Cigars, vases, and dead centipedes: non-pollen palynomorphs from the Middle to Late Miocene Brassington Formation, UK

JENNIFER M.K. OKEEFE; NOELIA NUÑEZ OTAÑO; MAGGIE STEPHENSON; MATTHEW J. POUND; JAMES B. RIDING

Dublin

Conferencia; 10th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference; 2018

University College Dublin

Cigars, vases, and dead centipedes: non-pollen Palynomorphs from the Middle to Late Miocene Brassington Formation, UKJen O´Keefe1, Noelia Nuñez Otaño2, Maggie Stephenson1, Matthew Pound3, James Riding41Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY, United States of America2Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología (FCyT), Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos (UADER), Km 10,5, RP11, Oro Verde, 3100, Argentina3Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, mathew.pound@northumbria.ac.uk4British Geological Survey, Keyworth, United KingdomThe Middle to Late Miocene (Seravallian to Tortonian) Brassington Formation exposures in Derbyshire, UK contain an abundant palynoflora, especially in the Kenslow and Bees Nest Members. In many samples, the palynoflora is dominated by non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs). NPPs in the stratigraphic succession from the top of the Bees Nest Member through the Kenslow Member as exposed in the Bees Nest Pit record variations in immediate depositional environment (sphagnum-bearing bogs with common amoebae Arcella sp., Assulina muscorum, Assulina seminulum, and Difflugia pulex vs. open-water settings with the rotifer Keratella quadrata, and fungus Tetraploa aristata), as well as changes in the surrounding ecosystems. Fungi encountered in this study are identified using modern morphological methods, allowing the majority to be assigned to extant taxa. Some, such as Pesavis sp., do not yet have modern analogues and are referred to by their existing type-names. Fungi typically referred to as coprophilous fungi (Sporormiella sp.) occur most frequently in clays scraped out of deep cracks in fossilized wood samples, as do many known wood saprophytes, including newly-described taxa and Zopfiella neogenica. This association may help explain the ecology of ambiguous fungi, such as Pesavis tagluensis, here reported for the first time from the Neogene of Britain. In this study, Pesavis only occurs in association with known wood saprophytes in samples that contain abundant gymnospermous pollen.