Survival and long-term maintenance of tertiary trees in the Iberian Peninsula during the Pleistocene. First record of Aesculus L.

The Italian and Balkan peninsulas have been places traditionally highlighted as Pleistocene glacial refuges. The Iberian Peninsula, however, has been a focus of controversy between geobotanists and palaeobotanists as a result of its exclusion from this category on different occasions. In the current paper, we synthesise geological, molecular, palaeobotanical and geobotanical data that show the importance of the Iberian Peninsula in the Western Mediterranean as a refugium area. The presence of Aesculus aff. hippocastanum L. at the Iberian site at Cal Guardiola (Tarrasa, Barcelona, NE Spain) in the Lower– Middle Pleistocene transition helps to consolidate the remarkable role of the Iberian Peninsula in the survival of tertiary species during the Pleistocene. The palaeodistribution of the genus in Europe highlights a model of area abandonment for a widely-distributed species in the Miocene and Pliocene, leading to a diminished and fragmentary presence in the Pleistocene and Holocene on the southern Mediterranean peninsulas. Aesculus fossils are not uncommon within the series of Tertiary taxa. Many appear in the Pliocene and suffer a radical impoverishment in the Lower–Middle Pleistocene transition. Nonetheless some of these tertiary taxa persisted throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene up to the present in the Iberian Peninsula. Locating these refuge areas on the Peninsula is not an easy task, although areas characterised by a sustained level of humidity must have played an predominant role

Palaeoxylotomical studies in the Cenozoic petrified forests of Greece. Part one-palms

The paper reports a palaeoxylotomical study of petrified palm remains (stem, root, rachis) collected from some fossil sites of Greece (Evros, Lemnos, Lesbos and Kastoria) aged to the late Oligocene to early Miocene. Five species of Palmoxylon were identified: P. daemonoropsoides (Unger) Kirchheimer, corr., P. chamaeropsoides Iamandei et Iamandei, sp. nov., P. coryphoides Ambwani et Mehrotra, P. sabaloides Greguss, P. trachycarpoides Iamandei et Iamandei, sp. nov. and P. phoenicoides Hofmann. Also found were two species of Rhizopalmoxylon (R. daemonoropsoides Iamandei et Iamandei, sp. nov., R. phoenicoides Iamandei et Iamandei, sp. nov.) and Palmocaulon sp. aff. Phoenix L. These new identifications add new elements to the forest assemblages of the Oligocene-Miocene Greek flora, useful for understanding the evolution of the Cenozoic palaeoclimate in the Aegean area. © 2019 Dimitrios Velitzelos et al., published by Sciendo

PALAEOXYLOTOMICAL STUDIES in the CENOZOIC PETRIFIED FORESTS of GREECE. PART TWO – CONIFERS

This paper reports the palaeoxylotomical study of petrified conifer remains from Velitzelos collection, originating from some fossiliferous sites of Greece, especially from the Aegean area (Evros, Limnos, Lesbos), aged of late Oligocene to early Miocene. Ten species were identified: Cupressinoxylon akdikii, Juniperoxylon acarcae, Tetraclinoxylon velitzelosii, Taxodioxylon gypsaceum, Taxodioxylon taxodii, Glyptostroboxylon rudolphii, Glyptostroboxylon tenerum, Pinuxylon pineoides, Pinuxylon halepensoides and Pinuxylon sp. aff. Pinus canariensis. These new identifications add new elements to the forest assemblages of the Oligocene - Miocene Greek flora, useful for understanding the evolution of the Cenozoic palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate in the Aegean area. © 2021 The authors. All right reserved

Chimairoidoxylon lesboense gen. nov. sp. nova - An endemic wood fossil from the Tertiary period of Lesbos, Greece [Chimairoidoxylon lesboense gen. nov. sp. nova, ein endemisches Holzfossil aus dem Tertiar von Lesbos, Griechenland]

From the petrified forest of Lesbos (Greece) the stem-, branch- and root wood of a fossil conifer with a hitherto entirely unknown wood structure will be investigated and described as Chimairoidoxylon lesboense gen. nov. sp. nova because of the occurrence of ancient and modem features

Nostimochelone lampra gen. et sp. nov., an enigmatic new podocnemidoidean turtle from the early miocene of Northern Greece

A new podocnemidoidean turtle, Nostimochelone lampra gen. et sp. nov., was recently recovered from littoral marine-estuarine sediments of the lower Miocene Zeugostasion Formation, near the village of Nostimo in northwestern Macedonia, Greece. This new taxon is characterized by a mosaic of primitive and derived features most notably the presence of a broad embayment on the anterior carapace margin, which involves both the nuchal (whose width > length) and first pair of peripherals, a continuous series of six markedly elongate and very narrowed hexagonal neural bones, extension of the axillary buttress onto the midline of the anteroposteriorly elongate costal I (leaving a concave scar) and also laterally across the peripheral II–peripheral III suture, medial contact of the humeral scutes (implying a small intergular), and extensive overlap of the pectoral scutes on the entoplastron, probably extending to the epiplastral–hyoplastral suture. Conclusive phylogenetic placement of Nostimochelone is difficult to establish because the remains are incompletely preserved. Nevertheless, its discovery is significant because it represents both the first record of a pleurodiran turtle from Greece and also one of only a handful of fossil podocnemidoidean occurrences thus far documented from the Neogene of Europe. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Fossile Hölzer der Familie Taxodiaceae aus tertiären Schichten des Versteinerten Waldes von Lesbos, Griechenland

We know about the existence of Upper Oligocene to Lower Miocene Taxodiaceae-woods from the Petrified Forest in Lesbos in Greece. Except for the already known species Taxodioxylon gypsaceum, T. albertense and T. pseudoalbertense, two new species, Taxodioxylon megalonissum sp. nova and Glyptostroboxylon microtracheidale sp. nova, are described. Taxodioxylon megalonissum demarcates itself from all the previously described Taxodioxyla because of the regular course of the tracheids diameter within one growth ring and abrupt transition from early to late wood. Glyptostroboxylon microtracheidale corresponds well with the wood of Cunninghamia lanceolata, a species we find in South- und Westchina. For the Tertiary of Europe the existence of Taxodioxylon albertense and T. pseudoalbertense in Greece occurs for the first time. Previously published findings about fossil woods with a Taxodiaceae ground-structure are disscussed in a separate chapter at the beginning of this publication