Late Cretaceous Plants from Jiayin along Heilongjiang River, Northeast China

Ge Sun, Akhmetiev M.A., Golovneva L.B., Bugdaeva E.V., Cheng Quan, Kodrul T.M., Nishida H., Yuewu Sun, Chunlin Sun, Johnson K., Dilcher D.

В журнале CFS Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg

Год: 2007 Том: 258 Страницы: 75-83

Late Cretaceous plants were mainly collected from the Upper Cretaceous Yong'ancun Formation and Taipinglinchang Formation in Jiayin area along the Heilongjiang (Amur) River, China. The combined megafloras consist of 34 species representing 26 genera and include horsetails (Equisetum), ferns (Asplenium), ginkgoales (Ginkgo), conifers (Cupressinocladus, Parataxodium, Taxodium, Sequoia, Metasequoia, Xenoxylon), angiosperms (Trochodendroides, Platanus, Arthollia, Celastrinites, Quereuxia, Cobbania, etc.). Assemblage I from the Yong'ancun Formation, known as the Parataxodium- Quereuxia Assemblage, is considered to be Santonian in age; while Assemblage II from the Taipinglinchang Formation, also known as the Metasequoia - Trochodendroides - Cobbania Assemblage, is thought to be Campanian in age. Gymnosperms dominante in the Assemblage I, and angiosperm taxa are most common in the Assemblage II. In general, these megafloras contain abundant deciduous conifers (e.g. Parataxodium, Taxodium), broadleaved deciduous angiosperms (e.g. Trochodendroides, Platanus, Arthollia, Celastrinites), and certain thermophilous taxa. (e.g. Metasequoia, Glyptostrobus, Cupressinocladus, Ginkgo), that imply a warm temperate climate in this area during the middle-late Late Cretaceous. The existence of abundant aquatic angiosperms (Quereuxia and Cobbania) demonstrates lacustrine setting for these plants. The Santonian to Campanian age of the floras is based on biostratigraphic correlation and palynological dating.