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Memoirs of the Queensland Museum: Cultural Heritage Series · January 2010 See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285946374 Fossil fruit of the Macadamieae (Proteaceae) in the Tertiary of eastern Australia: Eureka gen. nov Article in Memoirs of the Queensland Museum: Cultural Heritage Series · January 2010 CITATION READS 1 31 2 authors, including: Mary E. Dettmann Queensland Museum 85 PUBLICATIONS 2,582 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: The origins history and evolution of the modern Australian flora View project All content following this page was uploaded by Mary E. Dettmann on 10 December 2015. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Nature 55(1) © The State of Queensland (Queensland Museum) 2010 PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone 06 7 3840 7555 Fax 06 7 3846 1226 Email [email protected] Website www.qm.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 0079-8835 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the Editor in Chief. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed at the Queensland Museum web site http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/About+Us/Publications/Memoirs+of+the+Queensland+Museum A Queensland Government Project Typeset at the Queensland Museum Fossil fruit of the Macadamieae (Proteaceae) in the Tertiary of eastern Australia: Eureka gen. nov. Mary E. DETTMANN H. Trevor CLIFFORD Queensland Museum, Geosciences, Hendra Facility, 122 Gerler Rd, Hendra, Qld 4011, Australia. Email: [email protected] Citation: Dettmann, M.E. & Clifford, H.T. 2010 03 15. Fossil fruit of the Macadamieae (Proteaceae) in the Tertiary of eastern Australia: Eureka gen. nov.. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum — Nature 55(1): 147-166. Brisbane. ISSN 0079-8835. Accepted: 13 October 2009. ABSTRACT Eureka gen. nov. is proposed to accommodate fossil fruits recovered from several mid- Tertiary (early Oligocene-Miocene) sites in eastern Australia. The type (E. welcomensis sp. nov.) and other described species (E.(al. Conchotheca) turgida (F. Muell.) comb. nov., E. spechtii sp. nov., E. harslettiae sp. nov.) have bilaterally symmetrical, ellipsoidal pericarps that are uniloculate, 1-seeded, and tardily dehiscent along the ventral suture and dorsal hinge line. The pericarp wall is radially structured and has a branched vasculature system capped by fibres embedded in a thick mesocarp; the radial fibres extend into the exocarp, and the endocarp is thin or lacking. The seed is orthotropous, attached apically and with a 2-layered seed coat that has an endotestal cuticle bearing impressions of transfer cells. Eureka is morphologically and anatomically consistent with fruits of extant members of Bleasdalea F. Muell., Hicksbeachia F. Muell., and Gevuina Molina of subtribe Gevuininae (tribe Macadamieae, family Proteaceae). Accordingly, the fossil fruit evidence implies that the Gevuininae had a former distribution range spanning some 20º of latitude in eastern Australia and taken together with fossil cuticle evidence a trans-Tasman distribution no longer mirrored in the present vegetation. Eureka also displays some resemblance to the tardily dehiscent fruits of extant Panopsis (subtribe Macadamiinae, tribe Macadamieae); however, morphological/anatomical details of extant members are imprecisely known. Australia, Bleasdalea, Eureka, fossil fruit, Gevuina, Hicksbeachia, Macadamieae, Tertiary. Among recently recovered woody fossils mesocarp. Similarly structured pericarps charac- from Tertiary sediments at several localities terise fruits borne by extant genera of tribe in Queensland are several different types of Macadamieae. The distinctive vasculature 1-seeded, tardily dehiscent, uniloculate fruits pattern with ‘third-order radial vascular bundles’ with vascularised pericarps similar to those of (Johnson & Briggs 1975, p.134; Douglas 1995, fruits borne by several extant genera included p.18) comprises prolific radial branching of within tribe Macadamieae (Proteaceae) as the main vertical and lateral (tangentially- recently redefined (Weston & Barker 2006; Mast aligned) bundles in a woody ground mass of et al. 2008). The Queensland fossil fruits are predominantly radially oriented fibre sheaths spheroidal to ellipsoidal, near-symmetrical about that surround the bundles as detailed for fruits the vertical axis, and their thick pericarp has a of several extant members of the tribe (Filla distinctive radial structure reflecting a branched 1926; Strohschen 1986a,b). The Queensland vasculature system embedded in a thick, woody fossil fruits with their near vertical symmetry, Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Nature 2010 55(1) www.qm.qld.gov.au 147 Dettmann & Clifford near-smooth outer surface of pericarp, and shown to be insufficiently discriminatory of one apically attached unwinged seed having the extant taxa in parsimony analyses (Sauquet a 2-layered, non-woody seed coat are more et al. 2009); thus far, P. tripartus has not been similar to fruits of several genera (Gevuina tested in any comparable cladistic analysis. Molina, Hicksbeachia F. Muell., and Bleasdalea F. Muell.) of subtribe Gevuininae than to other MATERIAL members of tribe Macadamieae. Previously described fossil fruits that possess a thick Fruits reported upon here include woody and pericarp with third order vasculature were charcoalified and permineralised specimens. assigned to Conchotheca turgida F. Muell., a taxon The charcoalified specimens were recovered reported from mid-Tertiary deep lead sediments from subsurface sediments near Blackwater in Victoria (Mueller 1874a, Deane 1925) and and Moranbah, central Queensland and Tasmania (Johnston 1880). Mueller (1874a) did Bundaberg, southeastern Queensland and the not comment on the botanical aff inity of C. turgida, permineralised specimens are from an outcrop at but examination of his protocol material confirms Glencoe, central Queensland; all are held in the these fossils, too, are morphologically consonant Queensland Museum (QMF). Also examined are with fruits of subtribe Gevuininae, being similar woody and charcoalified fruits collected in the late to those of Gevuina, Bleasdalea, and Hicksbeachia. 1800’s and early 1900’s from several goldfield sites Evaluation of Mueller’s protocol material and of in Victoria and New South Wales and housed the Queensland fossil fruits form the basis of the in the Queensland Museum, the Australian present study. Moreover, comparisons have been Museum (AMF) and the Museum of Victoria undertaken of the fossil material with fruits of (NMVP). The last-mentioned collection contains extant Gevuina, Hicksbeachia, and Bleasdalea. the type and other specimens of the protocol material of Conchotheca turgida F. Muell.,1874, Extant Gevuina is monotypic and endemic which was originally housed in the Museum to southern South America; Bleasdalea has two of the Geological Survey of Victoria (GSVF). species, one each in New Guinea and eastern Locality details of occurrences of Eureka gen. Australia, and Hicksbeachia, with two species, is nov. are as follows (see also Fig. 1B). endemic to eastern Australia (Fig 1A; Weston & Barker 2006). Fossil cuticles that are consistent Queensland. a) Picardy Station, near Moranbah with those of subtribe Gevuininae have been (21º5’17.6’S 147º50’34.3’E) Rio Tinto Explor ation reported from Eocene sediments of Western Hole RDPD98MA21, sands, silts and lignites Australia (Carpenter & Pole 1995) and from at 123-133 m; Early Oligocene (Dettmann & the Miocene of New Zealand (Pole 1998). Clifford 2001). Fossil wood similar to, but not identical with, b) Near Blackwater (24º 1’1.3’S 148º48’50’E) South Gevuina has been reported from the Oligocene of Patagonia (Pujana 2007). Blackwater Coal Pty Ltd Hole R8736, sands and lignites at 82m; Early-Late Oligocene The fossil pollen taxa, Propylipollis reticulo­ (Dettmann & Clifford 2001). scabratus (Harris) Harris and Martin, and P. c) Glencoe Station (23º 36’S 148º 06’E), near Capella, tripartus Harris, which occur in Campanian- silcrete outcrop; Oligocene-?Early Miocene Tertiary sediments of Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica, are morphologically similar to (Rozefelds 1990; Rozefelds & Christophel 1996; pollen of Gevuina, Bleasdalea, and Hicksbeachia Dettmann & Clifford 2001). (Martin 1982; Dettmann & Jarzen 1990, 1996, d) N of Bundaberg (24° 46’49’S 152º18’17’E), 1998). P. reticuloscabratus however, has been Herberts on Welcome Creek Drain, subsurface 148 Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Nature 2010 55(1) Fossil Proteaceous fruits sands and clays; Early Miocene (Dettmann without whitening. Thin sections of charcoalified & Clifford, 2003). specimens were cut using a slide microtome e) Near Clifton (27º 55’S 151º 55’E), Queensland and mounted in glycerine jelly on glass slides Water Resources borehole, sands and lignites for transmitted light microscope analysis. Fragments of several specimens were mounted at 45-46 m; Tertiary (?Miocene). on stubs and gold plated for scanning electron New South Wales. Near Orange (33º 17’S 149º microscope analysis. Anatomical features of 06’E, Forest Reefs Mine, deep lead sediments; seed coats were examined in transmitted light late Middle-early
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