Late Cretaceous (Campanian) leaf and palynoflora from southern Skåne, Sweden

Adam T Halamski,Vivi Vajda,Jiří Kvaček

doi:10.1144/sp434.16

Abstract

AbstractA Late Cretaceous (Campanian) leaf megaflora from the Vomb Trough in southern Skåne, Sweden, has been investigated on the basis of collections held at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. The main plant-bearing locality is Köpinge, but single specimens originate from Högestad, Ingelstorp, Rödmölla, Svenstorps mölla and Tosterup. The fossil flora is dominated by the angiosperm (eudicot) Debeya (Dewalquea) haldemiana (Debey ex de Saporta & Marion) Halamski. Other dicots are cf. Dryophyllum sp., Ettingshausenia sp., Rarytkinia? sp., Dicotylophyllum friesii (Nilsson) comb. nov. and Salicites wahlbergii (Nilsson) Hisinger. Conifers are represented by cf. Aachenia sp. (cone scales), Pagiophyllum sp. and Cyparissidium sp. (leaves). Single poorly preserved specimens of ferns and monocots have also been identified. The terrestrial palynomorphs (the focus herein) clearly link to the megaflora, although with different relative abundances. The fern spore Cyathidites dominates along with the conifer pollen Perinopollenites elatoides and Classopollis. Angiosperm pollen comprise up to 15% of the assemblage, represented by monocolpate, tricolpate and periporate pollen and the extinct Normapolles group. The spores in the kerogen residue show a thermal alteration index (TAI) of 2+.The flora probably represents mainly a coastal lowland Debeya/conifer forest, and is similar to approximately coeval assemblages from analogous palaeo-communities described from eastern Poland, western Ukraine and Westphalia.

Highlights

Fossil plants from the Late Cretaceous deposits of Skane were first mentioned and illustrated by Nilsson (1824)
This paper aims to revise the Campanian leaf flora from the Vomb Trough in southern Skane (Fig. 1) and to compare the megaflora to the palynological assemblage recovered from the same strata
Sven Nilsson (1787–1883) began collecting objects of natural history in his youth, becoming Associate Professor in Natural History at Lund University by 1812. He took up the directorship of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm (NRM) in 1828, but in 1832 he returned to Lund taking up a professorship in natural history until 1856

Summary

Introduction

Fossil plants from the Late Cretaceous deposits of Skane were first mentioned and illustrated by Nilsson (1824). He took up the directorship of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm (NRM) in 1828, but in 1832 he returned to Lund taking up a professorship in natural history until 1856 During his time at NRM, he assembled a collection that served as the basis for the first detailed study of Swedish Cretaceous plants, with the description of five new species from Kopinge (Nilsson 1832). Another major collection from the studied area (available to the present authors) was assembled by a collector named Gustaf von Schmalensee (1842– 1919), and was deposited in the NRM during the years 1879, 1880 and 1903 It partly derives from the Swedish Geological Survey (Sveriges Geologiska Undersokning) collections, as testified by a letter of Edvard Erdmann to Alfred Gabriel Nathorst, a professor at the NRM, dated 5 November 1902. Oysters were described from Asen showing heteromorphic ornamentation interpreted as attachment in vivo to arborescent plants (presumably mangroves: Friis & Skarby (1981))

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