OFR 151.pdf - CRC LEME

Macphail et al. (1994). Equally importantly, the book was instrumental in re-establishing
fossils as a primary source of information on past environments.
Since then, several syntheses of Australian Phanerozoic climates have appeared, including
three during the preparation of this review. These are: (1) the Evolution of Australian
environments by L.A. Frakes (1999), (2) the Evolution of the Australian flora: fossil evidence
by R. S. Hill, E.M. Truswell, S. McLoughlin, and M.E. Dettmann (1999) and (3) the
Palaeobiology of Australian faunas and floras, edited by A.J. Wright, et al. (2000). The first
two overviews appear in the revised Introduction Volume of the Flora of Australia Series
(ABRS/Environment Australia). The last overview comprises a number of related synopses
of Mesozoic-Cenozoic floras and faunas published by the Association of Australasian
Palaeontologists. A monograph by S. McLoughlin titled The break-up of Gondwana and its
impact on the pre-Cenozoic floristic provincialism is in press (Australian Journal of Botany
49: 271-300, 2001).
Significantly these syntheses were prepared in response to requests by the biological, not
earth, sciences community even though much of the data (or samples) were ‘by-products’ of
geological exploration.
Hill (1992a), Hill et al. (1996), Swenson et al. (2000), Hill and Scriven (1998) and Hill and
Brodribb (1999) have reviewed the history of Nothofagus and the three major Southern
Hemisphere gymnosperm families Araucariaceae, Cupressaceae and Podocarpaceae,
respectively. Hill et al. (1999) and Greenwood et al. (2000) have reviewed fossil evidence for
Tertiary vegetation in Tasmania and Victoria, respectively. Otherwise, the most recent
reviews, which specifically focus on palaeobotanical evidence for Cretaceous-Tertiary floras
and environments, are: Dettmann and Jarzen (1988, 1990, Kershaw (1988), Hill (1992b,
1994a), Truswell (1993), Dettmann (1994), Kershaw et al. (1994), Macphail et al. (1994),
Martin (1994), Specht and Dettmann (1995), Macphail (1997a, 1997b) and Martin (1998a).
Earlier but still valuable overviews are Kemp (1978), Barlow (1981), Dettmann (1981), Nix
(1982), Lange (1982) and Truswell and Harris (1982).
Useful analyses of the present-day vegetation and environments in Australia and
neighbouring landmasses are provided by Webb et al. (1984), Jeans (1986), Floyd (1989),
Adam (1994), Boland et al. (1994), Groves (1994, 1999), Enright et al. (1995), Specht and
Dettmann (1995), Donoso (1996), Ogden et al. (1996), Read and Brown (1996), Read and
Hope (1996), Veblen et al. (1996) and Fox (1999). Blevin (1991), Quilty (1994), Taylor
(1994), Wilford and Brown (1994), Langford et al. (1995) and Stagg et al. (1999) provide
valuable reviews of the tectono-sedimentary histories of the continental margin basins where
much of the palaeobotanical evidence is preserved.
b. This review
This review differs from the above studies in three respects: (1) As far as is known, it is the
first of its type in Australia to be explicitly part-funded by the mineral resources industry.
(2) The author has attempted to review all accessible unpublished industry and government
reports known or likely to include information on Cretaceous-Tertiary floras, as well as the
formally published literature up to 2000 (see Section 9). (3) Within the time constraints of the
project, additional material has been located (often with difficulty) and quantitatively
analysed to fill known gaps in the chronostratigraphic record.
Visits to the Geological Surveys of New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia
uncovered a plethora of unpublished palaeontological reports spanning the last 120 years.
Some important material continues to be held by private individuals. For example, Late
Cretaceous environments in the Pilbara region in the north of south-west Western Australia
are inferred from a single sample donated ‘out of interest’ some 25 years ago to Emeritus
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