Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
Am J Bot. 2012 Mar;99(3):562-84. doi: 10.3732/ajb.1100367. Epub 2012 Feb 14.
Eocene caldera-lake beds at Laguna del Hunco (LH, ca. 52.2 Ma) and Río Pichileufú (RP, ca. 47.7 Ma) in Argentine Patagonia provide copious information about the biological history of Gondwana. Several plant genera from these sites are known as fossils from southern Australia and New Zealand and survive only in Australasian rainforests. The potential presence of Dacrycarpus (Podocarpaceae) holds considerable interest due to its extensive foliage-fossil record in Gondwana, its remarkably broad modern distribution in Southeast Asian and Australasian rainforests, its high physiological moisture requirements, and its bird-dispersed seeds. However, the unique seed cones that firmly diagnose Dacrycarpus were not previously known from the fossil record.
I describe and interpret fertile (LH) and vegetative (LH and RP) material of Dacrycarpus and present a nomenclatural revision for fossil Dacrycarpus from South America.
Dacrycarpus puertae sp. nov. is the first fossil occurrence of the unusual seed cones that typify living Dacrycarpus, attached to characteristic foliage, and of attached Dacrycarpus pollen cones and foliage. Dacrycarpus puertae is indistinguishable from living D. imbricatus (montane, Burma to Fiji). Dacrycarpus chilensis (Engelhardt) comb. nov. is proposed for Eocene vegetative material from Chile.
Modern-aspect Dacrycarpus was present in Eocene Patagonia, demonstrating an astonishingly wide-ranging paleogeographic history and implying a long evolutionary association with bird dispersers. Dacrycarpus puertae provides the first significant Asian link for Eocene Patagonian floras, strengthens the biogeographic connections from Patagonia to Australasia across Antarctica during the warm Eocene, and indicates high-rainfall paleoenvironments.
阿根廷巴塔哥尼亚的拉古纳德尔亨科（LH，约 52.2 百万年前）和里奥皮奇莱夫（RP，约 47.7 百万年前）始新世火山口-湖泊地层提供了大量关于冈瓦纳生物历史的信息。这些地点的几个植物属作为来自澳大利亚南部和新西兰的化石而闻名，仅在澳大利亚雨林中存活。由于其在冈瓦纳的广泛叶化石记录、其在东南亚和澳大利亚雨林中非常广泛的现代分布、其高生理水分需求以及其鸟类散布的种子，因此 Dacrycarpus（罗汉松科）的潜在存在具有相当大的意义。然而，以前从未在化石记录中发现过明确诊断 Dacrycarpus 的独特种子球果。
我描述和解释了 Dacrycarpus 的可育（LH）和营养（LH 和 RP）材料，并对来自南美的化石 Dacrycarpus 进行了命名修订。
Dacrycarpus puertae sp. nov. 是第一个化石发生的不寻常种子球果，其典型的活 Dacrycarpus 特征，附着在特征性的叶子上，还有附着的 Dacrycarpus 花粉球果和叶子。Dacrycarpus puertae 与活的 D.imbricatus（山区，缅甸至斐济）无法区分。Dacrycarpus chilensis（Engelhardt）comb. nov. 提议用于智利的始新世营养材料。
现代方面的 Dacrycarpus 存在于始新世巴塔哥尼亚，证明了令人惊讶的广泛古地理历史，并暗示了与鸟类传播者的长期进化联系。Dacrycarpus puertae 为始新世巴塔哥尼亚植物群提供了第一个重要的亚洲联系，加强了温暖始新世期间从巴塔哥尼亚到澳大利亚的生物地理联系，并表明了高降雨量的古环境。
