Lower Miocene plant assemblage with coastal-marsh herbaceous monocots from the Vienna Basin (Slovakia)
Abstract
A new plant assemblage of Cerová-Lieskové from the early Miocene (Karpatian) deposits in the Vienna Basin (western Slovakia) is preserved in a relatively deep, upper slope marine environment. It consists of (1) conifers represented by foliage of Pinus hepios and Tetraclinis salicornioides, a seed cone of Pinus cf. ornata and by pollen of the Cupressaceae, Pinaceae, Pinus sp. and Cathaya sp., and (2) angiosperms represented by Cinnamomum polymorphum, Platanus neptuni, Potamogeton sp. and lauroid foliage, by pollen of Liquidambar sp., Engelhardia sp. and Craigia sp. and in particular by infructescences (so far interpreted as belonging to cereal ears).
We validate genus and species assignments of the infructescences: they belong to Palaeotriticum Sitár, including P. mockii Sitár and P. carpaticum Sitár. Similar infructescences were described from the early and middle Miocene deposits of Moravia (Slup), Slovenia (Saalberg = Žale) and probably also Switzerland (Lausanne).
This plant assemblage indicates subtropical climatic conditions over the Vienna Basin, similarly as implied by other coeval plant assemblages from Central Europe, and allowing the reconstruction of the paleovegetation as evergreen woodland with pines and grasses in undergrowth typically inhabiting costal brackish marshes today.