Zlatko Kvacek

• Charles University in Prague

The fossil flora from brackish late Burdigalian (Ottnangian) sediments in Brno-Líšeň (the Czech Republic) contributes to our knowledge of floristic evolution and palaeoclimatic changes in the Western Carpathians. The fossil material investigated for this study comprises fragmentary leaf imprints, few fruits/seeds, and dispersed pollen from a single...

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...

There were found three new early Miocene fossiliferous horizons in the Libouš Mine near Chomutov in the Most Basin. The Libkovice Member was originally considered as fossil barren, apart from rare findings from bore cores. The new fossiliferous horizons within lacustrine clay sediments can be exactly dated (17.0-17.3 Ma) thanks to positions close t...

We present the oldest known occurrences of crown-group Trochodendraceae based on new material from the Palaeocene of Wyoming, USA. Two genera are recognized, Trochodendron and Eotrochion gen. nov. The fossil fruit of Trochodendron infernense sp. nov. is represented by a pedicellate, apically dehiscent capsular fruit composed of nine follicle-like u...

Large areas of Earth’s continents were covered by temperate forests before the dramatic increase of the human population in the past two millennia. Prior to human expansion, temperate forests were more extensive in the Neogene (23–2.6 Ma) when climate at the middle latitudes was slightly warmer and more equable than at the present. These temperate...

A new palaeobotanical site was recovered at artificial excavations within the city district of Ústí nad Labem called Mojžíř in northern Bohemia (Czech Republic) that yielded slabs of Oligocene tephritic pyroclastic rocks with plant impressions. The fossiliferous layer belongs to the Děčín Formation of the České středohoří Mts. dated to the Oligocen...

A recently recovered site of plant macrofossils, Ludvíkovice, in the České středohoří Mts. is situated on Sokolí vrch hill, belonging to the Děčín Formation (radiometrically dated to 30.8–24.7 Ma), according to regional stratigraphy. The flora has yielded a fern, Rumohra recentior, and several angiosperms, but no conifers. The prevailing foliage is...

The Pliocene flora of Frankfurt am Main described by Karl Mädler during the first half of the twentieth century is a key flora for the European Pliocene. In the present study, we revised the leaf fossil taxa described by Mädler and investigated plant material collected after Mädler’s publication. The revised and augmented floral list comprises seve...

On November 2015 Lesbos Island has faced an ultimate recognition as one of UNESCO's Global Geoparks, an honor of its international significance based on its geological treasure as revealed by the existence of the famous early Miocene Petrified Forest and the variety of its geosites. The aim of this study is to draw a holistic approach for the palae...

The Oligocene palaeontological locality on Matrý Hill near Sebuzín in the České středohoří Mts., North Bohemia, belongs to the Děčín Formation and is dated to 30.8-24.7 Ma according to the regional stratigraphy. It has yielded, in addition to insects from the Heteroptera group, a fossil bee Apis petrefacta and palaeobatrachid frogs, also numerous p...

The Eocene flora of the Okanogan Highlands in the Pacific Northwest of North America has been recognized previously to include extinct species of both extant genera of the Trochodendraceae. Here, using microcomputed tomography (μCT) scanning to augment traditional methods, we recognize additional diversity, including two new fruit types. Concavisty...

The early Burdigalian (MN3) plant assemblage of the Güvem area (northwestern Central Anatolia) is preserved in lacustrine sediments of the Dereköy pyroclastics. Its age is well constrained by radiometric dates of basaltic rocks bracketing the pyroclastics, making the Güvem flora one of the extremely few precisely dated early Miocene floras in the M...

The evolution of plant ecosystems during the Cenophytic was complex and influenced by both abiotic and biotic factors. Among abiotic forces were tectonics, the distribution of continents and seas, climate, and fires; of biotic factors were herbivores, pests, and intra- and interspecific competition. The genus QuercusL. (Quercoideae, Fagaceae) evolv...

In Pliocene sedimentary successions of northern and central Italy, fossil swamp forests are relatively common. Most of them pertain to the Piacenzian stage and show a dominance of the conifer Glyptostrobus europaeus as an arboreal element. A new fossil forest that recently cropped out at Fossano in the Piedmont region represents the first Zanclean...

The Ahníkov/Merkur Mine paleontological locality (mammal biozone MN3a, Lower Miocene) located in the westernmost part of the freshwater, graben-related Most Basin yielded more than 150 species of fossil fauna. The finds include mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, trace fossils (gnawing and biting traces on reptilian and mammalian bones) and numer...

The Cenozoic basins in Germany (Weißelster) and the Czech Republic (Cheb, Sokolov and Most) have an extensive fossil record of riparian vegetation traceable from the middle Eocene to the early Miocene. Within this paper we focus on its evolution and gradual changes between the late Bartonian and the Eocene-Oligocene turnover, a time interval of gra...

Fossil leaves of Messinian age (ca. 5.7 Ma) from two sites of the Vena del Gesso Fm. (Monte Tondo and Tossignano, Ravenna and Bologna provinces, Italy) were studied morphologically to assess the taxonomic composition of the assemblages and carry out a palaeoenvironmental analysis. The flora of Tossignano so far comprises 41 vascular plant taxa with...

The mastixioid flora of Arjuzanx is described within respect of foliage and flattened co-occurring carpological material from the collections of the late JEAN HUARD, housed at the University of Montpellier (France). The leaf assemblage contains 1 fern, 7 gymnosperms and 76 angiosperms. The spectrum includes also new taxa Distylium huardii sp. nov.,...

The extinct species Platanus neptuni (Ettingshausen) Bůžek, Holy & Kvč8ek, formerly reported on the basis of infructescences, staminate infl orescences and associated foliage from the Late Eocene to Late Miocene deposits of Europe, is now recognized also in North America, based on a population dominating the Late Oligocene Yaquina fl ora of coastal...

The Miocene is characterized by a series of key climatic events that led to the founding of the late Cenozoic icehouse mode and the dawn of modern biota. The processes that caused these developments, and particularly the role of atmospheric CO2 as a forcing factor, are poorly understood. Here we present a CO2 record based on stomatal frequency data...

Tertiary floras occurring in the Bohemian Massif based on plant macrofossils (leaves and carpological material) are reviewed. The sites are situated in various stratigraphical levels of the Cheb, Sokolov, Most, Zittau, České Budějovice and Třeboň basins, volcanic complexes of the Doupovské hory Mts and České středohoří Mts, as well as in Tertiary f...

A mastixioid assemblage consisting of seed cones of Pinus hampeana and fruits of Carya globosa, Diplopanax limnophilus and Eomastixia saxonica has been recovered in tektite-bearing deposits at Dobrkovská Lhotka near Trhové Sviny on the southern periphery of the České Budějovice Basin, South Bohemia. Although its diversity is low, the assemblage is...

The fossil record of Araceae is expanded by three new leaf species from the Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene of North America: 1) Orontium wolfei BOGNER, K. JOHNSON, KVACEK & UPCHURCH sp. nov. (Lower–Middle Eocene, northern Washington and southern British Columbia); 2) Orontium mackii BOGNER, K. JOHNSON, KVACEK & UPCHURCH sp. nov. (Maastrichtian, New...

Editorial. In 2006 Europe was host to several international meetings focusing on palaeobotany and palynology. One of these majormeetings was the 7th European Palaeobotany-Palynology Conference, 6–12th September, 2006 in Prague. Around 300 palaeobotanists and palynologists from more than 40 countries including several in Europe, Argentina, China, Eg...

The current rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration is thought to be mitigated in part by carbon sequestration in the terrestrial biosphere, soils, or the oceans so that the buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere will reduce or slow. Understanding how long-term CO2 "sinks" perform is of utmost importance for the development such measures. The Mid-Miocene i...

The Early Miocene vegetation of western Styria, Austria, is reconstructed on the basis of detailed investigations of leaves and diaspores from the mining area Oberdorf N Voitsberg. In this paper, the flora and probable vegetation are compared with other assemblages of similar age from the Czech Republic and Germany to elucidate the diversity of wet...

Abstra c t: The large number of shared plant genera in the Oligocene of Europe and North America indicates that migration between these continents was possible at some time during or prior to the Oligocene. ldentical or dosely rclated speeies shared between Europe and North America and apparcnlly absent from Asia in the Oligocene (e.g. Tetraclinis...

FLORA 0 by Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena Der Nachweis eines fertilen Zweiges von Tetraclinis brachyodon (BRONGNIART) MAI et WALTHER aus Radoboj, Kroatien (Mittel-Miozän) The record of a fertile twig of Tetraclinis brachyodon (BRONGNIART) MAI et WALTHER from Radoboj, Croatia (Middle-Miocene) Summary A new record of a cone-bearing twig of Tetraclinis br...

New results are presented on the stratigraphie and palaeogeographic distribution of Platanus leucophylla, Acer quercifolium, Liquidambar europaea, Acer tricuspidatum, Ginkgo adiantoides and Cercidiphyllum crenatum. The outlined distribution patterns are based on the progressive database evaluation of the fossil Central European leaf assemblages by...

Comparing the European and Arctic Palaeogene floras, two major groups of elements can be recognized in the Holarctic. The first includes the ancient Arcto-Tertiary elements of Engler, or the Greenland flora of Kryshtofovich. These partly extinct genera of angiosperms, some conifers and ferns entered Europe in the Palaeocene via the Brito-Arctic Ign...

The marly deposits overlying the coal seam of the Miljevina Basin near Foca yielded abundant plant remains, mostly leaf imprints and coniferal twigs. Three species of conifers, more than 18 species of dicotyledons and three species of monocotyledons have been determined. The flora belongs to the Early Miocene polyphase complex in sense of the regio...

For the first time modern quantitative techniques have been employed to the Pliocene floristic complex of the Sessenheim-Auenheim area in Northern Alsace, France, in order to objectively assess vegetation reconstruction (IPR vegetation analysis) and palacoclimatological estimates(CLAMP, CoA) basedon the recently revised leaf and carpological assemb...