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OFR 151.pdf - CRC LEME

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Inferred climate<br />

The sequence records the progressive replacement of Austral Conifer Forest by floristically<br />

complex angiosperm-dominated rainforest. The succession is ecologically consistent with<br />

warming followed by transient cooling although mean temperatures appear to have remained<br />

within the lower mesotherm range. Rainfall was high (perhumid) throughout the year. To<br />

what extent plant community evolution was shaped by low light intensities or possible<br />

microtherm temperatures during winter months is unclear.<br />

1.2.7 Tasmania<br />

Paleocene sediments occur in subcrop in the Bass Basin (lower Eastern View Coal Measures)<br />

and along the western margin of Tasmania but few reliable quantitative data are available in<br />

open-file reports.<br />

1. Bass Basin<br />

Non-marine correlatives of the Lower and Upper Lygistepollenites balmei Zone in Yolla-1<br />

well, Bass Basin, are dominated by Araucariaceae (Agathis/Wollemia) with trace amounts of<br />

Lagarostrobos, Dacrydium (Lygistepollenites balmei) and Gambierina (Morgan 1986b).<br />

Nothofagus (Brassospora) pollen in the same microfloras are suggested to be Eocene<br />

contaminants introduced during processing.<br />

Evans and Mulholland (1969) have recorded Podocarpaceae-dominated possibly Upper L.<br />

balmei Zone Equivalent microfloras in the Clam-1 well, drilled in the King Island Sub-basin<br />

near King Island, and also in northwestern Tasmania. Rare taxa include Casuarinaceae,<br />

Callitrichaceae, Ericales, Gambierina, ancestral Nothofagus, nondescript Proteaceae and a<br />

much more diverse group of ferns and gymnosperms. Correlative assemblages occur in the<br />

Longford and Port Sorell Sub-basins in northern Tasmania, and in an onshore extension of the<br />

Sorell Basin south of Macquarie Harbour (S. Forsyth pers. comm.). Microfloras from Rose<br />

Rivulet near Launceston and other unspecified localities in the same (Launceston) sub-basin,<br />

dated as Paleocene by Harris (1967), include Tiliaceae (Intratriporopollenites notabilis) and<br />

are either contaminated with Eocene taxa or are Early Eocene (Lower Malvacipollis diversus<br />

Zone Equivalent).<br />

2. West Coast<br />

Macphail (unpubl. results) has recorded an apparently uncontaminated Upper L. balmei Zone<br />

Equivalent microflora in cuttings in the Cape Sorell-1 well, offshore Sorell Basin. Pollen<br />

dominance is shared between Araucariaceae (Agathis/Wollemia), Podocarpaceae<br />

(Lagarostrobos, Podocarpus-Prumnopitys), ancestral Nothofagus and Cyatheaceae<br />

(Cyathidites), with lesser amounts of Gleicheniaceae, Proteaceae and undescribed tricolporate<br />

angiosperms. Rare taxa include Dacrydium (Lygistepollenites balmei, L. florinii),<br />

Callitrichaceae, Casuarinaceae, Cupanieae, Cunoniaceae (Gillbeea), Euphorbiaceae,<br />

Gambierina and Myrtaceae.<br />

Inferred climate<br />

Within the limits of the data, relative pollen dominance points to Austral Conifer Forest being<br />

the dominant vegetation type on the Bassian Plain and in northern and western Tasmania<br />

during the Paleocene. The diversity is low relative to the Gippsland Basin, possibly due to<br />

reduced photoperiods during winter months. Species with modern warm temperate or<br />

210

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