Lunz flora in the Austrian Alps - a standard for Carnian floras

The Lunz flora of Niederosterreichische Alpen is the most famous and for a long time was the best known flora of the Carnian Stage (Upper Triassic). It occurs in marine deposits with marine invertebrates, so that its geological age is exactly known, so it provides a standard by which to correlate terrestrial floras of Carnian age to the marine Triassic timescale. Fossil plants from the Lunz beds were collected from more than ten localities in the Northern Limestone Alps not far from Lunz, where they are confined to the so-called 'Lunzer Sandstein,' which is part of the 'Lunzer Schichten.' The flora, reviewed and analysed here in detail, consists of numerous sterile leaves of Cycadophyta, of abundant ferns and Sphenopsida and of rare Ginkgophyta and Coniferophyta. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.