Recent dinoflagellate cyst assemblages from the southern Barents Sea

Abstract

Assemblages of dinoflagellate cysts in Recent sediments from the southern Barents Sea are dominated by the cyst species Operculo‐dinium centrocarpum (Deflandre & Cookson) Wall, but also contain numbers of elongate Spiniferites specimens referable to both S. elongatus Reid and S. frigidus Reid & Harland. There is considerable intraspecific variability within these Spiniferites species particularly with regard to the amount and form of membrane development. This Arctic dinoflagellate cyst thanatocoenosis differs from dinoflagellate assemblages previously described from the North Atlantic in lacking Bitectatodinium tepikiense Wilson and such Spiniferites species as S. lazus Reid, S. mirabilis (Rossignol) Sarjeant and S. ramosus (Ehrenberg) Loeblich & Loeblich. The apparently unique character of Recent Arctic dinoflagellate cyst assemblages offers the potential of recognizing similar assemblages in the late Quaternary record.