Iconic Australasian Trees Found as Fossils in South America

Today in Australia they call it Kauri, in Asia they call it Dammar, and in South America it does not exist at all unless planted there. But 52 million years ago the giant coniferous evergreen tree known to botanists as Agathis thrived in the Patagonian region of Argentina, according to an international team of paleobotanists, who have found numerous fossilized remains there.


These spectacular fossils reveal that Agathis is old and had a huge range that no one knew about -- from Australia to South America across Antarctica," said Peter Wilf, professor of geoscience, Penn State.