The earliest occurrence of Angiosperms in southern Africa

Three outcrop localities and 28 onshore and offshore cores and wells were sampled from the east coast, Zululand and Durban Basins, the south coast onshore Algoa and the offshore Outeniqua Basins, and the west coast Orange Basin. Samples ranging in age from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous were examined for megafossils, microfossils, and fossilised wood to determine the first occurrence of angiosperms in southern Africa. In all three regions angiosperms first appear in the Aptian and they are represented by monosulcate, reticulate pollen genera, e.g. Clavatipollenites. Beginning in the Albian, tricolpate and tricolporate pollen types occur in low frequency with the monosulcate angiosperm pollen. This first occurrence of angiosperms in South Africa is more than 25 million years later than the earliest global appearance of angiosperms in the Middle East and north Africa. The concurrent presence of monosulcate and tri-aperturate pollen suggests that angiosperms migrated to South Africa via dispersal corridors and that angiosperms did not originate in southern Africa.