REJECTION OF A CARNIAN (LATE TRIASSIC) PLUVIAL-EVENT IN EUROPE

By identifying and separating the regional and local components of suc cessive palynological assemblages from the Estherienschichten, Schilfs andstein and Lehrbergschichten in southern Germany, it is demonstrated that during Late Triassic (Carnian) times the regional vegetation rem ained consistently dominated by xerophytic conifers, indicative of ari d climatic conditions. In the Schilfsandstein, the predominant bennett italean and pteridophytic elements represent a much more locally deriv ed component, corresponding to a variety of vegetation types growing o n permanently moist, wet or water-saturated substrates. Widespread but local humid environmental conditions should be ascribed to high groun dwater tables in a fluvial depositionary setting, rather than to a cli matically induced ''pluvial event''.