Eocene flora and trace fossils from the Hruby Regiel section in the Tatra Mountains (Poland): Taxonomic revision of the Wiktor Kuźniar fossil plant collection

Abstract

Latest Eocene plant macrofossils and trace fossils collected a century ago by Wiktor Kuźniar are revised and their stratigraphical and palaeoecological meaning is re-considered. They derive from marine limestones and marls cropping out on the northern slope of the Hruby Regiel mountain in the Western Tatra Mountains. Leaves belonging to the families Fagaceae and Lauraceae and fruits of the palm Nypa are recognized. The co-occurrence of the planktonic foraminifer taxa Chiloguembelina cf. gracillima and Globigerinatheca cf. index and fruits of Nypa suggests a latest Eocene age of the fossil flora. The plant assemblage is typical of paratropical or subtropical evergreen forests in a warm and humid subtropical climate, recent counterparts of which occur in southeast Asia. The presence of Nypa is characteristic of mangroves. The good state of preservation of the leaves suggests coastline proximity during sedimentation of the plant-bearing deposits.

New data on pre-Eocene karst in the Tatra Mountains, Central Carpathians, Poland

“…on the ba sis of plant com mu ni ties. Worobiec et al (2015) es ti mated this tem per a ture at over 20°C. The above val ues are in line with the sea sur face tem per a ture ex ceed ing 20°C cal culated for Eocene num mu lit ic lime stone of the Cen tral Carpathians by Soták (2010) and tem per a tures of sed i men tation of the Lower Eocene Malenica fresh wa ter lime stone (Strážovske Mts., Slovakia) pos tu lated to fall within a range of 23-27°C (Repčok and Salaj, 1998).…”

“…The plant com mu nity described from the Tatra Eocene with rep re sen ta tives of Lauracae (e.g., Eotrigonobalanus urcinervis and Daphnogene sp.) as well as the palm Nypa burtini point to ev er green for ests of a warm and hu mid (an nual rain fall over 1.000 mm) cli mate (Głazek and Zastawniak, 1999;Worobiec et al, 2015 and ref erences therein; see also Zachos et al, 2001). Such a cli mate is es pe cially fa vour able for karst pro cesses and ef fi cient dis so lution of car bon ate bed rock (Ford and Wil liams, 2007: p. 80-81).…”

Polish Palaeobotany: 750 Million Years of Plant History as Revealed in a Century of Studies. Research on the Paleogene and Neogene (Tertiary)

“…He performs comprehensive taxonomic and palaeoecological studies of fossil leaf assemblages and dispersed leaf cuticles, especially from lignite deposits, e.g., the Bełchatów Lignite mine (G. Worobiec, 2014) and the Ruja lignite deposit in the Legnica region (G. Worobiec et al, 2008). He conducts comprehensive research aimed at taxonomy and palaeoecology of leaf assemblages and microfungi found in palynological samples (G. Worobiec et al, 2015). He described several new taxa based on leaf, fungal, and dispersed cuticle samples.…”