New Zealand's iconic Christmas Tree, the pohutukawa, may have originated from Australia, a new study says.
A fossil research report from the University of Adelaide published in the American Journal of Botany described the discovery of two new fossil species of pohutukawa and related species.
Found near St Helens, on the East Coast of Tasmania, the fossils are said to be about 25 million years old.
Researcher Myall Tarran said the fossils showed the diversity of trees that once grew in Australia, and that related species of pohutukawa were part of the great supercontinent Gondawana, which included Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, New Caledonia and New Zealand.
"These species may not have been as well adapted for long-distance dispersal as those other species, and so it is likely that they originated (in Australia)," Tarran said.