Microcodium is a calcitic microfeature, mainly interpreted as root calcification products of terrestrial
plants on carbonate-rich substrates, that is abundant in Paleogene successions of the peri-Tethyan realm.
In the Betic Cordillera most of Microcodium appears as reworked in calcarenites interbedded in pelagic
sedimentary rocks. In this study we analyse outcrops with in situ Microcodium aggregates located in
Sierra de la Pila (Internal Prebetic, Murcia province). Microcodium appears on top of Lutetian (Middle
Eocene) platform limestones and shows: 1) cylindrical morphologies showing «corncob» colonies
longitudinally, and «rosette» structures in transverse section, and 2) individual or plural globular
morphologies, similar to «rosettes» in section. Microcodium is interpreted as developed in calcic paleosols,
related with a seasonal semiarid climate, before the boundary Middle-Upper Eocene and the important
climatic change marked with the beginning of the transition from the extreme global warmth of the early
Eocene «greenhouse « climate to the present glaciated state