonin Islands (Japan). Australia and New Zealand, respectively, are the likely landmasses of origin and diversification for Metrosideros. Typical patterns of floral dispersal proceed from large continental landmasses onto increasingly remote islands and with distance from continent species diversity usually declines. However, Metrosideros shows a countervailing pattern since relatively remote islands are the main centres of speciation and dispersal.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2016; Tarran et al . 2017). This is intriguing considering that the adjacent peripheral landmasses of New Zealand, New Caledonia and New Guinea all have many endemic Metrosideros species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%