The youngest Maastrichtian ammonite faunas from Nuussuaq, West Greenland

Abstract

The Maastrichtian of Nuussuaq, central West Greenland, has yielded two successive ammonite faunas, here placed in sequence on the basis of new stratigraphical and dinoflagellate data. An older assemblage, with Hoploscaphites angmartussutensis (Birkelund 1965), Phylloceras (Hypophylloceras) groenlandicum Birkelund 1965, Saghalinites wrighti Birkelund 1965, Baculites cf. B. meeki Elias 1933, and Baculites sp. belongs to the Cerodinium diebelii palynofloral interval (9) of Nøhr-Hansen (1996), and occurs in reworked concretions in the so-called Danian Oysterammonite Conglomerate. A younger monospecific assemblage with H. aff. H. angmartussutensis (Birkelund 1965) occurs to within 10 m of the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary, and belongs to the Wodehouseia spinata palynofloral interval (10) of Nøhr-Hansen (1996). None of the ammonites collected to date occurs with Palynodinium grallator or Disphaerogena carposphaeropsis, dinoflagellate markers for the highest Maastrichtian in the area.