The taphonomy of a remarkable leaf bed assemblage from the Late Oligocene-Early Miocene Gore Lignite Measures, southern New Zealand

Autor(en)

Norbert Vávra, David-Kay Ferguson, Reinhard Zetter, Dallas Mildenhall

Abstrakt

A diverse assemblage of fossil leaves showing cellular detail is reported from the Late Oligocene-Early Miocene Gore Lignite Measures, southern New Zealand. The leaf-remains include at least five conifers, such as the genera Agathis, Dacrycarpus. Phyllocladus and Dacrydium, as well as a number of angiosperms including Gymnostoma, Nothofagus Subgenus Brassospora, Phormium, Protaceae, Sapindaceae and Ericaceae. A parallel palynological study has identified a number of the same elements. The leaf layers represent litter horizons laid down in pools on the surface of a subtropical ombrotrophic forest mire that formed on an extensive low-lying coastal plain. Highly acidic water ponded in tree-fall depressions prevented microbial decay of the foliage. Taxa represented by both leaves and pollen are considered to have been components of

Organisation(en)

Institut für Paläontologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Geological and Nuclear Sciences

Journal

International Journal of Coal Geology

Band

83

Seiten

173-181

Anzahl der Seiten

9

ISSN

0166-5162

Publikationsdatum

2010

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

1060 Biologie, 1051 Geologie, Mineralogie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/a304ec44-cd7a-4467-bb7d-7cfb44a6e42f