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| flora of argentina | |
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South America , Africa , India , Australia , New Zealand , and Antarctica were all part of the Gondwana supercontinent, which started to break up in the early Cretaceous period (135-65 million years ago). India was the first to break away, followed by Africa, and then New Zealand, which started to drift north. By the end of the Cretaceous, South America and Australia were still joined to Antarctica. Paleontologist Gilbert Brenner identified a distinct Southern Gondwana flora by the late Cretaceous period, which resembles the New Zealand flora of today, in the cooler and humid southern hemisphere regions of Australia, southern South America, southern Africa, Antarctica, and New Zealand. A drier northern Gondwana flora had developed in northern South America and northern Africa. Africa and India drifted north into the tropical latitudes, became hotter and drier, and ultimately connected with the Eurasian continent, and today the flora of Africa and India have few remnants of the Antarctic flora. Australia drifted north and became drier as well; the humid Antarctic flora retreated to the east coast and Tasmania, while the rest of Australia became dominated by '' Acacia , Eucalyptus '', and '' Casuarina '', as well as xeric shrubs and grasses. Human s arrived in Australia 50-60,000 years ago, and used fire to reshape the vegetation of the continent; as a result, the Antarctic flora (also known as the Rainforest flora in Australia) retreated to a few isolated areas, less than 2% of Australia's land area. The Woody Plant s of the Antarctic flora include Conifer s in the families Podocarpaceae , Araucariaceae and the subfamily Callitroideae of Cupressaceae , and Angiosperm s such as the families Proteaceae , Griselinia ceae, Cunoniaceae and Winteraceae , and genera like southern beech ('' Nothofagus '') and fuchsia ('' Fuchsia ''). Many other families of flowering plants and ferns, including the tree fern '' Dicksonia '', are characteristic of the Antarctic flora. The continent of Antarctica itself has been too cold and dry to support virtually any vascular plants for millions of years, and its flora presently consists of around 250 Lichen s, 100 Moss es, 25-30 Liverwort s, around 700 terrestrial and aquatic Alga l species. Two flowering plants ( Antarctic Hair Grass and Antarctic Pearlwort ) are found on the northern and western parts of the Antarctic Peninsula . |
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