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Citation for Study 10493

About Citation title: "Did Kauri (Agathis: Araucariaceae) Really Survive the Oligocene Drowning of New Zealand?".
About Study name: "Did Kauri (Agathis: Araucariaceae) Really Survive the Oligocene Drowning of New Zealand?".
About This study is part of submission 10483 (Status: Published).

Citation

Biffin E., Hill R., & Andrew L.J. 2010. Did Kauri (Agathis: Araucariaceae) Really Survive the Oligocene Drowning of New Zealand?. Systematic Biology, .

Authors

  • Biffin E. (submitter) Phone 61883035594
  • Hill R.
  • Andrew L.J.

Abstract

New Zealand (NZ) is both a Gondwanan continental fragment and a geologically active oceanic island, and hence unravelling the origins and diversification of its biota has been considered important to biogeographic theory more generally (Nelson, 1975). For instance, given this dual nature, the modern NZ land mass provides an ideal setting to consider the relative contribution of vicariance (NZ is believed to have separated from the Gondwanan supercontinent c. 80 million years ago, Ma; but see, e.g. Ladiges and Cantrill, 2007, who suggest more recent terrestrial connections between Australia and NZ) versus more recent trans-oceanic long distance dispersal in shaping biogeographic patterns (Crisp, 2008; Wallis and Trewick, 2008). Following its rifting from Gondwana, crustal thinning resulted in progressive submergence of the plate that carried NZ culminating in the ?Oligocene drowning? (c. 34-24 Ma) when the emergent landmass of what would become NZ was reduced to a small fraction of the modern area, or was submerged entirely (Campbell and Landis, 2003; Trewick et al., 2006; Landis et al., 2008). The fossil record of NZ indicates a very high rate of biotic turnover since the Cretaceous (Pole, 1994; Pole and Vajda, 2009).The importance of Tertiary oceanic long distance dispersal in the assembly of the modern biota has been widely demonstrated (e.g. Fleming, 1979; Mildenhall, 1980; Pole, 1994; Macphail, 1997; Winkworth et al., 2002; Cook and Crisp, 2005; Knapp et al., 2005). In light of these data, it has been argued that the burden of proof rests with biogeographers to demonstrate in situ Gondwanan (vicariant) heritage, or indeed, a continuous pre-Oligocene link for the modern NZ biota (Waters and Craw, 2006; Landis et al., 2008). Here, we review the claim that Kauri (Agathis australis), the sole extant NZ representative of the predominantly Southern Hemisphere conifer family Araucariaceae, survived the Oligocene drowning (St?ckler et al., 2002; Knapp et al., 2007).

Keywords

Araucariaceae, molecular clock, evolutionary rates, fossils, biogeography

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  • Canonical resource URI: http://purl.org/phylo/treebase/phylows/study/TB2:S10493
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