a family of tall evergreen cone-bearing trees of South America and Australia with broad leathery leaves; in some classifications included in the Pinaceae.

The Araucariaceae are a very ancient family of conifers. They achieved maximum diversity in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, when they existed almost worldwide. At the end of the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs became extinct, so too did the Araucariaceae in the northern hemisphere.