Abstract Detail

Paleobotany

BAGHAI-RIDING, NINA LUCILLE [1], Axsmith, Brian J. [2], Davis, Kendal [3], Allison, Raven [4], Starnes, James [5].

Implications of a palynological sample from Bowie River, Mississippi.

Assorted plant megafossils have been recovered from Bowie River, Mississippi. This fossil flora locale has been attributed to the upper Hattiesburg Formation. The Hattiesburg Formation consists of silty to fine-sandy clays in the middle, alluvial phase, of the post-Vicksburg prograding deltaic wedge associated with the three-phased “Grand Gulf Group”. The Bowie River plant megafossil locale is projected down-dip but not far below the gradational contact with the overlying Pascagoula Formation. Megafossils recovered include leaves of Platanus, Morus, Sambucus, Quercus, Cercis, Cedrus, Cyparis, Taxodium, Salvinia, Woodwardia, seeds of Sargentodoxa, and fruits of Carya. One random palynological sample was acquired from this plant megafossil locale. Well-preserved palynomorphs are suggestive of a riparian, coastal forested environment that bordered the sea. Dominant pollen types include Pinus, Sequoia, Tsuga, Alnus, Carya, Ilex, Juglans, Ulmus, and Tilia. Common sporomorphs are assignable to Sphagnum, ?Azolla (aquatic fern), Anemiaceae, Lycopodiaceae, and Polypodiaceae. Miscellaneous peridiniacean dinoflagellate cysts and sponge spicules also were noted. In a 300+ point count, angiosperms represented 46.9%, conifers 25.7%, pteridophyte and moss trilete spores 12.4%, monolete fern spores 1%, fungal spores 3.5%, and dinoflagellate cysts, acritrachs, and freshwater algae forms 10.1%. Age-diagnostic palynomorphs have not been noted yet. However, the lack of grasses and composites appear to support an early-middle Miocene age. A Middle Miocene age has been designated to the Hattiesburg Formation based on marine equivalents offshore and to a Teleoceras medicornutum tibia found as float in association with a fossil llama proximal phalanx on the Hattiesburg outcrop at the Middle Fork of the Homochitto River near Meadville in Franklin County, Mississippi.

1 - Delta State University, Biological Sciences, Walters Room 116 A, Cleveland, MS, 38733, USA
2 - University Of South Alabama, Biology Department, 5871 USA Drive North, Room 124, MOBILE, AL, 36688-0002, USA
3 - Delta State University, Biological Sciences, PO Box 3262 DSU, Cleveland, MS, 38733, USA
4 - Delta State University, Biological Sciencesp, PO Box 3262 DSU, Cleveland, MS, 38733, USA
5 - Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Office of Geology, P.O. Box 2279, Jackson, MS, 39225, USA

Keywords:
Bowie River
Hattiesburg Formation
Miocene
palynomorphs.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: P, Paleobotany posters
Location: Exhibit Hall/Omni Hotel
Date: Monday, June 26th, 2017
Time: 5:30 PM This poster will be presented at 6:15 pm. The Poster Session runs from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. Posters with odd poster numbers are presented at 5:30 pm, and posters with even poster numbers are presented at 6:15 pm.
Number: PPB008
Abstract ID:542
Candidate for Awards:None