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Text-fig. 3. Results of the cluster analysis based on Ward's method and squared Euclidian distance. Dendrogram showing 5 subclusters (A–E). Cluster analysis is based on the percentages of the BLD, BLE, and SCL+LEG components. Numbers... more
Text-fig. 3. Results of the cluster analysis based on Ward's method and squared Euclidian distance. Dendrogram showing 5 subclusters (A–E). Cluster analysis is based on the percentages of the BLD, BLE, and SCL+LEG components. Numbers 1–40 sites studied by Teodoridis et al. (2011a), Nos 41–47 by Teodoridis et al. (2012), Nos 48–73 Middle Miocene sites in the wider Central Paratethys region, studied here. The data source is provided in Appendix 2.
Text-fig. 1. Palaeogeographic map of the Langhian/Badenian according to Harzhauser and Piller (2007) and location of the fossil-bearing sites. Numbers of sites correspond to those in Table 1. Black circles – IPR vegetation analysis... more
Text-fig. 1. Palaeogeographic map of the Langhian/Badenian according to Harzhauser and Piller (2007) and location of the fossil-bearing sites. Numbers of sites correspond to those in Table 1. Black circles – IPR vegetation analysis applied, white circles – IPR vegetation analysis not applicable.
Date: August 30 Place: Room 5235 (oral) Organizers: Angela A. Bruch, Elena Vassio & Johanna Kovar-Eder Contact email address: abruch@senckenberg.de Purpose: Standardized methods for vegetation reconstructions are crucial tools to obtain... more
Date: August 30 Place: Room 5235 (oral) Organizers: Angela A. Bruch, Elena Vassio & Johanna Kovar-Eder Contact email address: abruch@senckenberg.de Purpose: Standardized methods for vegetation reconstructions are crucial tools to obtain comparable results for fossil floras from different regions and independent from the scientist using the method. Regional or global vegetation reconstructions are a base for as different objectives as landscape reconstructions or climate modeling. Depending on the scale of the objected vegetation unit to be reconstructed, a method has to meet special preconditions and therefore can vary considerably in its theoretical setting. Several methods were developed during the last years which are based on different philosophies (taxonomic or physiognomic) and approaches (semi-quantitative to statistical), cover different spatial scales of the reconstructed vegetation units (local, regional, or global), or rely on different fossil plant remains (macro or micr...
ABSTRACT We analyze 35 Eocene and Neogene floras from Europe (fruits, leaves, and pollen of woody taxa) to trace fruit dispersal syndromes in the fossil record. These derive from vegetation units spanning paratropical broad-leaved... more
ABSTRACT We analyze 35 Eocene and Neogene floras from Europe (fruits, leaves, and pollen of woody taxa) to trace fruit dispersal syndromes in the fossil record. These derive from vegetation units spanning paratropical broad-leaved evergreen, mixed mesophytic, broad-leaved evergreen, and broad-leaved deciduous forests. The dispersal syndromes distinguished are fleshy and nonfleshy zoochorous, anemochorous, autochorous, and hydrochorous. Additionally, zonal and azonal taxa were distinguished to test whether the dispersal syndromes are equally distributed reflected in the zonal and azonal record. The results show very similar proportions of dispersal modes in the fossil record compared to modern forests. This suggests a consistent relationship in the Northern Hemisphere between vegetation type and dispersal spectrum in the last 50 million years. Paratropical forests show the highest values of fleshy zoochorous taxa and the lowest of anemochorous taxa. Fleshy zoochorous proportions remain high in broad-leaved evergreen forests. They are lower in subhumid sclerophyllous and lowest in broad-leaved deciduous forests. For anemochorous taxa this trend is inverted: lowest values derive from paratropical forests and highest from subhumid sclerophyllous and broad-leaved deciduous forests. Nonfleshy zoochorous taxa always show relatively low percentages but their values are somewhat higher in subhumid sclerophyllous and broad-leaved deciduous forests than in broad-leaved evergreen forests. Autochorous and hydrochorous dispersal modes are always very low. Whether in the Eocene or Neogene, the azonal record always has a higher anemochorous fraction. Because climate change instigates vegetational change, our findings link climate to changing resources for smaller vertebrates, although the consistent availability of nonfleshy zoochorous fruits since the late Eocene suggests a consistent resource, especially for rodents.
The first results of a multidisciplinary study on the Messinian evaporitic interval of the Govone section (northwestern Italy), subdivided into several sedimentary cycles, are reported here. Primary sulphate evaporites and intercalated... more
The first results of a multidisciplinary study on the Messinian evaporitic interval of the Govone section (northwestern Italy), subdivided into several sedimentary cycles, are reported here. Primary sulphate evaporites and intercalated shaly deposits, which formed during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, contain well-preserved and taxonomically determinable terrestrial plant remains. Palynomorphs are present continuously all along the analysed succession and among them, pollen is especially abundant and diverse. Additionally, a few fragments of silicified wood (which are rare in the studied area) occurred in layers rich in phytodebris, but their analysis showed poor preservation of anatomy. Carpological remains are not abundant and are strongly altered by diagenesis. Compressed conifer shoots and angiosperm leaves are well-preserved in several layers, one of which yielded a particularly diverse assemblage. The various plant records have been integrated to obtain an initial general idea...
The late Early/early Middle Miocene flora from Parschlug (Styria, Austria) is famous for its numerous specimens and high diversity. Some taxa previously described are revised here and 42 new angiosperm leaf morphotypes/taxa are described.... more
The late Early/early Middle Miocene flora from Parschlug (Styria, Austria) is famous for its numerous specimens and high diversity. Some taxa previously described are revised here and 42 new angiosperm leaf morphotypes/taxa are described. The Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP) is applied to assess the palaeoclimate. An update of the tool to assess the most suitable modern climate CLAMP calibration dataset is introduced. The Integrated Plant Record (IPR) vegetation analysis, assessing the most likely major vegetation type represented by a fossil flora, and similarity approaches Drudges 1 and 2, indicating the most similar modern vegetation proxies, had been previously applied to data from Parschlug. Both are again applied here on the enlarged floristic spectrum. The results indicate “sclerophyllous subhumid forest” as the most likely major zonal vegetation type for Parschlug and European vegetation, namely “Thermophilous mixed deciduous broadleaved forests”, distribut...
The SMNS houses one of the largest palaeontological collections in Europe. It includes 4.1 million fossils, many of which are types and originals to publications spanning more than three centuries of research. The collection has regional... more
The SMNS houses one of the largest palaeontological collections in Europe. It includes 4.1 million fossils, many of which are types and originals to publications spanning more than three centuries of research. The collection has regional foci on Mesozoic invertebrates and reptiles, as well as Cenozoic mammals. It holds iconic specimens such as the oldest turtles, the historically most ancient ichthyosaur embryo, the oldest published phylogenetic tree of fossils, or the 250,000 year old human skull from Steinheim an der Murr. At the same time, it includes rich material of famous fossillagerstatten such as the Triassic deposits of Kupferzell, Vellberg, and Trossingen, Jurassic Holzmaden and Nusplingen, as well as the Paleogene site Frauenweiler (Rauenberg) and the Neogene sites Randeck Maar, Langenau, Steinheim am Albuch, and Cannstatt. International highlights are collections from Tanzania, Egypt, Peru, and Greece. Research continues to centre on regional material, but has recently broadened to include general aspects of palaeoecology and evolution.
Text-fig. 2. Stratigraphic correlation table for the Miocene and Pliocene according to Neubauer et al. (2015).
The Macaronesian laurel forests (MLF) are dominated by trees with a laurophyll habit com-parable to evergreen humid forests which were scattered across Europe and the Mediterra-nean in the Paleogene and Neogene. Therefore, MLF are... more
The Macaronesian laurel forests (MLF) are dominated by trees with a laurophyll habit com-parable to evergreen humid forests which were scattered across Europe and the Mediterra-nean in the Paleogene and Neogene. Therefore, MLF are traditionally regarded as an old, 'Tertiary relict ' vegetation type. Here we address the question if key taxa of the MLF are relictual. We evaluated the relict hypothesis consulting fossil data and analyses based on molecular phylogenies of 18 representative species. For molecular dating we used the pro-gram BEAST, for ancestral trait reconstructions BayesTraits and Lagrange to infer ancestral areas. Our molecular dating showed that the origins of four species date back to the Upper Miocene while 14 originated in the Plio-Pleistocene. This coincides with the decline of fossil laurophyllous elements in Europe since the middle Miocene. Ancestral trait and area recon-structions indicate that MLF evolved partly from pre-adapted taxa from the Mediter...
From the clay pit of the Leca company in Mataschen SW of Fehring, (Styria, Austria) a parautochthonous, species-poor leaf-assemblage is described from a basal tree stump-bearing clay horizon. The assemblage of "Pteris... more
From the clay pit of the Leca company in Mataschen SW of Fehring, (Styria, Austria) a parautochthonous, species-poor leaf-assemblage is described from a basal tree stump-bearing clay horizon. The assemblage of "Pteris oeningensis", Glypto- strobus europaeus, Juglans acuminata, Myrica sp., Salix varians vel Salix holzeri, Rhizo caulon sp. and ?Zingiberoideophyllum liblarense indicates swampy conditions. In the same clay pit, upper parts of the sequence yielded a silty layer with a rather diverse assemblage. The preliminary list of taxa from this layer is presented here. This assemblage includes at least 28 woody taxa, most of them characteristic of mesophytic
Based on macroremains, we describe three fossil plant assemblages from the Miocene of the Messara Basin (southern Crete) and the adjacent Gavdos Island. The palaeoflora of Kassanoi, which is the oldest (Messara Basin, Viannos Fm,... more
Based on macroremains, we describe three fossil plant assemblages from the Miocene of the Messara Basin (southern Crete) and the adjacent Gavdos Island. The palaeoflora of Kassanoi, which is the oldest (Messara Basin, Viannos Fm, Serravallian/early Tortonian), is documented mainly by leaf imprints, including a fern, a conifer (Tetraclinis cf. salicornioides) and 23 angiosperms. The assemblage is dominated by Daphnogene polymorpha, Podocarpium podocarpum and Myrica lignitum. The plant record from Pitsidia (Messara Basin, Ambelouzos Fm, early Tortonian) comprises thousands of specimens. The plant fossils are preserved as imprints often covered by an inorganic encrustation (replica). One alga, 2 ferns, at least 5 conifers and more than 45 woody angiosperms were identified. Dominant taxa are Myrica and Pinus pitsidiensis, documented by numerous vegetative and reproductive organs (Zidianakis et al., 2015, 2016). Leaves of oaks (Q. pseudocastanea, Q. kubinyii) and Daphogene polymorpha as ...
Abstract: The studied sections are situated on the northwestern margin of the Vienna Basin. They represent a characteristic marginal facies of Lake Pannon in the late Miocene Pannonian stage. Biofacies as well as lithofacies point to a... more
Abstract: The studied sections are situated on the northwestern margin of the Vienna Basin. They represent a characteristic marginal facies of Lake Pannon in the late Miocene Pannonian stage. Biofacies as well as lithofacies point to a transgressive event resulting ...
Abstract: The digital elevation model (DEM) helps to express Neogene landscapes and vegetation on palinspastic maps with reconstructed orography. To reconstruct ancient vegetation cover, basic zonal vegetation formations and their... more
Abstract: The digital elevation model (DEM) helps to express Neogene landscapes and vegetation on palinspastic maps with reconstructed orography. To reconstruct ancient vegetation cover, basic zonal vegetation formations and their characteristics have been defined based on ...
... WERNER E. PILLER1, GUDRUN DAXNER-HÖCK2, DARYL P DOMNING3, HOLGER C. FORKE4, MATHIAS HARZHAUSER2, BERNHARD HUBMANN1, HEINZ A. KOLLMANN2, JOHANNA KOVAR-EDER2, LEOPOLD KRYSTYN5, DORIS NAGEL5, PETER PERVESLER5 ...
Hazards and disasters have occurred throughout Earth's History and thus the geological record is an important resource for understanding future hazards and disasters. The Earth Science Group (ESG) of the Consortium of European... more
Hazards and disasters have occurred throughout Earth's History and thus the geological record is an important resource for understanding future hazards and disasters. The Earth Science Group (ESG) of the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF) carried out a “Hazard and Disaster Event Survey” to identify Earth Science collections in European museums that represent hazards and disasters throughout the geological record, and recent times. The aim is to use the collections within the survey as an educational and research resource that promotes the importance of museum collections for understanding past and future hazard and disaster events. The survey pinpointed a wide variety of hazards (e.g. earthquakes, volcanism, floods, impact events, etc.), representing a vast time span in Earth’s history (Proterozoic to Holocene), that are documented in the collections of the participating museums. Each hazard and disaster event has been described in terms of how they are preserve...
Vegetation and climate are investigated based on leaf-, pollen- and seed-floras from the Central Paratethys region correlated to the Pannonian (Upper Miocene, Central Paratethys chronostratigraphical stage). Waterplant-communities, reed... more
Vegetation and climate are investigated based on leaf-, pollen- and seed-floras from the Central Paratethys region correlated to the Pannonian (Upper Miocene, Central Paratethys chronostratigraphical stage). Waterplant-communities, reed facies, riparian forests and swamp forests can be distinguished along with forests comparable to mixed-mesophytic ones rich in species with dominance of deciduous taxa over evergreens and conifers. The percentage of evergreen species increases towards the southeast part of the investigated area. Conifer taxa are supposed to be of prevailing importance in mountainous forests. Arguments for either xeromorphic mediterranean-like vegetation or for steppe-like conditions (extensive dry grassland) are scarce and probably invalid. The fossil plant record indicates a warm-temperate climate without remarkable dry season (Cfatype sensu KOPPEN).
A late Miocene (early Pannonian) leaf assemblage from the clay pit Mataschen, eastern Styria, Austria, is analysed. Thirty-eight species were determined, most of them by cuticular analysis. Among azonal taxa, only Myrica lignitum,... more
A late Miocene (early Pannonian) leaf assemblage from the clay pit Mataschen, eastern Styria, Austria, is analysed. Thirty-eight species were determined, most of them by cuticular analysis. Among azonal taxa, only Myrica lignitum, Platanus leucophylla, and Ulmus carpinoides are abundant, while Glyptostrobus europaeus, Alnus, Acer tricuspidatum, and Nyssa occur in single or few specimens only. Zonal species diversity is distinctly higher (27 taxa) than the diversity of azonal ones, and 60% of the zonal taxa were probably evergreen. Among them, Gordonia emanuelii Kovar-Eder sp. n., Gordonia pannonica Kovar-Eder sp. n., Gordonia styriaca Kovar-Eder sp. n., Schima mataschensis Kovar-Eder sp. n., Dicotylophyllum uhudler Kovar-Eder sp. n. (Ericaceae), and “Quercus” rhenanasimilis Kovar-Eder sp. n., are described for the fi rst time. Symplocos rara Kovar-Eder sp. n. is introduced. Oleinites cf. liguricus and Smilax cf. protolanceaefolia are described from Austria for the fi rst time. Five ...
The Integrated Plant Record (IPR) vegetation analysis serves as a proxy method to derive major types of zonal palaeovegetation based on the proportion of zonal key components. This paper pursues two goals: 1) to introduce two tools... more
The Integrated Plant Record (IPR) vegetation analysis serves as a proxy method to derive major types of zonal palaeovegetation based on the proportion of zonal key components. This paper pursues two goals: 1) to introduce two tools (Drudge 1 and Drudge 2) to statistically determine close modern proxies for fossil plant assemblages out of the reference set of currently 505 modern vegetation units. These range from closed forests to more open (steppe) environments from Europe and Asia and are based on the correspondence in the proportion of the zonal key components (IPR Similarity) and Taxonomic Similarity (TS, genus level); and 2) to present the extension of the calibration dataset of modern zonal vegetation using the natural vegetation of Europe, the Caucasus, China, and Mongolia. The tools are tested on six Central European plant assemblages from the late Eocene to the late Pliocene. For the late Eocene to early Miocene, the results indicate a close relationship to East Asian vegetation based both on IPR Similarity and TS. For the younger sites, IPR Similarity points towards European vegetation, whereas TS still indicates closer East Asian affinity. The summary results (as presented in the Results-Mix) derived by both tools deliver modern proxy vegetation units, which are in good agreement with modern vegetation analogues proposed by traditional empirical studies. The IPR Similarity results probably reflect climate change, which results in proportions of zonal key components, i.e., leaf physiognomy of zonal forests that are more similar to modern European than to Asian vegetation from the latest early/middle Miocene onwards.
Recently two tools, Drudge 1 and 2, were introduced to more easily assess modern vegetation proxies for the fossil record. They are based on three similarities: the Integrated Plant Record (IPR) Similarity assessing the similarity between... more
Recently two tools, Drudge 1 and 2, were introduced to more easily assess modern vegetation proxies for the fossil record. They are based on three similarities: the Integrated Plant Record (IPR) Similarity assessing the similarity between fossil assemblages and modern vegetation based on the proportion of major zonal angiosperm components; the Taxonomic Similarity (TS) reflecting the similarity based on the coincidence of genera among the fossil record and modern vegetation; and the combination of both similarities (Results Mix). In this paper, we apply Drudge 1 and 2 to 54 fossil plant assemblages from Europe, Turkey, and Armenia covering the time span from the early Eocene to the Pleistocene. For every fossil plant assemblage, a set of 25 proxies (modern vegetation units) is derived by the Drudges, reflecting its physiognomy and floristic composition. The results for all fossil plant assemblages feature the overall vegetation evolution and climate change in Europe, Turkey, and Armenia providing deeper insight into the relationships of the fossil record to the modern Asian and European vegetation. This study strives to provide an improved understanding of the Palaeogene/Neogene vegetation evolution in Europe and Asia beyond the community of specialists. Our results can help model future scenarios. They also improve our understanding of how climate change may affect vegetation and more broadly ecosystems as a whole.
The Integrated Plant Record (IPR) vegetation analysis serves as a proxy method to derive major types of zonal palaeovegetation based on the proportion of zonal key components. This paper pursues two goals: 1) to introduce two tools... more
The Integrated Plant Record (IPR) vegetation analysis serves as a proxy method to derive major types of zonal palaeovegetation based on the proportion of zonal key components. This paper pursues two goals: 1) to introduce two tools (Drudge 1 and Drudge 2) to statistically determine close modern proxies for fossil plant assemblages out of the reference set of currently 505 modern vegetation units. These range from closed forests to more open (steppe) environments from Europe and Asia and are based on the correspondence in the proportion of the zonal key components (IPR Similarity) and Taxonomic Similarity (TS, genus level); and 2) to present the extension of the calibration dataset of modern zonal vegetation using the natural vegetation of Europe, the Caucasus, China, and Mongolia. The tools are tested on six Central European plant assemblages from the late Eocene to the late Pliocene. For the late Eocene to early Miocene, the results indicate a close relationship to East Asian vegetation based both on IPR Similarity and TS. For the younger sites, IPR Similarity points towards European vegetation, whereas TS still indicates closer East Asian affinity. The summary results (as presented in the Results-Mix) derived by both tools deliver modern proxy vegetation units, which are in good agreement with modern vegetation analogues proposed by traditional empirical studies. The IPR Similarity results probably reflect climate change, which results in proportions of zonal key components, i.e., leaf physiognomy of zonal forests that are more similar to modern European than to Asian vegetation from the latest early/middle Miocene onwards.
Data of climate-sensitive leaf traits, which are usually collected and analyzed for entire fossil leaf assemblages, also include intraspecific responses to environmental conditions. Intraspecific correlations between climate and leaf... more
Data of climate-sensitive leaf traits, which are usually collected and analyzed for entire fossil leaf assemblages, also include intraspecific responses to environmental conditions. Intraspecific correlations between climate and leaf traits represent plastic responses on the individual level as well as plasticity caused by genetic differences between disjunct populations of a species. Plasticity is taxon-specific, as documented by various studies on extant plants. Data on plasticity in fossil plants are, however, rare. In this study, the plasticity of climate-sensitive leaf traits of three long-ranging species, each covering an extended time interval from the late middle Eocene to the late Oligocene or to even the early Miocene, were tracked by using material from 16 sites located in Austria, Czech Republic and Germany. Selected taxa are Daphnogene cinnamomifolia, Eotrigonobalanus furcinervis and Platanus neptuni. Leaf size-related data (lamina size, length, width) as well as leaf shape-related data (centroid, length-to-width ratio and two parameters for “roundness”) were considered. All three considered fossil-species show various site-specific and significant differences for leaf size-related traits as well as for leaf shape-related traits. Data from allochthonous marine deposits show the highest plasticity, probably due to the accumulation of heterogeneous plant material from different growing sites. For the Oligocene and Miocene, the results are mostly consistent with palaeo-temperature data. This is particularly the case for “roundness” data, confirming the suitability of this trait as an indicator for climate. The high variability of various traits found for the Eocene is, however, difficult to attribute to temperature alone. Rather, the considerable variability of Eocene trait data may be explained by environmental instability during climate transition, such as changing precipitation patterns.
As major components of natural ecosystems, plants interact with the biotic and abiotic environment developing a spectrum of different responses at various biological levels. Such biotic interactions are detectible in the plant fossil... more
As major components of natural ecosystems, plants interact with the biotic and abiotic environment developing a spectrum of different responses at various biological levels. Such biotic interactions are detectible in the plant fossil record and provide an outline of ecological functions during the past. The recently described Late Miocene plant assemblage from Pitsidia in the Messara Basin was examined for arthropod mediated damage. Most of the damage was detected on abundant, more than 2.500 specimens, well-preserved material of Myrica lignitum foliage, providing a broad range of traces. Eighteen different types of leaf modifications were distinguished, with hole, margin, surface feeding, lamina distortion and possibly galls as the most common while mining and exophytic oviposition were rare. Among this damage, it appears that only a few represent host-specialist feeding. These findings could serve as a database for the component herbivore community on M. lignitum. Considerations o...
Palaeontology and biology are closely related sciences, as are the collections associated with them. Nevertheless there are differences between the two types of collections and the scientific data that they yield with regards to taxonomy,... more
Palaeontology and biology are closely related sciences, as are the collections associated with them. Nevertheless there are differences between the two types of collections and the scientific data that they yield with regards to taxonomy, climate and ecology. In order to bridge the gap between the two subjects, it is important to clarify what these differences are and how they can be used to supplement research that addresses future environmental/climatic issues. In biology, valuable traits of the whole organism serve for taxonomy. In the fossil record, a morphospecies concept needs to be used because specimens are mainly preserved fragmentarily and palaeontologists have to take advantage of morphological traits that are often disregarded by biologists. Another difference is that biological objects represent modern time, while the fossil record provides valuable information on a deep time perspective, i.e., in a third dimension. Yet, these two disciplines obviously depend on each ot...

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