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Upper Cretaceous dinoflagellate cyst stratigraphy, onshore West Greenland.
Nøhr Hansen, H.
1996
Bull. Grunlands geol. Unders. 170, 104 pp.Bull. Grunlands geol. Unders. 170, 104 pp.
Upper Cretaceous dinoflagellate cyst stratigraphy, onshore West Greenland.

Nøhr Hansen, H. Upper Cretaceous dinoflagellate cyst stratigraphy, onshore West Greenland. Bull. Grunlands geol. Unders. 170, 104 pp. Stratigraphical ranges and geographical distribution of dinoflagellate cysts and selected pollen species are described based on the analysis of 250 samples from 29 surface and 12 subsurface sections of Late Cretaceous age from Svartenhuk Halvo and Nuussuaq peninsula, West Greenland. The sections make up an approximately 1500 m thick black mudstone succession, previously dated as late Turonian to Maastrichtian on the basis of scattered ammonite occurrences. The dinoflagellate cysts and pollen indicate that the majority of the studied samples are Coniacian/Santonian to Maastrichtian. A few samples have been dated as early Paleocene. It is possible to divide the Upper Cretaceous strata into 10 intervals based on the palynomorph assemblages. Diversity of dinoflagellate cysts is relatively high in the Coniacian to early Santonian deposits at Svartenhuk Halvo, whereas it decreases in the younger Campanian and Maastrichtian strata of Nuussuaq. The Coniacian to early Santonian assemblages are dominated by the genera Chatangiella and Isabelidinium, which in several samples constitute 20 to 50 percent of the dinoflagellate content. New finds of ammonites and study of the palynomorphs indicate that the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary should be moved from the base of what was previously called the "basal Danian conglomerate" at Annertuneq to approximately 118 m above the top of this conglomerate. Systematic and stratigraphic notes are included on selected Arvalidinium, Cerodinium, Chatangiella and Isabelidinium species. Three new species, Alterbidinium? ulloriaq Chatangiella mcintyrei and Isabelidinium svartenhukense, are described.
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