Dacrycarpus (Podocarpaceae) macrofossils from Miocene sediments at Elands, Eastern Australia

Abstract

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Vegetative remains and male cones containing pollen grains from Miocene sediments at Elands in northern New South Wales are assigned to the new Podocarpaceae species Dacrycarpus elandensis. This species represents the most complete and best preserved Dacrycarpus macrofossil remains known. These fossils are morphologically most similar to extant D. imbricatus and fossil D. latrobensis and D. linifolius, but the phylogenetic significance of many of the characters used to make this comparison is unknown. Dacrycarpus is now extinct in Australia, but D. elandensis confirms a presence for it in eastern Australia at a time when rainforest was drying and retracting and Eucalyptus was expanding its range in the region.</jats:p>