Muscites yallournensis, a Fossil Moss Capsule from Yallourn, Victoria

INTRODUCTION: The isolation by one of us (I.C.C.) of a fossil moss-capsule from brown coal of Oligocene age at Yallourn, Victoria (Thomas and Baragwanath, 1949), is of interest. As far as can be ascertained, no fossil moss has hitherto been recorded from Australia (Duigan, 1951), and the only ones discovered previously in the southern hemisphere appear to be those described by Dixon (1932) from the Kerguelen Archipelago. Of the few pre-Pliocene mosses reported by Dixon (1927) in Jongman's Catalogus Fossilium, only three are said to possess capsules. These were obtained from the renowned Florissant beds, Colorado (Steere, 1946). A fourth is mentioned by Troll (1927) as coming from the Nassau brown coal in Germany. A possible fifth capsule is that of Sporogonites (Halle, 1916), which is accepted as an Andreaea by Brotherus (1925), but which now is generally regarded as a member of the Psilophytales. The Yallourn capsule was found amongst leaf cuticles in the residue remaining after maceration of coal-fragments with nitric acid and ammonia. Both the theca and operculum are represented, but only the epidermal layer remains. When first seen the operculum was attached to the theca, but subsequently became separated. The seta is not preserved, and there is no indication of either peristome or spores.