Australian botanist discovers living fossil hiding in rain forest
Copyright 2000 Agence France Presse
December 15, 2000
SYDNEY, Dec 15 - A new species of tree considered by scientists to be a living fossil of a prehistoric era when Australia was covered in rainforest has been discovered in a remote range north of here.
The tree, up to 40 metres (130 feet) tall and about 75 centimetres (2 feet 6 inches) in diametre, was discovered in a rainforest of the Nightcap Range of northern New South Wales, botanist Robert Kooyma said Friday.
Kooyman's discovery ended a search he started after finding some of its then unidentifable leaves in the rainforest 12 years ago, although its existence had been suspected for years before that.
He also found a juvenile plant in 1988 and sent clippings to Australia's National Parks and Wildlife Service.
So far, 23 mature specimens of the tree, which Kooyman christened the Nightcap oak, have been found in a single densely populated catchment, the precise location of which is being kept secret.
The New South Wales state government welcomed the discovery of the new species this week and promised to provide protection for the new listing under the state's threatened species legislation.
The find follows the discovery of the giant Wollemi Pine, a tree thought to have been extinct since the age of the dinosaur, in the Blue Mountains west of here six years ago.
The Wollemi, three-metres (10 foot) wide and rising 40 metres (130 feet) to a Christmas tree peak, was hailed by international botanists as one of the most exciting botanical discoveries of the century.
Kooyman, a PHD student, said the group of trees enabled him to finally place them into a family and work out what genus they were, adding: "I realised it was a new species."
It is believed to have roots in the Gondwana period of 65 to 70 million years ago, belonging to the genus Eidothea, living fossils of rainforests which once covered the ancient supercontinent of Gondwanaland, which consisted of Australia, Africa, South America, Antarctica and New Zealand.
"I think many people forget, or are unaware of the fact that despite Australia being the driest and most nutrient-poor continent, it has a history that was moist, cooler and once covered in rainforest," he said.
Kooyman and botanist Peter Weston of Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens have placed the tree into the family known as Proteaceae, a group which includes some of Australia's most distinctive plants like the banksia, the grevillea and the macadamia nut tree.
Kooyman says the Nightcap oak also has nuts which he described as similar to macadamia nuts and flowers that are "beautiful, interesting and primitive" with a faint scent of sweet aniseed.