The Palynology and Micropalaeontology of Boundaries

edited by Alwynne B. Beaudoin and Martin J Head GSL Special Publications, SP230, Geological Society London, 368 pp. ISBN 1 86239 160 2 DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.2004.230.01.01 This volume explores geological boundaries in time and space using palynology and micropalaeontology. Boundaries produce distinct signatures in the micropalaeontological record. Diffuse or sharp, gradual or abrupt, boundaries can tell us much about the response of biotic systems to environmental change in both marine and terrestrial realms. Different microfossil groups and geological contexts require their own approaches, definitions and considerations of boundaries. The papers in this compilation capture the current range of thinking on the methodology of boundary identification from biostratigraphical, ecological and palaeoenvironmental perspectives. Contributions span the Cambrian to Miocene and feature many fossil groups (including pollen, dinoflagellates, foraminifera, ostracodes, conodonts and diatoms). With a strong Canadian and North American focus, the volume also includes contributions from Poland, Egypt, Belgium, Argentina and the United Kingdom.

Articles include:

• Drawing a line in the sand: identifying and characterizing boundaries in the geological record
  A. B. Beaudoin and M. J. Head
• Identifying Phanerozoic extinction controls: statistical considerations and preliminary results
  N. MacLeod
• Deviation from Red Queen behaviour at stratigraphic boundaries: evidence for directional recovery
  N. A. Doran, A. J. Arnold, W. C. Parker, and F. W. Huffer
• Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician conodont communities from platform and slope facies, western Newfoundland: a statistical approach
  S. Zhang and C. R. Barnes
• Conodont bioevents, cladistics and response to glacio-eustasy, Ordovician-Silurian boundary through Llandovery, Anticosti Basin, Quebec
  S. Zhang and C. R. Barnes
• Conodont sample-population approach to defining the base of the Changhsingian Stage, Lopingian Series, Upper Permian
  S. Mei, C. M. Henderson, and C. Cao
• Palynostratigraphy of the Upper Carboniferous Langsettian-Duckmantian Stage boundary in Britain
  D. McLean, B. Owens and D. Bodman
• Foraminifera and ostracodes across the Pliensbachian-Toarcian boundary in the Arctic Realm (stratigraphy, palaeobiogeography and biofacies)
  B. L. Nikitenko and M. B. Mickey
• Palynostratigraphy of the classic Portland and Purbeck sequences of Dorset, southern England and the correlation of Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary beds in the Tethyan and Boreal realms
  C. O. Hunt
• The mid-Cenomanian non-sequence: a micropalaeontological detective story
  M. B. Hart
• Chronostratigraphy of proposed Turonian-Coniacian (Upper Cretaceous) stage boundary stratotypes: Salzgitter-Salder, Germany, and Wagon Mound, New Mexico, USA
  P. J. Sikora, R. W. Howe, A. S. Gale and J. A. Stein
• The palynological record across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in differing palaeogeographic settings from the Southern Pyrenees, Spain
  M. T. Fernandez-Marron, N. Lopez-Martinez, J. F. Fonolla-Ocete, and M. F. Valle-Hernandez
• Dinoflagellate cyst record of the deep-sea Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary at Uzgrun, Carpathian Mountains, Czech Republic
  P. Gedl
• Upper Palaeocene and lower Eocene interval in the Dieppe-Hampshire Basin: biostratigraphic analysis based on pyritized diatoms
  Y. Van Eetvelde and C. Dupuis
• Palaeobiotope analysis and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Paleocene-Early Eocene Ostracodes from east-central Sinai, Egypt
  A. M. T. Elewa and A. M. M. Morsi
• Dinoflagellate cyst record of the Eocene-Oligocene boundary succession in flysch deposits at Leluchow, Carpathian Mountains, Poland
  P. Gedl
• Palynostratigraphy and palaeoenvironments across the Oligocene-Miocene boundary within the Centinela Formation, southwest Argentina
  G. R. Guerstein, M. V. Guler, and S. Casadio

This book can be ordered through the Geological Society Bookstore