The fossil flora of the pakawau group, N.W. Nelson, New Zealand

Abstract

Fossil plants are described from several collections from the Pakawau Group of North-west Nelson, New Zealand. The age of the flora is Upper Sanonian and comes from the Wharariki, Puponga, North Cape and lower undescribed formations of the Pakawau Group. Many name changes are proposed and two new genera and nine new species are described: Lymites oliveri gen. & spec. nov., Myrica wellmanii sp. nov., Nothofagus undulatus sp. nov., Nothofagus betulinites sp. nov., Patete greggi sp. nov., Protopanax mcqueenii gen. & sp. nov., Dacrydium rimu sp. nov., Podocarpus totaroides sp. nov. and Teeniopteris tonii. The flora is considered to indicate temperature conditions similar to those of Kaitaia, North Auckland, where a lowland, temperate, rain forest grows today. A detailed discussion of palaeobotanical problems is given. Macropalaeobotany is largely the study of leaf variation and not of genera and species as generally understood by botanists. In this thesis the term species applies to organ genera. Listed are many names which are considered temporarily invalid until the types have been systematically described. A list of macrofossil plants is also given. The history of palaeobotanical and geological studies of the Pakawau Group is summarised. Two appendices are attached. One describes an experiment designed to show the problems of leaf identification. The other gives a summary of the history of the dating of Baron Constantin von Ettingshausen's Eocene and Cretaceous macrofossil plant localities.