Dacrycarpus (Podocarpaceae) macrofossils from Miocene sediments at Elands,eastern Australia

Vegetative remains and male cones containing pollen grains from Miocene sed iments at Elands in northern New South Wales are assigned to the new Podoca rpaceae species Dacrycarpus elandensis. This species represents the most co mplete and best preserved Dacrycarpus macrofossil remains known. These foss ils are morphologically most similar to extant D. imbricatus and fossil D. latrobensis and D. linifolius, but the phylogenetic significance of many of the characters used to make this comparison is unknown. Dacrycarpus is now extinct in Australia, but D. elandensis confirms a presence for it in east ern Australia at a time when rainforest was drying and retracting and Eucal yptus was expanding its range in the region.