Palynology of shales associated with the Kap Washington Group volcanics, central North Greenland

Abstract

A shale sample from beneath the Kap Washington Group volcanics of central North Greenland failed to yield any microfossils, but an assemblage of Aquilapollenites and other morphologically related triprojectate pollen has been recovered from shales within the upper part of the succession. The relative abundance of these pollen grains and Rb-Sr age determinations based on rhyolites suggest that the volcanicity occurred at, or just prior to, the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. The presence of Triprojectacites in North Greenland adds further support to recent suggestions of a circumpolar distribution for at least some of the plant species which produced this type of pollen. A non-marine origin for the shales is favoured on the basis of the general aspect of the palynofacies.