OFR 151.pdf - CRC LEME

Inferred climate
The data indicate that by the end of the Early Campanian, Austral Conifer Forest growing on
the uplands had been partially replaced by Nothofagus (evergreen temperate rainforest),
and/or that the Nothofagus and ferns co-dominated heath vegetation along the coast. There is
no evidence for extensive freshwater swamps.
Because the palaeolatitude of the Duntroon Basin remained relatively constant at about 70 0 S,
it is reasonable to assume that climates remained seasonally cool to cold (upper microtherm to
possibly lower mesotherm) throughout the Santonian-Campanian time. If its palaeoecology
has been correctly interpreted, then the expansion of ancestral Nothofagus implies that
summers are likely to have been wet (humid), despite the apparent limited extent of
freshwater swamp and peat moss communities.
5.2.6 South-East Australia
1. Otway Basin
Microfloras preserved in marine facies (Copa-1, Fenton Creek-1) indicate that the
Podocarpus-Prumnopitys Austral Conifer Forest remained prominent in uplands around the
western Otway Basin (Macphail and Hos 1990, A.D. Partridge pers. comm.). The coastal
vegetation included significant numbers of Proteaceae (Proteacidites). Representation of
ancestral Nothofagus and Callitrichaceae is more variable, with values ranging from zero to
frequent (