• DOI:10.1080/03115518.2013.764698
• Corpus ID: 87955445

Paleocene flora from Seymour Island, Antarctica: revision of Dusén’s (1908) angiosperm taxa

@article{Tosolini2013PaleoceneFF,
  title={Paleocene flora from Seymour Island, Antarctica: revision of Dus{\'e}n’s (1908) angiosperm taxa},
  author={Anne-Marie P. Tosolini and David J. Cantrill and Jane E. Francis},
  journal={Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology},
  year={2013},
  volume={37},
  pages={366 - 391}
}

• Anne-Marie P. Tosolini, D. Cantrill, J. Francis
• Published 24 July 2013
• Environmental Science
• Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology

The Paleocene flora from Seymour Island, Antarctica, is one of the most diverse floras of this age in the Southern Hemisphere. First collected on the Swedish South Polar Expedition (1901–1903), it was described by Dusén in 1908 as having 87 leaf taxa. Forty-seven angiosperm taxa were described and/or illustrated. Many species are based on single specimens, and the flora has not been re-examined in its entirety since it was first described. This study is the first reassessment of the flora updating the original research using current methodologies, and permitting evaluation of the flora in the context of modern ideas on plant evolution and palaeogeography. This paper continues the revision of the material first studied by Dusén; a previous paper described the ferns and gymnosperms; here we describe the angiosperms. The revision is based on the original collections held at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, together with the first major new collections held at the British Antarctic Survey. Among the taxa recognized by Dusén, we recognize only three entire-margined and 11 tooth-margined angiosperms. This revision to 14 species notably lacks the two tropical elements originally described from the flora, Mollinedia seymourensis and Miconiiphyllum austral. Hence, its status as a ‘Mixed Flora’ comes into question and influences climatic interpretations based on Gondwanan floras. Anne-Marie Tosolini∗ [[e-mail]], Department of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK, and Environmental Geoscience, Latrobe University, Victoria, 3086, Australia; David Cantrill [[e-mail]], National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Private Bag 2000, Birdwood Ave, South Yarra, Victoria, 3141, Australia; Jane Francis [[e-mail]], Department of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. ∗Present address: School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. Received 5.5.2012; revised 13.12.2012; accepted 7.1.2012.