Rocks ranging in age from Late Albian to Pleistocene were penetrated in a series of shallow coreholes drilled in 1965 on the Grand Banks, Atlantic Continental Margin. Palynologic analyses of 104 samples from eight of these coreholes permit the recognition of
diagnostic biostratigraphic divisions. These "divisions" are defined on their spore, pollen and/or dinoflagellate and acritarch assemblages. Informal taxonomic units are utilized for many of the pollen and spore species and for some of the dinoflagellate and acritarch species. The geologic history
and paleoecology can be deduced, in part, from the palynomorph assemblages. The Late Albian was a time of terrestrial deposition. The Cenomanian-Turonian marked the onset of marine deposition which was relatively continuous throughout the Late Cretaceous and Tertiary. A climatic cooling first
recognized in the Early Miocene extended into the Pleistocene.
This paper describes the taxonomy, biostratigraphy and geographic occurrence within the Canadian Boreal Region of an Upper Jurassic-lowermost Cretaceous (Oxfordian-Berriasian) dinoflagellate cyst assemblage. This association, termed the borealis assemblage, is
intermediate in age between assemblages described from older Jurassic rocks and those present in the upper Lower Cretaceous (Neocomian) in these regions.
Data have been obtained from three surface and four subsurface sec t ions from the northern Interior Plains-Richardson Mountains regions and from four seismic shot-point locations and seven subsurface sections in the Arctic Islands (Sverdrup Basin).
Five new dinoflagellate cyst taxa are described: Psaligonyaulax dualis, Pareodinia capillosa, Pareodinia borealis, Horologinella spinosigibberosa, and Lanterna saturnalis. One other species, Gonyaulacysta sp. cf. G. cladophora (Deflandre) Dodekova, also is associated with the borealis assemblage.
The ranges of the new taxa have been determined by comparison with published macrofaunal zonal schemes and from published ranges of selected spore, pollen and dinoflagellate taxa.
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