Acta Palaeobotanica最新文献

{"title":"The Miocene flora of Alum Bluff, Liberty County, Florida","authors":"Terry A. Lott, S. Manchester, S. Corbett","doi":"10.2478/acpa-2019-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2019-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The plant fossils of Alum Bluff, northwestern Florida, provide a unique insight into the rarely preserved Miocene flora of the eastern United States. A century has passed since the introductory treatment on the fossil leaf flora of Alum Bluff. More specimens have accumulated over the past two decades, allowing for an updated evaluation of the megafossil flora following a recent study of the palynoflora. The strata consisting of poorly consolidated sand and siltstones with intervening clay layers, here recognized as the Fort Preston Formation of the Alum Bluff Group, are considered to be of Barstovian age (16.3–13.6 Ma), based on co-occurring mammalian remains. Here we recognize 36 kinds of leaves and 10 kinds of fruits and seeds, giving a minimum estimate of at least one fungus, one fern, one gymnosperm, 38 angiosperms and 7 unknowns. We also report one new species and two new combinations. These taxa augment those already reported based on pollen from the same strata, allowing us to portray the vegetation as elm-hickory-cabbage palm forest occurring near the coastline in a deltaic, pro-deltaic, or intertidal shore face environment. The results of a climate analysis of the Alum Bluff flora, using leaf margin and leaf area, give estimates of 19.0°C mean annual temperature and 116.0 cm mean annual precipitation.","PeriodicalId":39861,"journal":{"name":"Acta Palaeobotanica","volume":"59 1","pages":"129 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41385727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Åland churches as archives of tree-ring records sensitive to fluctuating climate","authors":"S. Helama, T. Bartholin","doi":"10.2478/acpa-2019-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2019-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Tree-ring chronologies provide high-resolution late Quaternary palaeoclimatic data. An important aim of tree-ring research is to extend the chronologies back in time, before the period covered by old living trees. Tree-ring material from historic buildings offers an opportunity to develop long chronologies that, in some regions, may cover the period of the past millennium. Such materials have remained in conditions favourable to preservation and can be used to date the construction timber by means of dendrochronology. Apart from dating, tree-ring data may prove valuable in interpreting past climatic conditions. Here we analyse the data of 111 Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) tree-ring series from the Åland Islands in south-western Finland. In so doing, we illustrate the variation of wetness and drought in the region over a historical time frame (1057–1826). Non-climatic trends were removed from these series using alternative types of detrending procedures. Tree-ring chronologies constructed from the same raw data but using different types of detrending methods agreed on annual to subcentennial scales. The chronologies produced using regional curve standardization (RCS), preferably combined with implementation of a signal-free approach, were comparable with previously published sedimentary and tree-ring evidence from the same region. While non-RCS methods are effective in removing non-climatic information from the chronology, they also resulted in removal of the long-term variation (low-frequency), which did, at least in our data, represent the palaeoclimatic signal common to different types of proxy records. These records, including our data and those of gridded reconstructions developed previously as the Old World Drought Atlas, agreed in indicating dry conditions over the pre-1250 period and around the mid-15th century. The Åland chronology is characterized by notable fluctuations in the availability of tree-ring samples; the periods with low sample replication probably pinpoint years when large construction projects were suspended on these islands.","PeriodicalId":39861,"journal":{"name":"Acta Palaeobotanica","volume":"59 1","pages":"131 - 143"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46568528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fern spore viability considered in relation to the duration of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) impact winter. A contribution to the discussion","authors":"K. Berry","doi":"10.2478/acpa-2019-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2019-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary Chicxulub impact is supposed to have produced a nearly decade-long impact winter which resulted in a mass-extinction event among dicot angiosperms but which left pteridophytes comparatively unaffected. Dicot angiosperms subsequently recovered from the soil seed bank following an episode of global deforestation, although this recovery took centuries. Pteridophytes, on the other hand, are supposed to have recovered within months of the impact event, due to the characteristic, short-term viability of fern spores in the soil bank – an interpretation consistent with the assumption that the dominant fern spore at the K-Pg boundary fern spore spike, Cyathidites Couper, was produced by cyatheaceous foliage. At the K-Pg boundary section near Sugarite, New Mexico, however, Cyathidites spores are more likely to have been produced by schizaeaceous foliage, which produces spores capable of germinating after spending about a decade or more in the soil and which already commanded similar depositional settings in western North America during the Maastrichtian. Therefore, the protracted – millennial – timescale for fern dominance in the earliest Danian could be related to the unique ecology of schizaeaceous ferns that recovered from a persistent spore bank in a habitat that they already dominated, presumably by suppressing the colonization of angiosperms.","PeriodicalId":39861,"journal":{"name":"Acta Palaeobotanica","volume":"59 1","pages":"19 - 25"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44086874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vegetation and climate dynamics in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (NW Pakistan), inferred from the pollen record of the Kabal Valley in Swat District during the last 3300 years","authors":"Farooq Jan, L. Schüler, Fayaz Asad, H. Behling","doi":"10.2478/acpa-2019-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2019-0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We present a pollen-based palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the past 3300 years in the Kabal Valley of Swat District in the Hindu Kush mountains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, north-western Pakistan. We studied the pollen record from 38 samples taken from a 150 cm long radiocarbon-dated sediment core in order to analyse the vegetation history of the area. Only the upper 76 cm of the core, with 20 samples recording the last 3300 years, had sufficiently preserved pollen. Conifers such as Pinus, Picea, Abies, Cedrus and Taxus, and herbs belonging to Poaceae, Cyperaceae and Amaranthaceae were found consistently throughout the period, at varying abundance. The vegetation reconstruction revealed that Cyperaceae and Poaceae dominated the conifers from 3300 to 300 cal yr BP. The decrease in herbaceous vegetation (mainly Poaceae) from 2400 to 1500 cal yr BP, and its increase from 1500 to 1200 cal yr BP, indicate contraction followed by expansion of grassland in the Kabal Valley of Swat, pointing to corresponding dry-cool and wet-warm periods. Herbs were abundant in most samples from 900 to 300 cal yr BP. This change from conifer forest to open grassland can be attributed to the more pronounced impact of widespread deforestation, agricultural activity and a drier summer climate. Evergreen trees and shrubs such as Oleaceae, Myrtaceae, Moraceae species, Juglans and Dodonaea dominated and were constant from 2400 cal yr BP to the present. Conifers such as Pinus, Taxus, Picea, Abies and Cedrus were frequent in the study area from 300 cal yr BP to the present. Today these conifers occur mostly in mixed coniferous forests at higher elevation in the alpine area.","PeriodicalId":39861,"journal":{"name":"Acta Palaeobotanica","volume":"59 1","pages":"145 - 163"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42166267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Revision of the first Carboniferous palaeofloristic locality discovered in Argentina","authors":"Gustavo A. Correa, S. N. Césari","doi":"10.2478/acpa-2019-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2019-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The first Carboniferous palaeofloristic locality recognized in Argentina is situated to the south of the Sierra Chica de Zonda in San Juan Province, Argentina. The fossiliferous site known as Retamito or Río del Agua provided plant remains which were studied by the Polish scientist Ladislaus Szajnocha in 1891. Szajnocha proposed an early Carboniferous age for the assemblage and described some species of lycophytes and sphenophytes, and foliage of cordaitalean and probable pteridosperms. Subsequent studies of this outcrop and its palaeontological content have been few, and a new interdisciplinary approach is needed. The succession is interpreted as fluvial-deltaic in origin, with intercalation of shallow marine deposits, which provided diagnostic plant components of the Nothorhacopteris/Botrychiopsis/Ginkgophyllum Biozone of the late Carboniferous in Argentina. Palynological assemblages recovered from the same strata contain bisaccate taeniate pollen and spores (e.g. Striatosporites heyleri) that support an age probably not older than early Moscovian.","PeriodicalId":39861,"journal":{"name":"Acta Palaeobotanica","volume":"59 1","pages":"17 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47546081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Discussion on “Calcareous algae from the Ordovician succession (Thango Formation) of the Spiti Basin, Tethys Himalaya, India”","authors":"R. S. Chaubey, S. K. Prasad","doi":"10.2478/acpa-2018-0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2018-0018","url":null,"abstract":"We congratulate the authors for presenting new data on algae; however, its utility is greatly reduced due to short comings indicated below: 1. The inset in Fig. 1 is wrong, hence misleading. 2. Authors report fossils in 14 thin section of the carbonate rocks and attribute these to the Thango Formation. The Thango Formation is essentially an arenaceous sequence with no carbonate input, thus the stratigraphic location of algal remains becomes suspect. From Hayden (1904) to Myrow et al. (2016) all authors have unmistakably stated that the Thango/ Shian Formation is a non-fossiliferous red-sandstone/quartzitic and conglomeratic succession, deposited in fluvio-marine environment, post the Cambro-Ordovician orogenic event. The calcareous rocks conformably overlie the Thango Formation and are referred as the Takche/Pin Formation. 3. Fig. 1 indicates studied section at Shian locality, but the field photograph in Fig. 2a is of Farakah Muth in the Pin valley. Similarly, the Fig. 2b is not from the Shian locality but from one kilometer south of the Farakah Muth locality. Shian locality lies nearly 5 km south of the Farakah Muth section. 4. According to Suttner (2007) the Pin Formation (280 m) is divisible into Farakh Member (unit P/1–P/6, 0–90 m thick), Takche Member (unit P/7–P/13, 90–230 m thick) and Mikkim Member (unit P/14–P/17, 230–280 m thick). Hubmann and Suttner (2007) reported calcimicrobes and green algae from the units P7 to P11 of the Pin Formation at Farakh Muth section (see Hubmann & Suttner, plate 1 and 2, p. 189–190), Pandey and Parcha‘s (2018) statement that their algal remains come from 72 m below the level of Hubmann and Suttner (2007) section of Farakah Muth contradicts their claim that their samples were from the Thango Formation of Shian section. Kato et al. (1987) reported algae from 58.7 m below the base of Muth Quartzite from the ‘Shaly Limestone’ of the Pin Formation from the Farakah Muth section. The ambiguity of geographic and stratigraphic locations makes the report dubious and contamination in Himalayan palaeontological database. 5. In Table 1, the authors mention that Hubmann and Suttner (2007) used the term Takche Formation, whereas these authors had used the term Pin Formation.","PeriodicalId":39861,"journal":{"name":"Acta Palaeobotanica","volume":"58 1","pages":"289 - 290"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47036335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nut of Juglans bergomensis (Balsamo Crivelli) Massalongo in the Miocene of North America","authors":"Mackenzie A. Smith, S. Manchester","doi":"10.2478/acpa-2018-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2018-0011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A new occurrence of fossil butternut is recognized based on a permineralized highly scabrate walnut from the middle Miocene of western Washington, USA. The specimen fits the circumscription of Juglans bergomensis (Balsalmo Crivelli) Massalongo, a species that was widespread in Europe and Asia during the Neogene. The occurrence near Brady, Washington, supplements the previously recognized occurrence from Banks Island, Canada, indicating a distribution in mid-latitude western North America as well as Europe and Asia during the Miocene.","PeriodicalId":39861,"journal":{"name":"Acta Palaeobotanica","volume":"58 1","pages":"199 - 208"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46957562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An approach to compare the environmental conditions of Acer in the Miocene and in the modern flora of Turkey, based on wood anatomy","authors":"Ü. Akkemik, N. N. A. Bayam, Ferdi Akarsu","doi":"10.2478/acpa-2018-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2018-0010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this study, xeromorphy ratios were calculated for Acer L. (maple) fossil woods in order to infer the precipitation conditions in the Miocene at the sites of the fossils, based on a comparison with the xeromorphy ratios of selected extant Acer species. The four studied petrified wood samples came from three localities of the Galatean Volcanic Province in Turkey: Kozyaka village (Bolu Province, Seben District), İnözü Valley (Ankara Province, Beypazarı District), and Kıraluç precinct between Nuhhoca and Dağşeyhler villages (Ankara Province, Beypazarı District). The calculated xeromorphy ratios ranged from 3 to 18 for the present-day wood and from 13 to 19 for the early Miocene wood. Values over 10 (11–18) represent xeric conditions; the lower values (3–7) indicate mesic conditions in modern Acer woods. The xeromorphy ratios of the Miocene wood indicate xeric conditions; we conclude that the sites of the fossil Acer woods were xeric, very similar to the modern Acer woodlands of central and southern Anatolia.","PeriodicalId":39861,"journal":{"name":"Acta Palaeobotanica","volume":"58 1","pages":"209 - 217"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43053843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Factors of selection and quality of wood used for woodcraft in medieval Polish strongholds and early urban centres","authors":"Katarzyna Cywa, A. Wacnik, M. Lityńska-Zając","doi":"10.2478/acpa-2018-0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2018-0013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper discusses various aspects of the use of wood for crafts in the Middle Ages, based on xylological analyses of 4211 crafted items of everyday use discovered at 62 archaeological sites in Poland. Over 1500 items were identified in the authors’ own analyses, and the remaining taxonomic data were taken from the literature. The research showed that the main types of wood used at the time were Pinus sylvestris, Quercus sp., Fraxinus excelsior, Picea sp. vel Larix sp., Taxus baccata, Alnus sp., Abies alba and Euonymus sp. Nineteen other taxa were used to make a much smaller pool of objects. At most of the analysed sites a similar set of materials was used to produce the items, regardless of their age and location. The choice of wood was selective and was based on the characteristics of particular tree and shrub species. Large coopered vessels were primarily made of wood from Quercus sp., Pinus sylvestris and Taxus baccata. The manufacture of turned utensils usually involved Fraxinus excelsior, while stave bowls were made using only Pinus sylvestris and Picea/Larix (mainly Picea abies). To verify the local availability of the source taxa, we used pollen sequences from natural and anthropogenic sites in the vicinity of the places where the examined artefacts were found. The choice of wood was limited by the availability of the trees and shrubs. In north-western Poland the most important taxa used for woodworking in the Middle Ages were Pinus sylvestris, Quercus sp., Fraxinus excelsior and Fagus sylvatica; in the south, Picea/Larix and Abies alba were used most frequently. Some items made of Abies alba, Picea and Larix were imported from other parts of the country. We inferred two stages of the use of wood by medieval Polish craftsmen. In the first stage, from the mid-10th century to the late 12th century, they largely used deciduous taxa; the second stage, from the 13th to the 15th centuries, saw the increased use of conifers. We found that the medieval craftsmen chose high-quality wood without defects. Radial wood with the best technical parameters was preferred. Its share increased in the late Middle Ages; this can be attributed to the craftsmen’s increasing familiarity with carpentry techniques.","PeriodicalId":39861,"journal":{"name":"Acta Palaeobotanica","volume":"58 1","pages":"231 - 287"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44771958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Late Saalian and Eemian Interglacial at the Struga site (Garwolin Plain, central Poland)","authors":"A. Bober, I. Pidek, M. Żarski","doi":"10.2478/acpa-2018-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/acpa-2018-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The paper reports pollen analyses of 47 samples from palaeolake sediments at WH-15 Struga near Puznówka on the Garwolin Plain in central Poland. The pollen succession covers Late Saalian (MIS-6) and fully developed Eemian (MIS-5e) successions. The Late Saalian section is well developed (more than 2 m thick) and contains sub-zones reflecting the alternating dominance of steppe-tundra and boreal forest communities. The analysed Eemian succession is an uncommon succession described as a variant with early appearance and culmination of Tilia. In these terms, the successions of WH-15 Struga resemble those of sites of the Eemian interglacial known from the vicinity of Warsaw: Błonie, Warszawa-Żoliborz and Warszawa-Wola. The WH-15 Struga site is one of several recently discovered fossil sites of Eemian lakes on the Garwolin Plain, constituting the southern fragment of the extensive Eemian lakeland in the Polish Lowland.","PeriodicalId":39861,"journal":{"name":"Acta Palaeobotanica","volume":"58 1","pages":"219 - 229"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43466806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}