A reconstruction of the early Palaeocene palaeovegetation of Turtle Mountain, south-western Manitoba, Canada

The lower Goodlands Member of the Turtle Mountain Formation is exposed in a streambank outcrop on the western flank of Turtle Mountain, south-western Manitoba, Canada (49°0′2″N, 100°14′51″W). This outcrop was sampled for a 1.5 m section of microfossil-rich non-marine clay and coal-rich sediments deposited in a coastal plain environment during the early Palaeocene. These sediments were deposited 65.4–65 Ma and thus offer an opportunity to reconstruct terrestrial palaeoecology 0.6 to 1 Ma after the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–Pg) extinction event. We use quantitative palynology to reconstruct terrestrial plant ecology and explore ecological patterns of recovery and succession of these communities on a millennial time scale. Quantitative palynological analyses shows that at the time of deposition of the Goodlands Member the landscape on the coastal plain of the Western Interior Seaway – in what is now south-western Manitoba – was covered in a forested canopied swamp with tall standing swamp cypress and other conifers, Juglandaceae (walnut family), birch, alder, elms and other angiosperms, with an understory of ferns and ground cover of <i>Sphagnum</i> moss. Notably, palms were present but scarce, indicating a relatively warm climate. No successional pattern of diversity and community composition is evident in the samples; all samples showed high plant diversity (33–54 taxa/sample, <i>H′</i> 2–3). Vegetation in Manitoba recovered within 0.6 to 1 Ma following the K–Pg extinction event or was predominantly influenced by local environmental patterns independent of time.