中国科学院南京地质古生物研究所机构知识库

The Law Carboniferous-Early Permian strata cropping out in northern Shanxi Province, China contain continuous and varied fossil record, making this Succession a classical locality for the Study of palynology during that interval in North China. Abundant, diverse and well-preserved miospores are recorded and illustrated from the Penchi Formation to the Shansi Formation, comprising 191 species assigned to 67 genera, as well as some scolecodonts. Three new species (Neoraistrickia leiclavatus sp. nov., Indospora verrucatus sp. nov., Balteosporites tomentosus sp. nov.) are proposed. According to the first appearance of a few selected species and the changes of palynological abundance ill the Succession, four miospore assemblage zones have been recognized in ascending order, viz., the Torispora securis-Torispora laevigata (SL) Assemblage Zone, the Torispora verrucosa-Pachetisporites kaipingensis (VK) Assemblage Zone, the Thumospora thiessenii-Striatosporites heyleri (TH) Assemblage Zone and Plan,saccus minus-Gulisporites cochlearius (MC) Assemblage Zone. With evidence from microfossils (mainly fusulinids and conodonts), the age of these assemblage zones call be determined approximately. The SL Zone described here is roughly equivalent to the SL Zone established by Clayton et at. (1977) in Western Europe. indicating all age of Westphalian C-D (Moscovian). The VK Zone ranges from Stephanian A-Autunian (Kasimovian-late Gzhelian): however, it only includes the elements of the OT Zone (Clayton et al. 1977) which Usually Occur from Westphalian D to Stephanian A (late Moscovian-early Kasimovian) in Europe. Microfaunal evidence also shows that the age of the TH and MC Zones Should be Early Permian, but their components are evidently different from those derived from other coeval assemblage zones around the world. This discrepancy can be explained by environmental differences occurring during that interval. which were brought about by the Hercynian tectonic event. Using biostratigraphical zonations of other microfossil groups. a palynological Carboniferous-Permian boundary in N. China can be located within the miospore succession. The miospore assemblage zones proposed in this paper are also compared with zonations proposed by earlier studies in N. China and other parts of the world. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.