Fagus cf. gussonii A.MASSAL., 1858

Martinetto, Edoardo, Bertini, Adele, Mantzouka, Dimitra, Natalicchio, Marcello, Niccolini, Gabriele & Kovar-Eder, Johanna, 2022, Remains Of A Subtropical Humid Forest In A Messinian Evaporitebearing Succession At Govone, Northwestern Italy - Preliminary Results, Fossil Imprint 78 (1), pp. 157-188 : 171

Fagus cf. gussonii A.MASSAL., 1858

Pl. 3, Figs 8a, b, 9

M a t e r i a l. An almost complete leaf (MGPTPU141027) and a fragmentary one (MGPT-PU141099) from GLA20, other two almost complete leaves from GLAz (MGPT-PU141026, MGPT-PU141100).

D e s c r i p t i o n. Specimen figured on Pl. 3, Fig. 9. Simple leaf petiolate, petiole fragmentary, lamina elliptic, l × w about 50 × 25 mm, ratio l/w about 2, base shape slightly convex, base angle almost 90°, apex not preserved; margin entire (?), not well preserved; midvein slender, slightly s-shaped; secondaries probably craspedodromous, slender, very regularly spaced, 10 pairs preserved, arising at moderately steep angles, near the base at first slightly converging towards midvein; tertiaries probably percurrent, obtuse to midvein.

R e m a r k s. The leaves from Govone fall within the variability of the abundant Messinian leaves from the surroundings of Alba ( Martinetto et al. 2000, Denk 2004). Denk (2004) treated this assemblage as Fagus cf. haidingeri KOVÁTS , but considered it to be in the “hybrid zone between F. haidingeri / F. gussonii ”. Later, Teodoridis et al. (2015b, 2017) assigned Messinian specimens from Romagna (northern Italy) to F. gussonii . As we do not see definite differences between Fagus leaves from the type locality of F. gussonii (Senigallia) , and those of the Romagna and Alba areas, we propose the use of the name Fagus cf. gussonii for those from the Alba region. Rich occurrences of F. gussonii , e.g., in Turkey ( Güner et al. 2017) show wide variability, including leaves identical to those from Govone, and from northern Italy in general. The variation in leaf morphology of Fagus of the rich northwestern Italian Pliocene assemblages ( Martinetto 2003, Denk 2004) differs from the Messinian ones. Therefore, it appears justified to apply a different name to the Pliocene beech leaves, i.e., F. haidingeri ( Denk 2004) .