First finding of a fossil leaf imprint from the sedimentary rocks hosted the Underwater Petrified Forest natural phenomenon (Sozopol Bay, East Bulgaria)

Here we report the first fossil leaf imprint part of a leaflet of Gleditsia cf. lyelliana (Fabaceae). The studied leaf fragment was obtained from the sedimentary successions at the bottom of the Sozopol Bay hosted the Underwater Petrified Forest natural phenomenon. This is the first fossil record of Gleditsia cf. lyelliana collected from the territorial waters of Bulgaria. The recent species Gleditsia aquatica, which is a nearest living relative of the fossil species, inhabits swamps, sloughs, bottomland forests in the Southeastern United States, suggesting close to subtropical climatic conditions at the time of deposition of the fossil material.