Evolutionary significance and botanical relationships of cretaceous angiosperm pollen in the western Canadian interior
- 1 April 1975
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Geoscience and Man
- Vol. 11 (1), 47-60
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00721395.1975.9989755
Abstract
A sequence of angiosperm pollen from the subsurface of southeastern Alberta can be grouped into six distinct palynofloral suites that span Albian to Campanian age strata. These angiosperm pollen species were a part of a terrestrial flora that often was dominated by pteridophyte and gymnosperm taxa. Marine phytoplankton is abundant throughout most of the interval studied, and it provides accurate dating of certain evolutionary or migrational events of the terrestrial flora. The proposed botanical relationships suggest that at least 60% of the total angiosperm flora is represented by taxa whose extant counterparts are distributed in tropical to subtropical regions of the world. Certain evolutionary trends, including aperture type and major exine morphology, suggest that by Middle Campanian time, angiosperm pollen had evolved most of the principal aperture configurations and surface features presently observed in extant angiosperm pollen. These two trends are consistent and distinct enough to establish an evolutionary sequence of pollen morphology for western Canadian Cretaceous sediments.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- PALYNOLOGICAL EVIDENCE ON EARLY DIFFERENTIATION OF ANGIOSPERMSBiological Reviews, 1970
- Upper Cretaceous proteaceous pollen from the Edmonton Formation, Alberta (Canada) and their paleoecologic significanceCanadian Journal of Botany, 1969
- Assorted angiosperm pollen from the Edmonton Formation (Maestrichtian), Alberta, CanadaCanadian Journal of Botany, 1969
- Scanning Electron Photomicrographs of Southwestern Pollen GrainsJournal of the Arizona Academy of Science, 1969
- Eight species of Mancicorpus from the Edmonton Formation (Maestrichtian), Alberta, CanadaCanadian Journal of Botany, 1968
- Palynology of late Cretaceous mammal beds, Scollard, Alberta (Canada)Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 1967
- Pollen morphology of the OnagraceaeReview of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 1967
- Continental Drift, Mesozoic Continents and the Migrations of the AngiospermsNature, 1966
- Poleward Migration of Early Angiosperm FloraScience, 1959
- Notes on the Flora of Mexico: World Distribution of the Woody Dicotyledonous Families and the Origin of the Modern VegetationJournal of Ecology, 1953