Cretaceous angiosperm pollen from the Kachaike Formation, south-western Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

Thirty-three angiosperm pollen species are here reported from mid-Cretaceous deposits of the Kachaike Formation, Austral Basin, southern Argentina. Clavatipollenites is the most abundant angiosperm genus, with six well-defined morphological groups recognised on the basis of their reticulum morphology and sculpture. Pollen of eudicots are scarce, represented by tricolpate (Psilatricolpites spp. and Tricolpites spp.), tricolporoidate and tricolporate morphotypes (Dryadopollis spp.). Increasing complexity in the aperture structure is seen throughout the sequence; tricolpate and tricolporoidate forms are recorded in almost all samples, while tricolporate pollen grains are restricted to the middle and upper levels of the unit. The high species richness and abundance of monocolpate-ulcerate angiosperm related to monocots or magnoliids sensu lato recorded in the unit is comparable to that previously recognised in other assemblages from the early and middle Albian of the southern (e.g. Australia) and northern hemispheres (e.g. Western Portuguese basin, Europe). The recorded increase in the number of angiosperm species towards the middle and upper parts of the Kachaike Formation, with the presence of monocolpate, tricolpate, tricolporoidate and tricolporate pollen, suggests an early-early middle Albian age for these parts of the unit, in agreement with the early Albian age proposed for its basal levels on the basis of dinoflagellates.