Nature and classification of microfossils of plant origin from Precambrian and lower Paleozoic

A general consolidation of data relating to reports of Precambrian and lower Paleozoic spores of land plants and hystrichosphaers is presented. Emphasis is placed on the necessity of establishing clear and objective means of separating and classifying these organic remains. Their value lies in the theoretical interpretation of the origin of land plants as well as in the practical applications in stratigraphic correlations of the oldest sedimentary formations. -- F. M. Hueber.     

Late Pleistocene terrace deposits at Beckford,Worcestershire, England

The Pleistocene deposits in the area of the village of Beckford, in the Carrant Valley, Worcestershire are described. A radio-carbon date of 27,650±250 years B.P. has been obtained from plant material in the terrace deposits in the valley. Detailed studies have been made of the terrace sediments and of the remains of Mollusca and Coleoptera in fossiliferous layers. Frost structures are described and their stratigraphy considered. The nature of the local environment and regional climate in the final stages of the Upton Warren Interstadial period is reconstructed in detail. The terrace appears to have aggraded in a periglacial environment, dominated initially by solifluction processes. Extensive solifluction may have led to local diversions of drainage. In time, the climate deteriorated, becoming cooler and somewhat less continental with the onset of the main Devensian glaciation. This latter stage was characterised by extensive ice-wedge growth, aeolian activity and, subsequently, by river incision.     

Late Pleistocene deposits at Block Fen,Cambridgeshire, England

Organic sediments in a gravel quarry at Block Fen, Cambridgeshire, form a sheet dividing lower from upper gravels. Analyses of pollen, macroscopic plant remains and molluscs from these organic sediments are presented. They indicate the presence of temperate freshwater and slightly brackish fine floodplain sediments, which, on the basis of the palaeobotany, are correlated with the temperate Ipswichian Stage. The freshwater sediments, ascribed to Ipswichian substage IIb, occur at ca. ?3 m OD. Marine-influenced tidal sediments, ascribed to Ipswichian substage III, occur at ca. ?6 m OD. No evidence was found for the presence of more than one temperate stage in the sequence. The lower gravels are then correlated with the cold Wolstonian Stage and the upper gravels with the cold Devensian Stage. In contrast to the woodland environments indicated by the palaeobotany of the Ipswichian organic sediments, post-Ipswichian pollen diagrams and macroscopic plant remains in the upper suite of sands and gravels indicate open tree-less vegetation typical of the cold Devensian Stage. They also contain a typical cold-stage mollusc fauna. The sediments containing these floras and faunas are associated with thermal contraction cracks, indicating the presence of permafrost. The final sand and gravel aggradation in the Devensian forms the Block Fen Terrace, near 0 m OD. The evidence indicates that it is younger than the lacustrine sediments resulting from the blocking of the Fenland at the Wash by Late Devensian ice at ca. 18.5 ka BP. The sequence at Block Fen is related to nearby Ipswichian and Devensian sediments at Chatteris, March, Wimblington and Mepal, and to deposits at Wretton on the east margin of Fenland. The correlation permits an outline reconstruction of the history of the valley carrying the River Great Ouse between the Isle of Ely and the Chatteris and March ‘islands’ from the time of a gravel aggradation before the Ipswichian to the Flandrian. The reconstruction shows the time and level of the Ipswichian marine incursion into the Middle Level of Fenland and the extent of aggradation and erosion in the Devensian.     

Pollen stratigraphy of the Late Pleistocene sediments at Mommark, Als, South Denmark

Past environmental changes in the Baltic area are discussed on the basis of pollen and spores recovered from marine sediments in a series of cliff sections at Mommark, in southern Denmark. The sediment succession represents Jessen & Milthers' (1928) Eemian pollen zones c-h, or Andersen's (1961 1975) zones E1/2-E7, as well as the earliest Weichselian pollen zone i, or EW-1, the Herning Stadial. A correlation with annually laminated German sequences (e.g. Bispingen) indicates that the sequence spans approximately 11 000 years. Marine deposition began c. 300 years after the beginning of the Eemian Interglacial Stage and continued to shortly before the end of pollen zone E7, at c. 10 600 years after the beginning of the Eemian. Sedimentation rates varied through the time period represented by the sequence, with initial deposition relatively rapid at c. 0.35 cm yr^-1 for the first c. 300 years. Rates then decreased to 0.029 cm yr^-1 for the next 2700 years and remained low, though varying, throughout the rest of the sequence. Overall, the rates indicate that sediment supply was highly restricted throughout the interglacial, possibly reflecting the dense forest vegetation that colonized the hinterland.     

Late Pleistocene sediments and environmental change at Plaza Creek,Falkland Islands,South Atlantic

Late Pleistocene organic-rich sediments exposed in coastal bluffs near the head of Plaza Creek, East Falkland, have yielded conventional and AMS ¹⁴C dates of between 36 and 28 ka BP, and possess a pollen spectrum dominated by grasses, indicating a vegetation assemblage similar to that of the present day. Although some sample dates are anomalous and contamination by non-contemporaneous carbon cannot be ruled out entirely, the age estimates are consistent with evidence and dates from Antarctica, South America and the amphi-North Atlantic for climate shifts to interstadial conditions at around that time. The organic-rich units are developed in and enclosed by deposits attributed to processes of periglacial mass wasting. Grain-size characteristics suggest that these sediments may have been emplaced by solifluction, shallow translational landsliding and surface wash in at least five mass-wasting episodes. Some of the mass-wasting sediments might correlate with solifluction deposits above and below a podsolic soil dated to 26 ka BP at San Carlos, East Falkland, and with periods of cirque and valley glaciation identified in the uplands of the Falkland Islands. The similarity between late Pleistocene interstadial, Holocene and present-day pollen assemblages, and the lack of vegetation change within these periods, is characteristic of most cool temperate Southern Ocean islands, and may reflect the lack of sensitivity of the vegetation to climate change and/or a lack of climate variability for the time intervals covered. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stratigraphy and lithology of Late Pleistocene sediments at Møvatn, Hardangervidda, South Norway

Stratigraphic, textural, mineralogical, geochemical and palynological investigations indicate the existence of: lacustrine clay from late Eemian (Hovden thermomer); dark indicateclayey basal till of the Early Weichselian age (Hovden kryomer); lacustrine sediments from an Early or Middle Weichselian interstadial (Førnes thermomer); and basal till from Middle/ Late Weichselian (Førnes kryomer). The environment during the thermomers is discussed.     

The “schizohaline” environment: Its sedimentary and diagenetic fabrics as exemplified by Late Paleozoic rocks of Bear Island,Svalbard

Environments characterized by fluctuating hypersaline to fresh-water conditions are defined as “schizohaline” and examples are given of situations in which “schizohaline” environments can arise. Fabrics diagnostic for the occurrence of both hyper- and hyposalinity have been recorded in Late Paleozoic rocks from Bear Island (74°30′N, 19°E): evaporite nodules, length-slow chalcedony and very finely crystalline penecontemporaneous dolomite are considered as indicators of hypersaline conditions while euhedral limpid dolomite crystals, coarse poikilitic sparry calcite and microspar calcite are thought to have originated under the hyposaline regime. Zoned dolomite crystals and euhedral crystals of authigenic mega-quartz replacing sulphates have also been recorded in the same rocks; their diagnostic importance for the schizohaline environment is, however, uncertain.Internal structural pores of some crinoid and bryozoan skeletal grains of biosparites from Bear Island are either empty or infilled with very finely crystalline dolomite. Expulsion of Mg²⁺ ions from the magnesian-calcite skeletons and either: (1) “poisoning” of the micro-environment of the pores; or (2) formation of stagnant “micro-sabkha” conditions in the pores are proposed as an explanation for these phenomena.     

Late Quaternary distal tephra-fall deposits in lacustrine sediments, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Tephra-fall deposits from Cook Inlet volcanoes were detected in sediment cores from Tustumena and Paradox Lakes, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, using magnetic susceptibility and petrography. The ages of tephra layers were estimated using 21 ¹⁴C ages on macrofossils. Tephras layers are typically fine, gray ash, 1-5 mm thick, and composed of varying proportions of glass shards, pumice, and glass-coated phenocrysts. Of the two lakes, Paradox Lake contained a higher frequency of tephra (0.8 tephra/100 yr; 109 over the 13,200-yr record). The unusually large number of tephra in this lake relative to others previously studied in the area is attributed to the lake's physiography, sedimentology, and limnology. The frequency of ash fall was not constant through the Holocene. In Paradox Lake, tephra layers are absent between ca. 800-2200, 3800-4800, and 9000-10,300 cal yr BP, despite continuously layered lacustrine sediment. In contrast, between 5000 and 9000 cal yr BP, an average of 1.7 tephra layers are present per 100 yr. The peak period of tephra fall (7000-9000 cal yr BP; 2.6 tephra/100 yr) in Paradox Lake is consistent with the increase in volcanism between 7000 and 9000 yr ago recorded in the Greenland ice cores.     

A robust feldspar luminescence dating method for Middle and Late Pleistocene sediments

Luminescence dating is used extensively to provide absolute chronologies for Late Pleistocene sediments. Nowadays, most optical dates are based on quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). However, the application of this signal is usually limited to the last ～100 ka because of saturation of the quartz luminescence signal with dose. In contrast, the feldspar infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) dose–response curve grows to much higher doses; this has the potential to extend the datable age range by a factor of 4–5 compared with quartz OSL. However, it has been known for several decades that this IRSL signal is unstable, and this instability often gives rise to significant age underestimation. Here we test against independent age control the recently developed feldspar post‐IR IRSL approach to the dating of sediments, which appears to avoid signal instability. A physical model explaining our observations is discussed, and the method is shown to be accurate back to 600 ka. The post‐IR IRSL signal is reduced by exposure to daylight more slowly than that from quartz and low‐temperature IRSL, preventing its general application to young (e.g. Holocene) sediments. Nevertheless, this new approach is widely applicable (feldspar of appropriate luminescence behaviour is even more ubiquitous than quartz). These characteristics make this a method of great importance for the dating of Middle and Late Pleistocene deposits.     

Identifying remains of extinct kangaroos in Late Pleistocene deposits using collagen fingerprinting

Our knowledge of past animal populations, including the geographical ranges of extinct species, has largely been derived from morphological analyses of skeletal fossil remains. However, a major barrier to the identification of the remains of extinct megafaunal species in archaeological and palaeontological sites is the highly fragmented nature of the material, which often precludes confident taxonomic identifications based on morphology. Biomolecular techniques are able to go beyond these limitations and are increasingly being used to make such identifications. Protein analysis offers a promising alternative to DNA techniques because they can be much cheaper, more amenable to high‐throughput processing and work on much older specimens. Here we demonstrate the potential of collagen fingerprinting in an Australian context by extracting collagen from 50‐ka kangaroo fossils from two caves in Tasmania, and identify several species including the extinct short‐faced kangaroo Simosthenurus occidentalis . Importantly, of the five fossil bones sampled that had hitherto been ascribed morphology‐based identifications below the family level, three had been incorrectly identified during an initial assessment of photographs taken in the field. Our results highlight the utility of using protein‐based methods for making genus‐level identification of marsupial bone, especially those that may form a basis for broader arguments such as that of late‐surviving megafaunal species.

     

Evidence for currents associated with waves in Late Precambrian shelf deposits from Finnmark, North Norway

Abundant wave ripples with wavelengths of up to 0.3 m, top-surface granule lags and tabular sand-stone beds suggest that the interbedded sandstones and siltstones of the Skaergårdnes Formation are shallow marine deposits. A simple orthogonal relationship between crestal trends of wave ripples and trough axes/cross-bed dip directions indicates that bottom currents and surface waves were closely related, suggesting that wind-drift currents were responsible for deposition. Interbedding of the tabular sandstones with siltstone is more probably due to the patchy nature of sand cover on the sea floor than to episodic sand derivation from the coast. The top-surface granule lags indicate local, temporary excess of sand removal over supply, and were probably formed by both wave-winnowing and non-depositional megaripple migration. The well developed lags in this and similar ancient sediments suggest that winnowing, leading to bed armouring and sediment bypassing may be an important shallow marine process.     

Winter turbidity current deposits in Late Pleistocene glaciolacustrine varves, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada

Sand units within the winter clay components of distal, glaciolacustrine varves of Kickininee Park, British Columbia show a common sequence of cross-lamination, and a similarity in grain size. A lower division of micro-cross-lamination is succeeded by two divisions of climbing ripple drift cross-lamination. The two upper divisions are differentiated on the basis of angle of climb, a marked increase occurring in the top division. The sequence is related to turbidity currents which swept down lake during winter. It is possible that the B division of some turbidite sequences may have formed under conditions of low relief bedforms similar to those which generated the lower division of the glaciolacustrine sands. Stratigraphic position and varve thickness are used to support the conclusion that the distal turbidite sands are down lake equivalents of proximal grain-flow deposits. The appearance of coarse grained deposits within winter layers of varves may cause two years of deposition to be allocated to a single varve. This may introduce large errors when varves are used as time indicators.     

Late Precambrian tidal-flat deposits and algal stromatolites in the Båtsfjord formation,East Finnmark,North Norway

The Annijokka Member of the Late Precambrian Båtsfjord Formation consists of about 300 m of siliciclastic and carbonate deposits which accumulated on tidal flats, and includes several horizons of stromatolite biostromes. Seven main lithofacies are arranged in fining-up cycles a few metres thick. The cycles are terrigenous in the lower part and carbonate-rich higher up and are interpreted as reflecting shallowing-up conditions of deposition. Lithofacies distribution in the member as a whole also shows an upward decrease in the terrigenous component and grain size and increase in carbonates, thus suggesting that the Annijokka Member is regressive.The stromatolite biostromes of the member contain domal forms composed of calcite while the non-stromatolitic, though possibly in part algal-laminated, carbonate-rich beds of the member are dolomitic. This contrasting mineralogy suggests (1) penecontemporaneous supratidal dolomitization, and (2) a possibly freshwater-influenced origin of the domal stromatolites.     

Record of large, Late Pleistocene outburst floods preserved in Saanich Inlet sediments, Vancouver Island, Canada

Two anomalous, gray, silty clay beds are present in ODP cores collected from Saanich Inlet, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The beds, which date to about 10,500 ¹⁴C yr BP (11,000 calendar years BP), contain Tertiary pollen derived from sedimentary rocks found only in the Fraser Lowland, on the mainland of British Columbia and Washington just east of the Strait of Georgia. Abundant illite-muscovite in the sediments supports a Fraser Lowland provenance.The clay beds are probably distal deposits of huge floods that swept through the Fraser Lowland at the end of the Pleistocene. Muddy overflow plumes from these floods crossed the Strait of Georgia and entered Saanich Inlet, where the sediment settled from suspension and blanketed diatom-rich mud on the fiord floor. The likely source of the floods is Late Pleistocene, ice-dammed lakes in the Fraser and Thompson valleys, which are known to have drained at about the time the floods occurred.     

Late Middle Pleistocene deposits at Norton Farm on the West Sussex coastal plain,southern England

The coastal plain of West Sussex, southern England, is internationally important because of the sequence of discrete high‐sea‐level events preserved at various elevations across it. New evidence is presented from a site at Norton Farm, near Chichester, on the Lower Coastal Plain, where Pleistocene marine sands, fining upwards into silts, occur between 5.3 m and 9.1 m OD. The sequence reflects a regressive tendency at the transition from an interglacial to a cold stage. The marine sands have yielded foraminifera, ostracods and molluscs that indicate a declining marine influence through the sequence, culminating in a tidal mudflat, strongly weathered in places. Cool‐climate foraminifera (including Elphidium clavatum, Cassidulina reniformis and Elphidium albiumbilicatum) and ostracods have been recovered from the marine sands. Some species with an apparent preference for warmer water conditions, however, are also present. Freshwater taxa washed into the terminal marine sediments include some cold climate indicators, such as Pisidium stewarti and P. obtusale lapponicum. Additional evidence for cool climatic conditions during the deposition of the upper part of the marine sequence is provided by the lack of tree taxa in the pollen record and by features of the micromorphology. The marine sediments probably began accumulating during OIS 7, a conclusion based on their elevation, on amino acid ratios from shells, but especially on vertebrate evidence, particularly the presence of a small form of horse, together with a large, distinctive, form of northern vole (Microtus oeconomus). The occurrence of cool climate indicators in these marine sediments may demonstrate a lag between the climatic deterioration and the expected glacio‐eustatic fall in relative sea‐level. This evidence appears to support the conclusions drawn from the study of coral terraces in Barbados. Such a scenario would provide the conditions necessary for the emplacement of the large erratic boulders reported from the Lower Coastal Plain of West Sussex. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The characteristics, classification and origin of late Pleistocene fan deposits in the Cass Basin, Canterbury, New Zealand

The deposits comprising 'valley-side fans' in a small intermontane basin of the Southern Alps are classified as debris flow, water-laid, intermediate and mixed deposits on the basis of particle size and clast orientation characteristics. Five varieties of debris flow deposit are identified including unimodal and bimodal 'mudflow gravels'. The fans comprise mainly unimodal mudflow gravels which although apparently similar to the mudflow gravels described from montane and periglacial environments are coarser, have less silt and clay and are better sorted than the mudflow deposits described from semiarid alluvial fans. Additions of airborne silt and fine sand to the fan catchments during later stages of fan building gave rise to bimodal debris flow deposits which appear similar to gravels described from cold-climate fans in Tasmania and classed as water-laid deposits. Braided stream deposits were added to the depositional sequence towards the closing stages of fan building indicating that the fan had become 'wetter'. In many places, however, the youngest Pleistocene fan deposits are silt-rich mixtons reflecting a peak in loess deposition.     

Pyritization of tubes and burrows from Late Pleistocene continental shelf sediments off North Norway

Four different types of pyritized tubes and three types of pyritized burrow fillings are described from Pleistocene glaciomarine sediments in Andfjorden, northern Norway. The tubes and burrows probably originated from tubicolous and burrowing polychaetes respectively. The decomposition of the organic matter in the tubes and burrows created a reducing micro-environment favouring precipitation of pyrite. By comparison with Holocene tubes from marine sediments in Andfjorden and FugloSyfjorden, it is seen that pyritization commenced with isolated spherules. These spherules with incipient pyrite crystals and framboids were formed mainly on the inner wall of the tube. Presence of a monosulphide in the Holocene Fugløyfjorden material suggests that the pyritization process has reached a later phase; the final result would be a completely pyritized trace fossil. It is shown that single pyrite crystals (octahedra) generally attain greater size in the burrow fillings than in the tubes. The microstructure found in some of the pyritized tubes is interpreted as a reflection of the microstructure in the original wall. Finally, the implications for the depositional environment in Pleistocene in Andfjorden is investigated with reference to the benthic skeletal macrofaunal assemblage in the sequence. The pyritized trace fossils occur frequently in an opportunistic assemblage from a period (c. 14,000–13,000 yr BP) characterized by some oxygen deficiency. Later (13,000–10,000 yr BP) they play a minor role in an established assemblage under improved oxygen conditions.     

Stratigraphy of Vistulian glaciogenic deposits and corresponding thermoluminescence dates in the lower Vistula region, northern Poland

Drozdowski, Eugeniusz & Fedorowicz, Stanislaw 1987 06 01: Stratigraphy of Vistulian glaciogenic deposits and corresponding thermoluminescence dates in the lower Vistula region, northern Poland. Boreas , Vol. 16, pp. 139–153. Oslo. ISSN 0300–9483.
Recent stratigraphical and sedimentological studies of Vistulian deposits in the lower Vistula region combined with the results of thermoluminescence dating substantiate the tripartite scheme of chronostratigraphic subdivision of the Vistulian glaciogenic sequence presented earlier by Drozdowski. All the thermoluminescence dates provided by till and intertill waterlain sediments refer to two major stadials which, in the light of sedimentological analyses, seem to represent two independent glacial cycles: an older, dated approximately to the period 59,000–51,000 years B.P., and a younger, dated to the period 17,000–15,000 years B.P. The dividing interval, named the Grudziadz Interstadial, was rather cool in nature. The evidence for this interstadial, apart from the significant break in glaciogenic sediment deposition, comprises some infills of subglacial stream trenches cut during the earlier deglaciation, loess-like silts, fossil sand wedges, and transgressive marine deposits, the latter occurring in restricted areas in the northern part of the region.