Acer aff. opalus subsp. obtusatum

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 : 244

Acer aff. opalus subsp. obtusatum

(WALDST. et KIT. ex WILLD.) GAMS, 1925

Text-fig. 14e

M a t e r i a l. Oriolo MSF 669.

D e s c r i p t i o n. Leaf, simple, lamina fragmented, 80 mm wide, shallowly 3-lobed, lobes with broad obtuse apex, margin bluntly serrate.

R e m a r k s. The species A. obtusatum WALDST. et KIT. ex WILLD., 1806 , is commonly treated as a subspecies of A. opalus MILL., 1768 . Similar leaf remains were referred to as Acer aff. opalus MILL., 1768 fossilis from Pliocene strata of Willershausen, Germany ( Knobloch 1998). During the Pleistocene, leaves resembling A. obtusatum became more common (e.g., Roiron 1983, northeastern Spain; Leroy and Roiron 1996, France). The Middle Pleistocene site of Pianico in the Southern Alps yielded several leaves ( Acer cf. opalus ; Martinetto 2009), whose more prominent lobes with acute apex would point to A. opalus subsp. opalus .

Figures

Text-fig. 14. a, b: Acer aff. campestre. a: Oriolo MSF 664. b: Oriolo MSF 666. c, d: Acer aff. monspessulanum. c: Oriolo MSF 641. d: Oriolo MSF 662. e: Acer aff. opulus subsp. obtusatum Oriolo MSF 669. f, g: Acer aff. cappadocicum subsp. lobelii. f: Oriolo MSF 675. g: Oriolo MSF 631. h, i: Cornus sp. Oriolo MSF 655, two views of a strongly folded leaf impression. Scale bars 50 mm (a, e–g), 10 mm (b–d, h, i).