PALYNOLOGICAL ASSEMBLAGES WITH ANGIOSPERMS IN THE UPPER CRETACEOUS OF THE NEUQUEN BASIN, ARGENTINA

PALYNOLOGICAL ASSEMBLAGES WITH ANGIOSPERMS IN THE UPPER CRETACEOUS OF THE NEUQUEN BASIN, ARGENTINA. Two new palynological assemblages including angiosperm pollen grains from Upper Cretaceous outcrops in the Neuquen Basin (west-central Argentina) are characterized and their biogeographic relationships are interpreted. The first one of the microfloras, from the stratigraphic unit Bajo de la Carpa, in the Neuquen Group at El Zampal, south of Mendoza, is characterized by the Confossia vulgaris-Cretacaeiporites scabratus pair, and it is assigned to the Santonian-?lower Campanian chronostratigraphic interval. This assemblage includes some elements recorded in Brazil and Africa, and it seems to belong to a transitional belt between the Equatorial and Austral paleofloristic provinces. The second one, from the Allen Formation at Lomas Coloradas, northeast of Neuquen province, is characterized by the Tricesticillus tetris-Peninsulapollis gilli pair, and it is assigned to the Campanian-Maastrichtian interval. Several representative components of the latter assemblage are well represented in Australia and the Antarctic Peninsula. The new information provided by these microfloras extends the palynological record, within the framework of a developing project that involves Cretaceous assemblages with angiosperms in central and septentrional Patagonia.