A NEW SPECIES OF JUNIPEROXYLON FROM THE EARLY MIOCENE OF NORTHWESTERN TURKEY

Abstract

Many different Cupressaceae species were described from the early Miocene of Turkey. Particularly, Glyptostroboxylon Conventz, 1885 and Taxodioxylon Hartig, 1848 from Cupressaceae are the most common genera. With the present study, a new fossil Juniperoxylon (Houlbert, 1910) Kräusel, 1949 species from early Miocene of north-western Turkey was described as Juniperoxylon acarcaea Akkemik sp. nov. The new species has diffuse and zonate axial parenchyma, 2-3 (5) cupressoid pits per cross-field, sometimes presence of crassulae, uniseriate to biseriate, opposite, frequent, contiguous and sometimes spaced radial wall pits, even uniseriate and irregularly or alternately biseriate pits on tangential walls, horizontal walls of rays smooth and/or pitted, ray width uniseriate and rarely partly biseriate, and end walls of axial parenchyma nodular and smooth. The new species is the first Juniperoxylon species description from Turkey. According to the vegetation units (VU), this fossil species may indicate the forest was likely well-drained lowland and/or upland conifer forest (VU7).