Cenozoic Elaeocarpus (Elaeocarpaceae) fruits from Australia

Fossil Elaeocarpus species with spherical fruits are redescribed and compared with extant species. Information on the distribution of E. mackayi (F. Muell.) Kirchheimer and E. spackmaniorum Rozefelds is provided. Additional notes on the morphology of E. spackmaniorum Rozefelds are also included; and collections from Guildford, in Victoria, are considered conspecific. Elaeocarpus occultus sp. nov. is described from the Haddon deep leads in Victoria; it has a spherical inner mesocarp, bastionate ornamentation, foraminae in the mesocarp wall and mesosutural ridges, which represent a combination of characters unique within extant Australian Elaeocarpus species. The fossil fruit record of Elaeocarpus is systematically significant because it demonstrates that the genus was morphologically diverse by the Miocene in Australia. Biogeographically, the genus also had a different, or more widespread distribution in Australia during the Cenozoic.