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ABSTRACT
Palyno-biostratigraphical studies of upper Albian-Lower Cenomanian successions from East Greenland, the south-western Barents Sea and south-eastern England have revealed new dinoflagellate cyst taxa of clear or questioned ovoidinioid affinities. This paper describes the new genus Sindridinium, four new species – Ovoidinium epelidosphaeroides sp. nov., Epelidosphaeridia manifesta sp. nov., Sindridinium borealis gen. et sp. nov. and Sindridinium anaanae gen. et sp. nov. – and proposes a new combination, Sindridinium? torulosa comb. nov. (formerly Canningia torulosa). The genus Epelidosphaeridia is emended based on features seen in E. manifesta sp. nov., which demonstrate peridiniacean affinities and support inclusion in the Ovoidinioideae. Morphological gradations between Epelidosphaeridia spinosa, E. manifesta sp. nov. and Ovoidinium epelidosphaeroides sp. nov., suggest close phylogenetic relationships, also postulated between Sindridinium? torulosa comb. nov., S. borealis gen. et sp. nov. and S. anaanae gen. et sp. nov. The stratigraphic ranges of the taxa described are calibrated to known dinoflagellate markers and mid-Cretaceous ammonites.
Acknowledgements
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) in Stavanger is thanked for lending us palynological slides from wells 7120/7-2; 7120/8-2, 7119/12-1 and 7119/12-3. The Journal of Limnology and Dr Gert Hansen are thanked for permission to re-use illustrations on p. 121 of Hansen & Flaim (Citation2007). We are also grateful for fruitful discussions with Stefan Piasecki of the Geological Museum, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen. We thank Dr James B. Riding, the Editor of Palynology, and the three referees Dr Graham Dolby, Dr Paul Dodsworth and Dr Javier Helenes, for their very valuable comments and suggestions. We are grateful to A. Ryge and D. Samuelsen (GEUS) who prepared the samples and to J. Halskov (GEUS) who produced the figures. The paper is published with permission of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Henrik Nøhr-Hansen
HENRIK NØHR-HANSEN is a Danish senior research geologist employed by the Geological Survey of Greenland/Geological survey of Denmark and Greenland (GGU/GEUS), Copenhagen, since 1984. He has more than 32 years professional experienceas a palynologist and stratigrapherundertaking both research and commercial tasksfor oil–geotechnical companies and the Greenlandic home government. Henrik is specialised in palynology, biostratigraphy and correlation of Cretaceous-Palaeogene successions from on- and offshore Greenland, Arctic Canada, offshore eastern Canada, offshore Norway, offshore Faroe Islands and offshore Denmark. He has previously worked in Kimmeridge Clay in UK, the K/T boundary and petroleum geology of North Greenland and spent 17 summers during fieldwork in East, West and North Greenland, including one on-board Joides Resolution. Henrik holds MSc (1984) and PhD (1991) degrees from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Lucy I. Costa
LUCY COSTA holds a PhD degree in Natural Sciences (Palynology) from University of La Plata, Argentina (1973), and a BA degree in Chinese from University of Westminster (1997). After five years postdoctoral research on Tertiary dinoflagellate stratigraphy at Sheffield University under Charles Downie's direction, in 1978, she joined Phillips Petroleum (Oklahoma), where she focused on Cretaceous palynology of the Ekofisk area (North Sea). While working for the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (Stavanger, Norway) as chief palaeontologist (1981–1985), Cretaceous dinoflagellates of the new exploration areas north of 62° became one her primary research interests. In 1985, she joined Robertson Research (Llandudno, UK), where for nearly 30 years she worked on worldwide Mesozoic-Cenozoic stratigraphic palynology in a huge variety of projects and tasks, onshore and offshore. Since retiring in 2015, she has been indulging the other half of her brain with Chinese studies, translations and subtitling Chinese TV series into English.
Martin A. Pearce
MARTIN PEARCE is a director at Evolution Applied Limited, a British-based biostratigraphic consultancy. He holds an MSc (1996) degree in Micropalaeontology from University College, London, and a PhD (2000) degree in Palynology and Chemostratigraphy from Kingston University, London. After graduating, Martin worked as a consultant at Millennia Limited (UK), and from 2004 to 2013, as a principal biostratigrapher at Statoil ASA (Stavanger and Bergen, Norway) and Statoil LLC (Houston, TX, USA). Martin's research focuses on the biostratigraphy and palaeoecological significance of palynomorphs from the Upper Triassic to Recent (particularly the Cretaceous). His recent consulting activities have included the palynology of the Neogene to Upper Jurassic of the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and the palynology and palynofacies of the Paleocene to Lower Jurassic of Iraq and Kuwait, and the Lower Cretaceous of Pakistan.
Peter Alsen
PETER ALSEN, Dr. scient., is employed as a senior research geologists at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). He works with macrofossil stratigraphy in the Mesozoic in East, North-East and North Greenland and Svalbard and has made collections during 13 field seasons in the Arctic. Interest and expertise are primarily Jurassic and Cretaceous ammonites, but also include belemnites and bivalves.
