Composition and range of some devonian spore assemblages of Canada

Abstract

Two distinct spore assemblages occur in Lower and (?)early Middle Devonian rocks of Gaspé Bay, Quebec. The older one, which has been dated faunally as Gedinnian, Siegenian and Early Emsian, is associated in its upper part with the so-called Psilophyton flora and contains predominantly small, acamerate and azonate spores with a reticulate, radially ribbed or minutely sculptured exine. Most of the spores are different from any previously described. The younger assemblage, not dated faunally, succeeds the other abruptly. It contains Ancyrospora spp., Dibolisporites spp., Rhabdosporites langiRichardson, and others of relatively large size which also occur in Eifelian and Early Givetian rocks of Scotland and the U.S.S.R.In the Canadian Arctic, five successive assemblages of spores have been recognized in the Bird Fiord, Hecla Bay and Griper Bay Formations of the southern Queen Elizabeth Islands. They contain a number of species that also are present in Givetian to Famennian rocks of western Canada, Spitsbergen, Scotland, the U.S.S.R. and Australia. Where faunal control is available, the stratigraphic ranges of many of these species, for example Archeeoperisaccus spp. and Lophozonotriletes cristifer (Luber) Kedo, are in general agreement with the ranges given by Chibrikova (1963), Kedo (1955, 1957), Naumova (1953), and others.