Agradecimentos: The preparation of this paper was stimulated by a Field-trip of the 9th European Palaeobotany-Palynology Conference held in Padova in the year 2014: we thank the organisers and the participants for their interest and support. We also thank Pierluigi Ambrosetti and Chiara Benigni, for the photographs and information on the first phases of exposure of the Dunarobba Fossil Forest; Simonetta Cirilli, Oriana Pauselli and Sabrina Simonetti, who provided us with precious documents and analyses carried out by them. We thank in particular Maria Cris-tina De Angelis of the Umbria Region Archaeological Survey for the constant support and encouragement for the analysis of palaeontological materials. We also thank Giovanni Monegato and Vasilis Teodoridis, who greatly improved the manuscript with their accurate revision Ver menos

Abstract: Dunarobba and Pietrafitta are two outstanding fossil sites, which provide us with a glimpse on central Italian palaeoenviron-ments during two different time spans. The still poorly dated Dunarobba succession is framed, mainly on the basis of continental mollusc biochronology, within the Piacenzian-Gelasian interval, whereas the Pietrafitta one is reliably dated to the Calabrian thanks to vertebrate biochronology. Here we add several new palaeobotanical data for the two sites and we provide for the first time an overview of the strati-graphic, sedimentological, palaeontological and palaeoenvironmental results so-far obtained. We also review the palaeobotanical evi-dence concerning the neighbouring sites of Cava Toppetti I/II, Fosso Bianco, Torre Picchio and Villa San Faustino. On the basis of the available datasets we conclude that the Dunarobba Fossil Forest, with several large conifer trunks in upright position, was produced by an ancient swamp vegetation dominated by Glyptostrobus europaeus, and including few other woody (Alnus, Cephalanthus, Cornus) and herbaceous (Carex, Cladium, Schoenoplectus) plants. Rich water-transported fruit and seed assemblages and pollen data indicate that the well-drained palaeoenvironments around the Dunarobba palaeo-swamp were covered by a forest having a floristic affinity to the modern Mixed Mesophytic Forests of East Asia, as proved by the occurrence of Cryptomeria, Eurya, Sinomenium, etc. The disappear-ance of the Glyptostrobus swamp forest was due to the establishment of well-drained palaeoenvironmental conditions, testified by a palaeosol profile. The Pietrafitta site is characterized by a thick lignite seam, which embedded several carcasses of Mammuthus meridionalis, cervids, monkeys, rhinoceroses, etc. Sedimentological and palaeontological data indicate a lacustrine environment, as confirmed by newly stud-ied fruit and seed assemblages dominated by such aquatic plants as: Azolla, Najas, Nymphaea, Potamogeton, etc. The pollen assem-blage, studied in the 1960s-1970s, is still rich in exotic elements, and allows us to reconstruct a humid deciduous broadleaved forest, with a relevant subdivision of a bottom unit rich in Taxodium type pollen, and a top unit, lacking this pollen type and including all the lignite seam Ver menos