A new contribution to the middle Miocene woody flora of Gökçeada (Turkey)

Abstract

The fossil site in Gökçeada has a rich diversity of fossil woods. New fossil woods found in different times may improve our knowledge on this fossil site. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the identification results of new fossil woods. After taking thin sections from three different directions of fossil woods as transverse, tangential and radial, identifications were performed. As result, Ginkgoxylon lesboense Süss was determined for the first time in Gökçeada together with re-identifications of Ostryoxylon gökceadaense Akkemik, Cryptocaryoxylon grandoleaceous Akkemik, and Laurinoxylon litseoides Süss with the new fossil wood fragments. Due to the absence of the Aegean Sea in the middle Miocene, today's islands were a permanent piece of land, and therefore, new findings also revealed that the woody flora during the middle Miocene in Gökçeada and Lesbos islands was similar. This study also showed that the genus of Ginkgo L., which is represented with only one species today in China, had a common species in the middle Miocene forests of Aegean basin.