| Abstract Detail
Colloquium: The Utility of Pollen in Systematic and Morphological Studies: A Celebration of the Life of John J. Skvarla Farabee, Michael J. [1], Zetter, Reinhard [2], Pigg, Kathleen B. [3], DeVore, Melanie L. [4]. Pollen character changes in selected angiosperm taxa across the K/T Boundary and into the Paleogene in the Western Interior Basin, North America. Well preserved fossil angiosperm pollen of genera with ranges extending from the Late Cretaceous across the K/T boundary into the late Paleocene are studied from two sites in the Western Interior of North America. Late Cretaceous pollen from a USGS core collected near Oshoto,WY dated at approximately 68 million years old (Maastrichtian, base of the Wodehouseia spinata pollen zone) is compared with a late Paleocene sample from the well known Almont Lagerstätten of central North Dakota (59 million years old, Danian, pollen zone P5). Samples from both localities were studied with LM and SEM, with the same grain technique being used on the Almont material. We compare character evolution for pollen of several important families including the Betulaceae (Alnipollenites and Ulmipollenites); Buxaceae (Erdtmanipollis referable to (Pachysandra), Hamamelidaceae (Retitrescoliptes spp. and extant (Sinowilsonia) and Juglandaceae (Momipites-Caryapollenites complex and extant (Carya). These pollen types are of particular interest because they all document changes in character evolution within long-ranging pollen types of taxonomic groups that survived the K/T boundary and extended on into the Paleogene. Because some of these pollen types are also found in situ within megafossils from Almont, the opportunity exists to link these pollen types with their parent plants.
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1 - Estrella Mountain Community College, Science and Math Division, Avondale, AZ, 85392, USA
2 - University of Vienna, Institute of Palaeontology, Vienna, Austria
3 - Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 874501, Tempe, Arizona, 85287-4501, USA
4 - Georgia College & State University, Biological & Environmental Sciences, 135 Herty Hall, Campus Box 81, Milledgeville, Georgia, 31061, USA
Keywords:
Almont
pollen
Upper Cretaceous
Paleocene.
Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: C2
Location: Fort Camp Lounge/Gage
Date: Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Time: 4:15 PM
Number: C2010
Abstract ID:695 |
