Neogene vegetation of the Meyer Desert Formation (Sirius Group) Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica

A tundra vegetation consisting of at least 18 plant species is described from the Meyer Desert Formation which outcrops along the Beardmore Glacier in the Transantarctic Mountains, about 500 km from the South Pole. The fossils include pollen, seeds, fruits, flowers, leaves, wood, and in situ plants, of which wood and leaves of Nothofagus and a pollen assemblage had been previously reported. The plants include a cryptogamic flora of mosses and liverworts, conifers, and angiosperms in the families Gramineae, Cyperaceae, Nothofagaceae, Ranunculaceae, Hippuridaceae, ?Caryophyllaceae, and ?Chenopodiaceae or ?Myrtaceae. The plants grew in a weakly-developed soil formed within a complex periglacial environment that included moraines, glacial outwash streams, well-drained gravel ridges, and poorly drained depressions in which peat and marl were being deposited.