Messinian-Zanclean vegetation and climate in North-Central Italy;

A palynological study was carried out on four Italian Miocene-Pliocene sections ranging in age from uppermost Tortonian to Zanclean located on the Adriatic side of the North-Central Apennines. The study documents the Mediterranean isolation, the salinity crisis (s.s.), the "lago-mare' event and the re-establishment of open-marine conditions in the Mediterranean at the beginning of the Pliocene. From a climatic point of view, a transition from subtropical/warm-temperate conditions during the Messinian to warm-temperate/temperate conditions during the Zanclean is recorded. Correlations with coeval sections in the Mediterranean area confirm the existence of latitudinal climatic gradients within the studied area