Cretaceous paleobotany and its bearing on the biogeography of austral angiosperms.

Abstract

Plant fossils from Antarctica have played a major role in developing concepts of the geological history of the Southern Hemisphere. Disjunct austral distributions of extant taxa (e.g., Hooker 1853) and the strong floristic similarities between the Permo-Triassic Glossopteris floras on the austral land masses (e.g., Halle 1937) were important in establishing that now separate continental areas were once contiguous. Since widespread acceptance of continental drift, paleobotanical contributions to ideas of continental realignment have emphasized the delimitation of floristic provinces (“phytochoria” sensu Meyen 1987) and assessments of overall similarities among fossil floras from different are..