Cretaceous fossil wood and palynomorphs from Williams Point, Livingston Island, Antarctic Peninsula

• Published in: Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
• Main Authors: Chapman, J.L., Smellie, J.L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier 1992
• Subjects: Botany; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Livingston Island; Williams Point; Williams, Point; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518368/; https://doi.org/10.1016/0034-6667(92)90006-3

Terrestrial palynofloras from two localities on Williams Point, Livingston, Island, contain angiosperm monocolpates and tricolpates and can be dated as Cenomanian-early Campanian. This fixes the age for a collection of 15 silicified wood fragments described as 6 palaeotaxa; three are gymnosperm woods (Coniferwood-spacedpits, Coniferwood-clusteredpits, Coniferwood-lowrays) and three angiosperm woods (Dicotwood-heterorays, Dicotwood-multiserirays, Dicotwood-dumpirays). The palynofloras and wood specimens indicate a species rich, mixed conifer and dicotyledonous angiosperm forest possibly with a complex standard tree and understorey structure. This forest was growing at a palaeolatitude of about 59°S during the Late Cretaceous. The use of palaeotaxa rather than the ICBN system for fossil material is discussed and a brief description of the classification system proposed by Hughes (1989) is given in an Appendix.