92 
J. V. NEIL 
Palaeozoic Kirkbyacea.” Morphological simi¬ 
larities between Mi racy there and Palaeozoic 
forms are less suggestive of phylogenetic links, 
since the homologies are shared with a number 
of Recent genera. Since Miracythere occurs only 
in Recent and Tertiary sediments, as was be¬ 
lieved to be the case for the punciids (Swanson, 
1979b, 1985), the absence of Mesozoic records 
of it or of Kelletina at present nullifies any hypo¬ 
thetical phylogeny of Miracythere linking it with 
the latter genus. The discovery of Miracythere in 
Late Eocene sediments in a form possibly con- 
specific with Miracythere sp. A gives an age 
range in southeastern Australia greater than that 
for M. nov aspect a in New Zealand. This suggests 
that the Mesozoic Miracythere gap might also be 
filled in the course of further intensive collect¬ 
ing, so that the possibility of an evolutionary 
origin in a Palaeozoic kirkbyacean is not ruled 
out. A more plausible view, however, is that the 
basic morphology of Miracythere is the result of 
convergent evolution of bythocytherids. The oc¬ 
currence of ?. Miracythere sp. in the Pleistocene 
of New Zealand in a form which reflects some of 
the characteristics of Miracythere sp. A whilst 
differing markedly from M. novaspecta suggests 
that a plexus of species of this genus may eventu¬ 
ally be discovered. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
I thank my supervisors, Drs K. G. McKenzie 
and G. A. Thomas, for guidance with drafts of 
this paper. I am grateful for editorial assistance 
provided by Dr D. J. Holloway, and for the con¬ 
structive comments of the referees, Drs K. M. 
Swanson and M. T. Warne. The SEMs were 
taken in the Department of Geology, University 
of Melbourne. 
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