The Liverworts in Baltic and Bitterfeld Amber

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The 26 species of liverworts from Baltic and Bitterfeld amber are described, illustrated and keyed out. Their types, further specimens examined and previous illustrations are cited. All 26 species belong to extant genera of the leafy liverworts (Jungermanniales). Six of the 17 genera are now extinct in Europe (Cylindrocolea, Mastigolejeunea, Metacalypogeia, Nipponolejeunea, Notoscyphus, Spruceanthus) and Cheilolejeunea is confined to the Azores. Recorded are some species without any close extant relatives as e.g. Bazzania polyodus, Frullania hamatosetacea and Mastigolejeunea contorta. The extant Nipponolejeunea subalpina, whose occurence is limited to subalpine-alpine bark communities in central Japan and the southem Kuriles proved to have been already existing in the Eocene, then occuring on the bark of the resin-producing conifer in the Baltic and Bitterfeld amber forests as a phorophyte. From the well known ecological requirements of extant Nipponolejeunea subalpina it is concluded that in the Eocene the latter and the resin-producing conifer of the Baltic and Bitterfeld amber forests occurred in Coniferous forest of higher mountain altitudes as classified by Kohlman Adamska in Kosmowska-Ceranowicz (2001).

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