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In Patagonia , at the southern end of South America , scientists have come across 52.2 - million - year - onetime fossils of a jumbo evergreen tree that now is only witness thou of miles aside in Australia and Asia .
cone-bearing Tree in the genusAgathis , which are attempt after for their soft woodwind instrument , have thick trunks and can grow up to 200 groundwork ( 60 meters ) marvelous . Today they hold out in mountainous rain forest from Sumatra to New Zealand . But the discovery offossilizedAgathisleaves , branch and cone shape in the rich deposits at Argentina ’s Laguna del Hunco suggest the tree cover much more ground in prehistoric times .
This fossil of a leafy Agathis tree branch was found in Patagonia.
" These outstanding fossils reveal thatAgathisis one-time and had a huge range that no one knew about — from Australia to South America across Antarctica , " Peter Wilf , a professor of geoscience at Penn State , said in a statement . [ In photograph : Fossil Forest in the Canadian Arctic ]
Wilf added that fossils of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree had antecedently been uncovered in Australia and New Zealand , where it still lives today .
" However , Agathisfossils have never been found anywhere else until now , and they have never been as complete as these , " Wilf said .
The new fossils date back to a time when the landmasses of Australia , Antarctica , South America and Africa were get together in the southern supercontinentGondwana . Wilf suspectsAgathiswas circularize throughout Australia , Antarctica and South America at the fourth dimension , but finally only survived in Australia and eventually scatter north to Southeast Asia .
" mood change in Antarctica — the frigidity and ice — killed them there , and a alteration to seasonal waterlessness in southern South America put an end to them in Patagonia , " Wilf explain in a statement .
ThoughAgathisadapted its stove in response to past imperativeness , Wilf say it ’s not clear whether the tree will be capable to respond to the more rapid human - induced threats from climate change and activity like disforestation and selective logging .
The layers of volanic ash tree and lake sediments at Laguna del Hunco have sour up some other amazing ancient plants , include afossilized tomatilloand the corpse of eucalyptus tree buds and flower .
The new discovery was detailed in the American Journal of Botany .
