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Cretaceous angiosperms from an allegedly Triassic flora at Williams Point, Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2004

P.M. Rees
Affiliation:
Biology Department, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
J.L. Smellie
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK

Abstract

A terrestrial sequence on Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, known as the Williams Point Beds contains a well-preserved, diverse fossil flora previously assigned a Triassic age. Because of their supposed age, volcanic provenance and evidence for active volcanism, the Williams Point Beds have occupied a unique position in Gondwana (pre-Jurassic) stratigraphy in the Antarctic Peninsula region. However, a large new collection of plant specimens obtained at Williams Point has yielded several species of angiosperm leaves, which are abundant and occur at all levels within the Williams Point Beds sequence. Thus, a Triassic age is no longer tenable. On the basis of the plants present and published radiometric ages for associated strata, the Williams Point Beds fossil flora is reassigned to the Cretaceous, and there is some evidence for a more restricted Albian–Cenomanian age. This revision of the age of the Williams Point Beds removes all direct evidence for an active Triassic volcanic arc in the Antarctic Peninsula region.

Type
Papers—Life Sciences and Oceanography
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 1989

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