Spores from a carboniferous section in the hunter valley,New South Wales

In this initial systematic study of Carboniferous spores from New South Wales, Australia, fifteen species (all but one of them new) are formally described and are distributed among eight established genera and two new genera (Rattiganispora, a distally annulate trilete form, and Psomospora, an inaperturate or proximally hilate form). The species were selected as being the most characteristic and distinctive forms found in the Italia Road Formation at its well‐exposed type section in the Hunter Valley, east‐central New South Wales. The formation is a cyclical non‐marine unit, over 300 metres (1,000 ft) thick, consisting of lithic arenites together with carbonaceous shales, claystones, and siltstones; its age is regarded as West‐phalian‐Stephanian. The microfiora is compared with those known from sediments of similar age elsewhere and its place in the Australian Palaeozoic palynostratigraphic record is discussed.

New specific institutions are as follows: Punctatisporites lucidulus, P. sub‐tritus, Verrucosisporites aspratilis, V. italiaensis, Raistrickia accincta, R. radiosa, Reticulatisporites asperidictyus, R. magnidictyus, Foveosporites pellucidus, Rattiganispora apiculata (type species), Kraeuselisporites kuttungensis, Grandispora maculosa, Psomospora detecta (type species), and Wilsonites australiensis.