The buried Miocene forest at Bükkábrány, Hungary

A remarkable fossil assemblage—fifteen ‘in situ’ stumps standing at their original position—was explored at the opencast lignite mine at Bükkábrány, N Hungary. The stumps occupying an area of about 50 × 100 m have been preserved in Upper Miocene grey sands overlying the lignite seam. The height of the trunks ranges from 2 up to 5.2 m, their perimeter at the base reaches up to 8.8 m. The age of the fossil remains is estimated to about 7 Ma according to the regional stratigraphy. The fossil forest is the remains of a swamp forest which is also corroborated by the palaeogeography of the fossil site as the area of the former Lake Pannon. Fossil leaf and fruit assemblages indicating the typical swamp vegetation in the close vicinity of Lake Pannon have already been reported from the site. Wood anatomy of some of the stumps is diagnostic for Taxodioxylon germanicum (Greguss) Van der Burgh which is related to modern Sequoia Endlicher and was an important element of peat forming vegetation during the Neogene. Some other stumps are comparable to Glyptostroboxylon Conwentz emend. Dolezych & Van der Burgh. The organic rich sediments underlying and embedding the stumps provided a high abundance of Glyptostrobus Endlicher remains, foliage, cones and seeds.