Article: New fossil woods from lower Cenozoic volcano‐sedimentary rocks of the Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, and the implications for the trans‐Antarctic Peninsula Eocene climatic gradient

Ten embedded fossil logs sampled in situ from the middle Eocene volcano‐sedimentary rocks close to Suffield Point in the Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, Antarctica, are assigned to Protopodocarpoxylon araucarioides Schultze‐Motel ex Vogellehner, Phyllocladoxylon antarcticum Gothan, Agathoxylon antarcticum (Poole & Cantrill) Pujana et al., A. pseudoparenchymatosum (Gothan) Pujana et al. and an unidentified angiosperm wood. Differences in the taxonomic representation and growth‐ring characters of the Eocene woods on King George Island and coeval assemblages from Seymour Island, on the western and eastern sides of the Antarctic Peninsula respectively, are interpreted to result from environmental and climatic gradients across the Peninsula Orogen during the early Palaeogene. In particular, a precipitation gradient inferred across the Peninsula at that time might have been induced by a rain‐shadow effect.

The authors greatly thank Kwan‐Young Song (Field Guide of KOPRI) for his kind and reliable assistance during the field work and Moon Young Choe (KOPRI) for his constructive discussions. Tania Lindner Dutra (Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos) is greatly appreciated for kindly providing us with geological and palaeontological information on the Fildes Peninsula. Our thanks also go to Roberto Pujana and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments. The technical editor Sally Thomas is thanked for kind remarks. This research is a part of the project ‘Long‐Term Ecological Researches on King George Island to Predict Ecosystem Responses to Climate Change (PE15020)’ funded by the Korea Polar Research Institute, KOREA. Additional financial support to S. McLoughlin from the Swedish Research Council (VR grant 2014–5234) and National Science Foundation (project #1636625) is gratefully acknowledged.