Palynological analysis of a newly recognized upper cretaceous marine unit at Cheesequake, New Jersey

Abstract

Palynological analysis of a newly recognized stratigraphic unit, situated between the top of the Magothy Formation and the bottom of the Merchantville Formation in northern New Jersey, has revealed that this newly recognized marine interval is biostratigraphically within the overlap of two previously established pollen zonations, which together focused on the Upper Cretaceous interval from the Raritan Formation (Cenomanian) to the Red Bank Sand (Maestrichtian). The outcrop section at Morristown Road, Cheesequake, New Jersey, contains a more complete upper Santonian to lower Campanian interval than previously has been known from eastern North America. Reex‐amination of selected samples from the original two studies also has resulted in the recognition of additional taxa in each of the two older datasets. Our expanded dataset indicates that the Morristown Road section may form a suitable palynological “bridge”; between these two previous zonations. Present evidence now indicates that the Santonian‐Campanian boundary is best placed somewhere between the lower and upper unconformities bounding this new unit, probably at the lower of these contacts.