Carboniferous plant fossils from northern Turkey in the Jongmans Collection, Naturalis, Leiden

Abstract

The Jongmans Collection in Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands, is an internationally important resource of paleobotanical data that includes over 4000 Carboniferous plant fossils from northern Turkey. It was the result of two field excursions by Jongmans in Turkey during 1938 and 1946, and includes specimens collected by him, and specimens donated to him by Turkish, Swiss, and Austrian colleagues. Although not comprehensive, it is the most important source of data for the study of Carboniferous vegetation dynamics and biostratigraphy in the easternmost part of Variscan Euramerica. This in turn is vital for understanding how the progressive collapse of the Euramerican wetland biome started in the Early Moscovian, a vegetation change that coincided with the onset of a marked global climatic warming.