The fossil flora of the Grey Limestones of Veneto northern Italy, and its relationships to the other European floras of similar age

Abstract

The magnificent fossil flora of the Venetian Alps, in rocks of Jurassic age, includes a rich assemblage of bennettitalean, pteridosperm and conifer remains. Pteridophytes and the Caytoniales are also represented, but it is extremely doubtful that the Ginkgoales formed part of the flora. In this latter respect, the Italian flora is easily distinguished from the majority of other European floras of a similar age in which the Gingkoales usually forms a conspicuous element. It is also remarkable for the presence of Phyllotheca, a genus usually considered as confined to the former Gondwana continent. This unusual occurrence of a typically southern element on the modern European continent, north of the Mediterranean sea, considered together with certain geological data, is suggestive that the present location of the fossil flor a may be different from that where it actually grew in Jurassic times.