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OFR 151.pdf - CRC LEME

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2.1.4 South-West Australia<br />

Inferred climate<br />

Epiphyllous fungal germlings (Lange 1978a) indicate warm (mesotherm) and wet (humidperhumid)<br />

climates.<br />

2.1.5 Central southern Australia<br />

No known record.<br />

2.1.6 South-East Australia<br />

1. Otway Basin<br />

An Early Eocene macroflora from Deanes Marsh, Victoria (Demon’s Bluff Formation)<br />

includes probable Lauraceae and Proteaceae leaves (Christophel 1994).<br />

Inferred climate<br />

Mean leaf sizes are smaller than leaf sizes preserved in the Middle Eocene Anglesea Flora<br />

and may reflect relatively cool (possibly lower mesotherm) conditions.<br />

2.1.7 Tasmania<br />

1. West Coast<br />

Carbonaceous mudstones outcropping at Regatta Point, Macquarie Harbour, preserve a<br />

diverse late Early Eocene (Upper Malvacipollis diversus-Proteacidites asperopolus Zone)<br />

macroflora associated with equally diverse pollen, spores and dinoflagellates. In spite of the<br />

high (~66 0 S) palaeolatitude, taxa identified so far include cycads (Bowenia, Pterostoma),<br />

which may have adapted to low photoperiods or other stresses associated with high latitudes<br />

(Hill 1990a, Hill and Pole 1994), Araucaria and a genus intermediate between Araucaria and<br />

Agathis (Bigwood and Hill 1985, Hill and Bigwood 1987, Hill 1990b), Dacrycarpus (Hill and<br />

Carpenter 1991) and Nypa (Pole and Macphail 1996).<br />

Inferred climate<br />

Nypa populations confirm that air and sea surface temperatures within Macquarie Harbour<br />

were in the upper mesotherm or megatherm range (~20-24 0 C). A slightly lower mean<br />

temperature is possible is climates were highly equable (see Table 2). Associated taxa have<br />

subtropical-tropical NLRs and indicate that mean rainfall values were high to very high<br />

(perhumid). Pole (in Pole and Macphail 1996) suggests that rainfall was seasonal or possibly<br />

monsoonal.<br />

2. East and North Coasts<br />

Early possible Eocene mudstones from Buckland on the east coast preserve macrofossils of<br />

Acmopyle, a podocarp now confined to rainforest occupying mild (13-17 0 C) but very wet<br />

(>5000 mm pa) montane habitats in New Caledonia and Fiji (Townrow 1965a, Hill and<br />

Carpenter 1991). A leaf of a deciduous species of Nothofagus is preserved in probable<br />

Proteacidites asperopolus Zone sediments at Deloraine on the central north coast (R.S. Hill<br />

pers. comm.).<br />

214

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