The first record of fossil atherospermataceous wood from the upper Cretaceous of Antarctica

Fossil wood of the Atherospermataceae from the upper Cretaceous of James Ro ss Island, Antarctica, is described for the first time and represents the e arliest record of this family in the Southern Hemisphere. The specimens are characterised by diffuse porous arrangement of vessels, scalariform perfor ation plates, scalariform and opposite intervessel pitting and predominantl y multiseriate rays which occasionally bear low uniseriate margins. Despite anatomical conformity at the familial level, the fossil woods are not iden tical to any one extant genus and have therefore been assigned to the fossi l organ genus, Laurelites Nishida, Nishida et Nasa, with which the fossils show greatest similarity. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserve d.