G. Clayton, CARBONIFEROUS MIOSPORE AND POLLEN ASSEMBLAGES FROM THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI-ARABIA, Review of palaeobotany and palynology, 89(1-2), 1995, pp. 115-123
Lower Carboniferous and earliest Upper Carboniferous miospore and poll
en assemblages have been recovered from three well sections in the Kin
gdom of Saudi Arabia. A Tournaisian assemblage dominated by Hymenozono
triletes explanatus (Luber) Kedo and Auroraspora macra Sullivan is des
cribed from offshore well ABSF-29, approximately 100 km northeast of D
hahran. Better preserved and more diverse Visean-Namurian assemblages
are described from onshore wells ST-8 and AR'AR-1 in the extreme north
west of the country. Although there are significant differences in the
quantitative composition of the assemblages compared with North Afric
a, the presence of taxa such as Aratrisporites saharaensis Loboziak, C
layton and Owens, Spelaeotriletes owensii Loboziak and Alpern, and Val
latisporites agadesi Loboziak and Alpern suggests that they belong to
the same floral province. The miospore assemblages from Saudi Arabia a
re tentatively dated by reference to the established Libyan and Algeri
an palynological zonal schemes.