Illicioxylon, an element of Gondwanan Polar forests? Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary woods of Antarctica

The Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary sediments from the northern Peninsul a region of Antarctica yield a rich assemblage of fossil wood with well pre served anatomy. Wood specimens of a previously recognized morphotype are de scribed. The woods are characterized by diffuse porous wood, mainly solitar y vessels with long scalariform perforation plates, scalariform and opposit e vessel-ray pitting, generally uniseriate and biseriate heterogeneous rays , and tracheids with obvious uniseriate, circulate, bordered pits. These fo ssil specimens show greatest anatomical similarity to the organ genus Illic ioxylon Gottwald and extant members of the Illiciaceae. The occurrence of i lliciaceous-like wood in Gondwana suggests that the distribution of this fa mily may have been more widespread in the geological past and that a relati vely warm temperate climate prevailed over the northern Peninsula region of Antarctica during the Late Cretaceous and early Cenozoic. (C) 2000 Annals of Botany Company.