Fig. 3.

Log time‐scale plot of the maximum estimated ages of the divergences between divaricate and non‐divaricate species (Table 1). The selective pressures purported to have favoured the evolution of the divaricate habit in New Zealand (NZ) and landmarks in its geological history are also shown. Although the NZ biota has in the past been regarded as a Gondwanan legacy, molecular clock dating studies have shown that the vast majority of extant angiosperm lineages arrived by trans‐oceanic dispersal during the Cenozoic era (Heenan & McGlone, 2019). Similarly, moa are now believed to have evolved from volant ancestors that arrived by long‐distance dispersal (Phillips et al., 2010). Although the extent of the NZ landmass was greatly reduced during the Oligocene period (Mildenhall et al., 2014), fossil and genetic evidence suggests that this marine transgression has had little effect on the formation of the extant flora (Heenan & McGlone, 2019). Myr, million years.