BILINA - A WINDOW ON EARLY MIOCENE MARSHLAND ENVIRONMENTS

The Early Miocene deposits at Bilina (northern Bohemia) have yielded a wealth of plant fossils belonging to various sedimentary settings. Th e flora includes ferns (8 species), conifers (6 species) and angiosper ms (more than 80 species). The modern Arcto-Tertiary element predomina tes. Vegetation of coal-forming swamps, flood plains/levees, shallow w aters and crystalline uplands can be reconstructed. Aquatic plant hori zons dominated by Salvinia contain unusual angiosperm herbs belonging to the Araceae, Lemnaceae, Hydrocharitaceae and ?Scrophulariaceae. Swa mp forest was dominated by the Taxodiaceae, swampy broad-leaved trees (Nyssa, Alnus, Myrica), monocotyledons (palms, Zingiberaceae, Stratiot es) and ferns. Riparian forest included Taxodium, hygrophilous deciduo us broad-leaved woody dicotyledons (Ulmus, Alnus, Fraxinus, Acer), var ious lianas and a few mesophytic elements (Parrotia, Zelkova, Podocasp ium). Crystalline uplands were covered by mixed forest of acidic soils with Pinus, Myrica, Comptonia, Trigonobalanopsis, Lauraceae. The pala eoclimate can be characterized as optimal warm-temperate, very humid, perhaps with a lower humidity during the winter. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sci ence B.V All rights reserved.