title: Hedycarya macrofossils and associated Planarpollenites pollen from the early Miocene of New Zealand.
abstract: The history of the basal angiosperm family Monimiaceae is based largely on fossil wood and leaf and floral fossils of uncertain affinity. Fossilized leaves with a well-preserved cuticle and Hedycarya-like flowers, including one with in situ pollen tetrads and fruits from an early Miocene lacustrine diatomite deposit in southern New Zealand implies a long record for Hedycarya in New Zealand. The flowers contain pollen grains that are very similar to those of the modern New Zealand species Hedycarya arborea and the Australian H. angustifolia but are considerably smaller.
  
  
  
  We undertook comparative studies of the leaf, flower and fruit morphology of the newly discovered macrofossils and compared the in situ pollen grains from the flower with dispersed pollen grains from extant species.
  
  
  
  The leaves are referred to a new, extinct species, Hedycarya pluvisilva Bannister, Conran, Mildenh. & D.E.Lee, (Monimiaceae), and associated with fossilized Hedycarya-like flowers that include in situ pollen and an infructescence of three drupes from the same site. Phylogenetic analysis placed the fossil into Hedycarya, sister to H. angustifolia in a clade with H. arborea and Levieria acuminata. A new name, Planarpollenites fragilis Mildenh., is proposed for dispersed fossil pollen tetrads at the site and those associated with the flower.
  
  
  
  The fossils are similar to those of modern Australian and New Zealand Hedycarya species, suggesting that the genus and related taxa have been significant components of the rainforests of Australia and the former Zealandian subcontinent for most of the Cenozoic.
authors.affiliation: Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity & Sprigg Geobiology Centre, School of Biological Sciences, Benham Building DX 650 312, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005 Australia john.conran@adelaide.edu.au.
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Conran
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, University of Otago, P. O. Box 56, Dunedin, 9054 New Zealand.
authors.forename: Jennifer M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bannister
authors.affiliation: GNS Science, P.O. Box 30-368, Lower Hutt, 5042 New Zealand.
authors.forename: Dallas C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Mildenhall
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, University of Otago, P. O. Box 56, Dunedin, 9054 New Zealand.
authors.forename: Daphne E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D035264:Flowers / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005580:Fossils; D005638:Fruit / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005843:Geography; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D009520:New Zealand; D010802:Phylogeny; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D011058:Pollen / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D013048:Specimen Handling; D009626:Terminology as Topic
keywords: Hedycarya pluvisilva; Miocene; Monimiaceae; New Zealand; Planarpollenites fragilis; biogeography; fossil flowers; fossil fruit; fossil leaves; in situ pollen