Journal of

GEOsciences

  (Formerly Journal of the Czech Geological Society)

Original Paper

Zlatko Kvaček, Rajchl, Böhme, Dvořák, Mach, Prokop, Konzalová

Early Miocene freshwater and swamp ecosystems of the Most Basin (northern Bohemia) with particular reference to the Bílina Mine section

Journal of the Czech Geological Society, volume 49 (2004), issue 1-2, 1 - 40

Various stages of ecosystem development within the Early Miocene Most Formation, the coal-bearing fill of the Most Basin in northern Bohemia, are reviewed on the basis of recent sedimentological and palaeontological studies. Several types of environment with specific plant and animal assemblages have been recognized and evaluated -low moor coal-forming mire with low nutrient supply and the ground water level near or reaching the earth surface rarely reaching a raised bog regime, shallow ox-bow lakes with various water quality, mineral back swamp along streams and in deltas on clayey and silty fat soils with an irregular supply of nutrients and a high groundwater level, flooded delta plains, riverbanks and levees with light, well aerated sand- and clay-dominated substrate well supplied by nutrients and moisture, drier habitats beyond the influence of flooding, and a deeper lake surrounded by a drier sloping upland with acid soils. Fossil records of plants, insects and lower vertebrates have been treated in more detail with special reference to palaeoenvironmental properties. Characteristics of the following newly established taxa are included - Pisces: Umbra longidorsalis Böhme, sp. nov., Plantae: Biliniasporites multilamellatus Konzalová, gen. et sp. nov., Nyssa bilinica (Unger) Z. Kvaček, comb. nov., Nyssa bilinica forma haidingeri Z. Kvaček, f. nov., Pseudotrapa buzekii Z. Kvaček, gen. et sp. nov. and Smilacinites ungeri Z. Kvaček, gen. et sp. nov.