Petermanniopsis angleseaënsis Gen. & Sp. Nov.: An Australian Fossil Net- Veined Monocotyledon from Eocene Victoria

A new species of fossil reticulate-veined monocot, Petermanniopsis angleseaënsis gen. & sp. nov., is described from a mummified leaf base from the Anglesea Coal Deposit in Victoria, Australia. Cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling ordination of a range of leaf architectural and cuticular characters place it closest to the extant Australian monotypic and endemic Liliiflorae family Petermanniaceae from the temperate rain forests of southeastern Queensland and northeastern New South Wales. In contrast, a parsimony analysis of this same data set failed to resolve its position clearly within a clade representing the strongly net-veined Dioscorealean taxa. Although the presence of a fossil with affinities to the Petermanniaceae from Eocene Victoria supports the idea that the group represents an isolated member of the net-veined Liliiflorae autochthonous to Australia, this study also highlights the difficulty involved in assigning such fossils to modern monocot groups, or even distinguishing between these groups themselves, particularly in cladistic studies using leaf architecture. Therefore, although most similar phenetically to the Petermanniaceae, the fossil is maintained as incertae cedis affinis Petermanniaceae. Nevertheless, the presence of an Eocene Gondwanan net-veined monocot supports the thesis that the group is an early evolutionary development in the evolution of the Liliiflorae.