Analyses of coprolites provide important data on animal feeding and food quality, including information on the taxonomy of the biotope. Knowledge of the diet of extinct animals has implications for our understanding of the evolution of various physiological strategies and feeding adaptations. Here we provide the first description of plant remains preserved in coprolites from early Hettangian deposits at Sołtyk ow (Holy Cross Mountains, Poland). The coprolites probably originated from herbivorous sauropodomorphs, ornithischians and large carnivorous theropods, from which tracks are known from the site. Herbivorous coprolite producers fed on the flora growing on a fluvial plain, and the cuticles that remain in the coprolites originated from crowns of gymnospermous trees or shrubs. Coprolites assigned to large predators contained more diverse plant remains, although they also belonged to the gymnosperms. These were probably ingested together with the
Energy flow through a hamster population and the impact of this population on field crops were estimated on the basis of population dynamics, rhythm of activity, metabolic rate, and consumption and utilization of natural diets.
In 2016, the highest birch (Betula spp.) pollen concentrations were recorded in Kraków (Poland) since the beginning of pollen observations in 1991. The aim of this study was to ascertain the reason for this phenomenon, taking the local sources of pollen in Poland and long-range transport (LRT) episodes associated with the pollen influx from other European countries into account. Three periods of higher pollen concentrations in Kraków in 2016 were investigated with the use of pollen data, phenological data, meteorological data and the HYSPLIT numerical model to calculate trajectories up to 4 days back (96 h) at the selected Polish sites. From 5 to 8 April, the birch pollen concentrations increased in Kraków up to 4000 Pollen/m3, although no full flowering of birch trees in the city was observed. The synoptic situation with air masses advection from the South as well as backward trajectories and the general birch pollen occurrence in Europe confirm that pollen was transported mainly from Serbia, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, into Poland. The second analyzed period (13–14 April) was related largely to the local flowering of birches, while the third one in May (6–7 May) mostly resulted from the birch pollen transport from Fennoscandia and the Baltic countries. Unusual high pollen concentrations at the beginning of the pollen season can augment the symptomatic burden of birch pollen allergy sufferers and should be considered during therapy. Such incidents also affect the estimation of pollen seasons timing and severity. Graphical Abstract
The flora of the Cianowice 2 borehole (c. 20 km NW of Cracow, Poland), dominated by cycadophytes (mainly bennettitaleans) and conifers, shows high taxonomic diversity relative to the low number of specimens. Twenty species were identified in the 96 determinable plant fragments found in 27 core samples: Cladophlebis sp. (ferns), Pachypteris rhomboidalis (Ettingshausen) Nathorst and Ptilozamites cycadea (Berger) Möller (seed ferns), Anomozamites nilssonii (Phillips) Seward, Nilssoniopteris solitaria (Phillips) Cleal & Rees, Otozamites mimetes Harris, Otozamites parallelus Phillips, Pterophyllum thomasii Harris, Pterophyllum cf. aequale (Brongniart) Nathorst, Ptilophyllum cf. okribense forma ratchiana Doludenko & Svanidze, Ptilophyllum pecten Phillips, Ptilophyllum sirkennethii Watson & Sincock, Cycadolepis sp. (bennettitaleans), Pseudotorellia grojecensis Reymanówna, Pseudotorellia samylinae Nosova & Kiritchkova, Pseudotorellia sp. (Gymnospermae incertae sedis), Bilsdalea dura Harris, Mirovia szaferi Reymanówna, and Brachyphyllum stemonium Kendall (conifers). The floristic composition is supplemented by palynological data. The taxa were connected to five depositional successions distinguished along the core: one, alluvial fans; two, four and five, meandering/anastomosing river depositional systems with fluvial plain deposits; and three, lacustrine/backswamp environment developed on fluvial plain. The composition of the fossil plant assemblage changes with the depositional setting within the same range of taxa, seen mainly in changed combinations of taxa, which are most diverse in the fluvial plain deposits. Some taxa occur in a single depositional succession; some are present in two or three. The sporomorph assemblages of particular depositional environments differ significantly from the composition of the co-occurring macroflora: ferns occur sporadically in the macroflora of each depositional environment but they strongly dominate the sporomorph assemblage. Our proposed reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment is a slight rise descending into a valley with a depositionary basin, with gymnosperms on the slope and ferns at the base. Some species are shared between Cianowice and nearby Middle Jurassic localities in Grojec and Zabierzów, and the majority of taxa are known from the Middle Jurassic, suggesting that the Cianowice deposits are of that age.
The presented sixth part of the series includes 18 new chorological records of vascular plants, five from Poland and thirteen from Slovakia. In Poland, the first spontaneous occurrence of Clinopodium nepeta subsp. nepeta outside cultivation is reported from Kraków. Also new localities of Euphorbia maculata, Panicum capillare, Plantago coronopus and Symphyotrichum ciliatum from southern Poland were found. In Slovakia, new records of alien Cardamine occulta, Lindernia dubia, Nigella damascena, Pistia stratiotes (with map of known records), Sagittaria latifolia, Senecio inaequidens, Silybum marianum and Vinca major were done as well as autochthonous Cotoneaster melanocarpus, Herniaria hirsuta, Verbascum speciosum and Xeranthemum annuum.
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