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ABSTRACT
A fossil cycad pinna fragment with dichotomising and anastomosing venation and cuticular preservation from the middle Miocene Hindon Maar deposits, Otago, New Zealand, is assigned to the extinct genus Pterostoma (Cycadales: cf. Zamiaceae) as a new species: P. neehoffii. The leaf features of the Hindon Maar fossil differ from previously reported Pterostoma-like macrofossils and dispersed cuticles from New Zealand and Australia in having the combination of narrow guard cell flanges, poorly developed epidermal cuticular ridges and apparently lacking trichomes, suggesting that there were at least three cycad species present in the Neogene of New Zealand. The fossil is also placed into a broader overview of the macrofossil and pollen record for cycads in New Zealand and their possible paleoenvironments.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Neehoff family for kindly allowing access to the Hindon Maar Complex on numerous occasions and the Department of Geology, University of Otago and the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide are thanked for provision of resources to undertake this research. The Department of Botany, University of Otago is thanked for providing access to photomicrographic equipment, as is Liz Girvan, Otago Centre for Electron Microscopy, University of Otago for help with the SEM. Ian Raine and Dallas Mildenhall are thanked for information on New Zealand fossil cycad pollen records. Bob Hill is thanked for photographs of Australian Pterostoma and discussions about fossil and living cycad morphology and both he and Bill Lee provided helpful comments on drafts of the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.