Tsuga cf. chiarugii TONGIORGI , 1936

Denk, Thomas, Sami, Marco, Teodoridis, Vasilis & Martinetto, Edoardo, 2022, The Late Early Pleistocene Flora Of Oriolo, Faenza (Italy): Assembly Of The Modern Forest Biome, Fossil Imprint 78 (1), pp. 217-262 : 221

Tsuga cf. chiarugii TONGIORGI, 1936

Text-fig. 2d, e

1936 Tsuga chiarugii TONGIORGI , p. 800, pl. 11, figs 1–4, 7, pl. 12, figs 5–10.

2014b Tsuga chiarugii TONGIORGI ; Pini et al., p. 303, fig. 11.1.10, P, Q.

2015 Tsuga cf. chiarugii TONGIORGI ; Martinetto et al., p. 155.

M a t e r i a l. Oriolo MSF 638, 976, 979.

D e s c r i p t i o n. Two cone impressions accompanied by reddish iron minerals originate from the typical leafbearing sediments; another specimen is a 3-dimensionally preserved cast within a globose concrection originating from another layer of the Oriolo section. Cones are 28 mm long and 11 mm wide.

R e m a r k s. The two cone impressions are compatible with the characters shown by mummified cones of Tsuga chiarugii from Ghirlanda, a deposit of possible Early Pleistocene age in Central Italy ( Tongiorgi 1936), a species that has a mass occurrence in the Northern Italian site of Steggio ( Ghiotto 2010, Pini et al. 2014b). Tsuga was common and diverse during the Early and Middle Pleistocene of southern Europe ( Magri et al. 2017, Denk et al. 2021). From the older Calabrian site of Bezhan in Albania, Denk et al. (2021) reported three pollen taxa of Tsuga with affinities to modern Chinese, Japanese, and North American species. According to Magri et al. (2017), Tsuga disappeared from Northern Italy (north of 44°) during the latest Calabrian, while it persisted slightly longer in Central Italy. Pini et al. (2014a: 299) stated that pollen of Tsuga is “almost absent” in Northern Italy after 0.87 Ma; hence, sporadic records in the earliest Chibanian cannot be excluded.

Figures

Text-fig. 2. a, b: Pinus aff. peuce cones. a: Oriolo, MSF 643. b: Tebano, MSF 1021. c: Abies aff. alba cone scale, Oriolo MSF 988. d, e: Tsuga chiarugii cones. d: Oriolo MSF 638. e: Oriolo MSF 979. f, h: Bambusa lugdunensis leaves and leafy axis. f: Oriolo MSF 937. h: Oriolo MSF 651. g: Modern leaf of Yushania for comparison (NMNS Cleared Leaf Database specimen U1347). i: Phragmites sp. Oriolo MSF n.n. Scale bars 50 mm (a, b, h, i), 10 mm (c–g).