Fossil leaves and sporomorphs in the museological Coppi Collection, originally from the Plio-Pleistocene Argille Azzurre formation (San Venanzio, Northern Italy)

Palaeobotanical specimens in private or public historical collections include important fossils, and modern studies involving taxonomic revisions can renew the scientific value of forgotten records. In Italy, information on past floras can be also obtained through the re-examination of the published drawings and pictures, or survey of the original collections. This paper presents the taxonomic revision of the macrofossils in the palaeobotanical collection, originally from San Venanzio (Modena), collected by Francesco Coppi at the end of the 19th century. Fossils were taken from the Argille Azzurre formation (Lower Pliocene-Lower Pleistocene). Re-sampling was not carried out because the sampling point at present lies under the houses of a village, increasing the importance of the museological collection. Descriptions of 76 fossil leaves are reported. Sporomorphs were extracted from the clayey limestone where three macrofossils had fossilized. Though only scattered information on the past plant cover has been randomly preserved, the plant macro- and microfossils provide a contribution to the research on the Plio-Pleistocene flora of Northern Apennines, and add information which can be useful to improve knowledge on local palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Animal and plant fossils were deposited in a coastal or delta area. Pollen flora mainly reflected the vegetation distributed in the highest belts, far from the site of deposition, while macrofossils prevalently reflected local vegetation.