A putative Australian element in the European Miocene re-investigated - Mahonia exulata (UNGER) KVAČEK
Abstract
Leaf fossils from the European Miocene previously assigned by HEER to the proteaceous genus Hakea SCHRADER have been re-interpreted on the basis of newly enquired early Miocene material from the Bílina Basin in north Bohemia as foliage of Mahonia NUTTAL. The detailed morphological comparisons have led us to reject the previous assignment derived from the idea of Australian elements in the European Miocene, as suggested by UNGER and ETTINGSHAUSEN in the 19the century.
Our new revision of this element stresses affinities of the European Miocene flora to the modern flora of E and SE Asia, namely China. Mahonia exulata (UNGER) KVAČEK & TEODORIDIS is a rare plant of the European Miocene, known from Switzerland, France, the Czech Republic and elsewhere by peculiar spiny simple serrate leaflets with asymmetrical base, which morphologically strongly deviate from the Hakea with simple leaves Some records assigned to Hakea exulata and also Hakea bohemica ETTTINGSHAUSEN from the Neogene of Northern Bohemia represent very finely toothed leaflets Engelhardia orsbergensis (P.
WESSEL & C. O.
WEBER) JÄCHNICEHN, MAI & WALTHER, nom. Illegit (i.e.
Hakea lanceolata C. O.
WEBER in P. WESSEL & C.
O. WEBER) widely distributed in the European Paleogene and Neogene (see WINTERSCHEID & KVAČEK 2014).