Elm
Ulmus longifolia, Mittelmiozän
About the object
The finely-formed leaves of the elm tree Ulmus longifolia are, alongside the leaves of the sweetgum and the plane tree, the most commonly found fossils to emerge from the Bohlinger Schlucht. U. longifolia grew in a woodland, which lined the banks of the waters in the northern Alpine foothills 13.5 million years ago.
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During the Middle Miocene, Lake Constance did not exist as yet. A network of sediment-rich, slowly meandering rivers had formed a vast riverscape, characterised by lakes, gullies formed by oxbow lakes and shallow, silted up sloughs. During this time, central Europe was warmer then than it is now and great savannahs stretched far and wide throughout the landscape. Forests proliferated where there was sufficient water. Willow and poplar grew alongside maple in riparian or gallery forests – related species of these trees can still be found growing in proximity to water today. Cinnamon, sweetgum and plane trees – trees that can no longer be found in central European forests – flourished in their vicinity. Related species are now native to North and Central American and Asia.