Pollen tetrads of a type that is unique to the extant carnivorous plant family Droseraceae occur in latest Middle to Late Eocene glacio-marine sediments at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1166, Prydz Bay, East Antarctica. These tetrads, characterised by very thick walls, conate or spinose distal sculpture and multicycloporate apertures, are referred to the form genus Fischeripollis Krutzsch 1970. The scarcity of well preserved tetrads precludes their formal description as a new fossil species. Within the modern Droseraceae, the closest resemblance is to the Venus Fly Trap genus Dionaea, now confined to the East Coast of the United States. The microfloras in which Fischeripollis occurs are of low generic diversity and dominated by Nothofagus and gymnosperms, chiefly Podocarpaceae associated with Araucariaceae. The source vegetation appears to have been a form of impoverished, cool-cold (microtherm) rainforest scrub. This record of Droseraceae adds to the growing list of specialised plants, plant communities and, by extrapolation, insects, surviving at polar latitudes up to the time of continental scale glaciation of East Antarctica during the Oligocene.

West: 74.4700 East: 74.4800 North: -67.4100 South: -67.4200

Expedition: 188

Site: 188-1166

Provider: SEDIS Publication Catalogue

Data set link: http://sedis.iodp.org/pub-catalogue/index.php?id=2005-012557 (c.f. for more detailed metadata)

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