Seymour Island La Meseta (Eocene of Antarctica)

Where: Antarctica (64.3° S, 56.7° W: paleocoordinates 63.8° S, 61.5° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: La Meseta Formation, Eocene (56.0 - 33.9 Ma)

Environment/lithology: coastal; burrowed, silty sandstone and poorly lithified, concretionary, shelly/skeletal sandstone

• The information related to Geology of La Meseta Formation was taken from Collection #31173.

•About environment: These deltaic, shallow marine to intertidal sediments are richly fossiliferous, containing a great variety of beautifully preserved invertebrate fossils (Stilwell & Zinsmeister, 1992).

• Finely laminated beds of silty sandstone, some of which are interbedded with pebbly conglomeratic units interpreted to represent shell banks. The finer-grained beds between the shell banks are finely laminated, and exhibit ripple marks and flaser bedding. Vertical and oblique burrows are common throughout the finer-grained units. Small to large cut-and-fill channel features occur within the sandy silt-stone facies. Prominent slump structures and lenses of gravel are associated with these channels. The shell banks consist of individual beds that range in thickness from .5 to 2m, and extend laterally as much as 1km. The banks are characterized by coarse- to fine-grained, well-sorted arkosic sandstone beds that contain pebble- to cobble-sized clasts. Most of the shell banks are extremely fossiliferous.

Size class: microfossils

Preservation: original sporopollenin

Collection methods: chemical,

• Subdivision of the La Meseta Formation terrestrial and marine palynomorph succession into four provisional zones is possible, but their formal description awaits confirmation from pending analyses of additional samples, particularly in the uppermost part of the formation.

Primary reference: R. A. Askin. 1997. Eocene-?Earliest Oligocene terrestrial palynology of Seymour Island, Antarctica. : 993-996. The Antarctic Region: Geological Evolution and Processes 993-996 [C. Jaramillo/C. Jaramillo]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 167931: authorized by Carlos Jaramillo, entered by Carlos Jaramillo on 08.04.2015

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

unclassified
  -
Granodiporites
  -
Granodiporites sp. Varma and Rewat 1963
Angiospermae
 Sapindales - Sapindaceae
 Fagales -
Nothofagidites spp. Potonié 1960
Dicotyledoneae
 Ericales - Ericaceae
Ericipites scabratus Harris 1965 heather
 Myrtales -
Myrtaceidites parvus Cookson and Pike 1960
Angiospermae
 Gunnerales -
 Caryophyllales - Droseraceae
Droseridites sp. Potonié 1960
 Aquifoliales - Aquifoliaceae
Ilexpollenites sp. Thiergart 1937
 Santalales -
Anacolosidites sp. Krutzsch 1959
 Proteales - Proteaceae
Propylipollis spp. Martin and Harris 1975
Beaupreaidites spp. Potonié 1960
Proteacidites spp. Cookson and Couper 1953
Banksieaeidites spp. Cookson 1950
 Mesangiosperms - Liliaceae
Liliacidites spp. Couper 1953
 Poales - Restionaceae
Magnoliopsida
  -
Gemmamonocolpites sp. Van der Hammen and Garcia 1966
Malvacipollis sp. Harris 1965
Haloragacidites harrisii Mildenhall and Harris 1971
Tricolporites sp. Cookson 1947