Palynology of the Late Carboniferous from the Tarija Basin, Argentina: A systematic review of monosaccate pollen genera

AZCUY, CARLOS; DI PASQUO, M.M.

PALAEONTOGRAPHICA ABTEILUNG B-PALAOPHYTOLOGIE

E SCHWEIZERBARTSCHE VERLAGS

Lugar: Stuttgart; Año: 2000 vol. 253 p. 107 - 137

0375-0299

This paper presents the results of a systematic analysis of pollen genera from the Late Carboniferous Escarpment and San Telmo Formations, Tarija Basin, Argentina. This study is preceded by a comparative discussion of the palynological evidence related to the evolution of the earlier gymnosperms from both the equatorial belt and Gondwana. Different taxonomic criteria used in the classification of monosaccate pollen grains are also analyzed. Twenty-one species are described and illustrated. A re-examination mainly of several species of genera Cannanoropollis, Potonieisporites, and Caheniasaccites based on the critical analysis of their original diagnosis, provided identifying characters that were also tabulated for each species. Thus, Caheniasaccites flavatus Bose and Kar has been emended and its synonymy proposed. Abundant reworked Devonian and probably Lower Carboniferous material of spores and microplankton are present in the studied assemblage. The systematic study of pollen grains, that represent with certainty the indigenous material, suggests a Late Carboniferous age. Their stratigraphic distribution in South America is summarised in a diagrammatic format.