Taxonomic turnover and abundance in Cretaceous to Tertiary wood floras of Antarctica: implications for changes in forest ecology

During the Cretaceous, conifer composition undergoes a change whereby Phyllocladoxylon-type woods increase relative to the older Podocarpoxylon forms. During the Paleocene to Eocene period, a marked extinction in wood types occurs associated with an increase in the abundance of nothofagaceous wood. Detailed examination of wood abundance and distributions from sections within Maastrichtian and Paleocene formations points to strong environmental control on taxonomic compositions. Similar differences are encountered when comparing coeval floras from different geographic regions and palaeoenvironments.