A New Basis for Recognizing the Paleocene/Eocene Boundary in Western Interior North America

Abstract

Fossil pollen grains from Paleocene-Eocene rocks of the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming allow important sequences of terrestrial vertebrate fossils to be correlated with standard marine microfossil zonations. The Paleocene/Eocene boundary as based on pollen evidence falls within the Wasatchian land mammal age, much higher than the boundary used by some fossil mammal workers. This discrepancy partly results from multiple definitions of the Paleocene/Eocene boundary but may also indicate faulty mammal-based correlations to the type Sparnacian of France.