Early Cretaceous palynoflora of subsurface strata correlative with the Koonwarra Fossil Bed, Victoria ( Australia)

A flora of dispersed spores, pollen grains, and algal microfossils is recorded from subsurface equivalents of the Koonwarra Fossil Bed as cored in Mines Department of Victoria Leongatha Bore Nos 10 and 16 in the Gippsland Basin, Victoria. The palynomorphs are moderately well preserved and are considered to derive from diverse bryophytes, lycopods, ferns, and gymnosperms, together with fungi and an early angiosperm. The algal microflora comprises colonial and filamentous green and possibly blue-green forms. Qualitative and quantitative analyses indicate a regional rainforest vegetation characterized by podocarpacean-araucariacean conifers, ginkgophytes and/or pentoxylaleans, together with ferns and pteridosperms. A cool temperate, humid climate is indicated. The palynological and megafloral data are complementary, and largely compatible, in vegetational reconstruction. The spore-pollen assemblages are attributable to the upper part of the Cyclosporites hughesii Subzone. This implies a ?Barremian-Aptian age for the Koonwarra Fossil Bed on the basis of the subzone's occurrence in faunally dated marine sequences of the Eromanga and Surat Basins. Taxonomically, the playnoflora comprises 5 algal and 56 spore- pollen species. Retitriletes douglasii is newly instituted; and Trichotomosulcites Couper 1953, the senior synonym of Trisaccites Cookson & Pike 1954, is formally emended. Additionally, several recycled Permian/Triassic forms are recorded.-from Autho