Fuchsia pollen from the tertiary of Australia

Abstract

Pollen of Diporites aspis, corresponding to the extant genus Fuchsia, is reported from Late Oligocene to Early Miocene strata in two new localities in Australia. They extend the range of Diporites pollen in Australia from the Otway Basin in Victoria to the Capricorn Basin offshore Queensland, and they bring to six the number of Diporites specimens in Australia, from five different sites. These reports establish the presence of Fuchsia in Australasia from at least the Early Oligocene, when mesic forests were widespread across Australia. Fuchsia reached New Zealand by the Late Oligocene and has survived there until the present, but is not known to have survived in Australia past the late Miocene. These results support the hypothesis of an early Tertiary origin of the genus in southern temperate forests.

A fossil Fuchsia (Onagraceae) flower and an anther mass with in situ pollen from the early Miocene of New Zealand

“…The grains fall into the higher size range of the dispersed specimens described by Pocknall and Mildenhall (1984) as D. aspis , but are otherwise identical in morphology. This taxon has been recorded from both Australia (Berry et al, 1990) and South America (Barreda et al, 2009) and is discussed in numerous other papers (e.g., Grímsson et al, 2011). In contrast, Diporites granulatus Rouse (1962) with very small pores and D. iszkaszentgyorgyi Kedves (1986) with large, nonaspidate pores are both excluded from Koninidites .…”

Molecular phylogeny, divergence time estimates, and historical biogeography of Circaea (Onagraceae) in the Northern Hemisphere

“…The three fossils of Myrtaceae, Melastomataceae, and Combretaceae produced similar estimates for the Circaea-Fuchsia split (42.7, 41.2 and 40.7 mya, respectively) (Berry et al, 2004). Because these times were consistent with the earliest fossil records of Circaea and Fuchsia (pollen from the Oligocene in Australia, Berry et al, 1990), Berry et al (2004) used them to estimate divergence times of major clades of Fuchsia. In this paper, we followed Berry et al (2004) and constrained the Circaea-Fuchsia node with the age of 41.5 mya (the average age from different fossil constraints).…”

Assessing Calibration Uncertainty in Molecular Dating: The Assignment of Fossils to Alternative Calibration Points

“…Fossil 6.-Fossil 6 is represented by the pollen Diporites aspis from the Early Oligocene (33.7 to 28.5 My) of Otway Basin (Australia), described by Berry et al (1990; Table 1). Comparisons of the fossil pollen with extant members of Fuchsia (Daghlian et al, 1985) left no question that Diporites aspis represents pollen of Fuchsia.…”

“…This result supports the interpretation by and Sytsma et al (2004) that the fossil leaves from the Early Eocene of North Dakota should be assigned to the node representing the entire Melastomataceae crown group, because of the acrodromous leaf venation. On the other hand, fossil 6, representing the pollen Diporites aspis from the Early Oligocene of Otway Basin (Australia; Berry et al, 1990; Table 1), is most consistent with the other calibration points if it is assigned to node 6b, representing the Fuchsia crown group (Table 3 and Fig. 1).…”