Two fossil species of (Myrtaceae) from the Oligo-Miocene Golden Fleece locality in Tasmania, Australia.

Premise Of The Study: The capsular-fruited genus (Myrtaceae) is one of the most widely distributed flowering plant genera in the Pacific but is extinct in Australia today. The center of geographic origin for the genus and the reason for and timing of its extinction in Australia remain uncertain. We identify fossil fruits from the newly discovered Golden Fleece fossil flora in the Oligo-Miocene of Tasmania, Australia, shedding further light on these problems.

Fossil evidence for open, Proteaceae-dominated heathlands and fire in the Late Cretaceous of Australia.

Premise Of The Study: The origin of biomes is of great interest globally. Molecular phylogenetic and pollen evidence suggest that several plant lineages that now characterize open, burnt habitats of the sclerophyll biome, became established during the Late Cretaceous of Australia. However, whether this biome itself dates to that time is problematic, fundamentally because of the near-absence of relevant, appropriately aged, terrestrial plant macro- or mesofossils.

A Middle-Late Eocene inflorescence of Caryophyllaceae from Tasmania, Australia.

A new genus and species (Caryophylloflora paleogenica genus and species nova G. J. Jord.