Magnolia allasoniae Martinetto in Niccolini, Martinetto, Lanini, Menichetti, Fusco, Hakobyan & Bertini

Plant Fossil Names Registry Number: PFN002957

Act LSID: urn:lsid:plantfossilnames.org:act:2957

Author: E. Martinetto

Rank: species

Reference: Niccolini, G., Martinetto, E., Lanini, B., Menichetti, E., Fusco, F., Hakobyan, E. & Bertini, A. (2022): Late Messinian flora from the post-evaporitic deposits of the Piedmont Basin (Northwest Italy). – Fossil Imprint 78(1): 189–216.

Page of description: 198

Illustrations or figures: Text-fig. 4a

Types

Original diagnosis/description

Fossils consisting of the sclerotesta of seeds (Manchester 1994), narrowly to broadly ovate or broadly obovate (heart shaped), mostly asymmetrical, dorsiventrally compressed, narrowly lenticular to narrowly ellipsoidal in cross-section, usually with a median longitudinal trough on the ventral side, mostly obtusely pointed at the micropilar end, rounded or truncated basally, without any bulge at the heteropyle, length 6.0 to 8.7 mm, length to width ratio of seeds 2.7–1.0 : 1, length to thickness ratio 7.0–3.0 : 1, thickness of sclerotesta 0.3–0.5 mm, rugulate surface carrying through the inside of the sclerotesta, heteropyle located centrally, c- or v-shaped in ventral view, stalk oriented almost parallel to the long axis of seed or bent up to 20°.

Etymology

In honour of Dr. Barbara Allason, the first person who investigated the fossil (pollen) flora of Ca’ Viettone.

Stratigraphy

Neogene, Pliocene, Zanclean
silty clays of section 21 of the Ca’ Viettone locality (fig. 3.12 in Martinetto 1995), 15 m above the bed of the brook, on the right bank; named “Villafranchiano lithostratigraphic unit” by Martinetto et al. (2018)

Locality

Italy
Ca’ Viettone fossil site (45° 19′ N, 7° 37′ E), i.e., a series of outcrops along the Ca’ Viettone brook, close to the village of Levone Cavavese, Piemonte Region