New potential nearest living relatives for Araucariaceae producing fossil Wollemi Pine-type pollen (Dilwynites granulatus W.K. Harris, 1965)

Abstract

Two Agathis species that are endemic to New Caledonia, A. moorei and A. ovata, produce coarsely granulate inaperturate pollen that resembles pollen of the Wollemi Pine (Wollemi nobilis). For this reason, these Agathis species are potential nearest living relatives of the fossil species Dilwynites granulatus, whose stratigraphic distribution has been used to establish a fossil record for Wollemia.

属Agathis的两个种A. moorei和A. ovata是新加里多尼亚的地方种, 它们的粗颗粒无口花粉类似于Wollemi松 (Wollemi nobilis) 的花粉。出于这个原因, 这些Agathis的种很有可能是化石种Dilwynites granulatus的现生亲缘种, 其地层分布已经被用来建立Wollemia的化石记录。

Key words:

• fossil record
• Agathis
• Dilwynites
• Wollemia nobilis
• Wollemi Pine
• New Caledonia

Acknowledgements

We thank the staff of the Queensland and New South Wales Herbaria for access to their Agathis collections and donation of male cones, Drs Stephen McLoughlin (Editor, Alcheringa), Mary Dettmann (Queensland Museum, Brisbane) and Ian Raine (Geological & Nuclear Sciences, New Zealand) for their valuable comments on a draft manuscript and Dr Greg Jordan (School of Plant Sciences, University of Tasmania) for comments regarding the ongoing phylogenetic debate on the Araucariaceae. RJC was supported by Australian Research Council funding (Discovery Project 110104926).