Palynomorph assemblages from the Fenghuoshan Group, southern Qinghai, China： their age and palaeoenvironmental significance

• Published in: 中国科学通报：英文版 no. 4; pp. 470 - 476
• Main Author: Jianguo Li Jungang Peng D. J. Batten
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: 中国; 古环境意义; 可可西里地区; 孢粉组合; 年龄; 早白垩世晚期; 青海南部; 风火山群
• ISSN: 1001-6538; 1861-9541

The varicoloured Fenghuoshan Group occurs widely in the Qiangtang-Hoh Xil region of the northern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. Few fossils have been found to date in this sedimentary succession because lithological conditions are not conducive to their preservation. As a result, there has been a long-term disagreement among geologists about its age. Despite a few lists of fossil names in individual publi- cations, no detailed research on the palaeontology, including palynology, has been reported previously. In this study, we recovered many pollen grains and spores from two samples that were collected on the northern slope of Fenghuo Moun- tain. They indicate an age no younger than Maastrichtian for the upper part of the Fenghuoshan Group. It is considered likely that the entire Fenghuoshan Group represents deposi- tion between the late Early Cretaceous （possibly Albian） and the Maastrichtian. The palynoflora consists mainly of angio- sperm pollen, gymnosperm pollen and fern and bryophyte spores being subordinate. Pollen grains referable to the Ephedrales and the Taxaceae-Cupressaceae groups dominate the assemblage, implying a warm, arid climate and subtropical forest-shrub vegetation at the time of deposition.