Kt. Higgs, TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF SOME TOURNAISIAN (HASTARIAN) SPORES FROM BELGIUM, Review of palaeobotany and palynology, 93(1-4), 1996, pp. 269-297
Well preserved miospore assemblages have been obtained from the Tourna
isian (Hastarian) interval in six boreholes in the West Flanders regio
n of northwestern Belgium. The Hastarian interval in this region compr
ises the Hastiere, Pont d'Arcole, Landelies and Orient formations and
represents a mixed succession of elastic and carbonate rocks. The mios
pore assemblages recorded have been assigned to four biozones (VI, HD,
BP and PC). Associated conodont faunas indicate that the HD-PC miospo
re biozones correlate with the Siphonodella sandbergi to upper S. cren
ulata conodont biozones. Seventy-three miospore taxa were recorded fro
m the Hastarian samples. The present paper concerns the systematic des
cription and taxonomic revision of some of these miospore taxa. In par
ticular, five new miospore species Retusotriletes volaticus Higgs, sp.
nov., Cyclogranisporites flandersii Higgs, sp. nov., Cordylosporites
turritus Higgs, sp. nov., Secarisporites mauriceus Higgs, sp. nov. and
Corystisporites rubeus Higgs, sp. nov. are erected. Two new varieties
of Tumulispora rarituberculata (Luber) Playford, 1991 are proposed an
d two new spore types Cyclogranisporites sp. A and Grandispora sp. A a
re described. The genus Umbonatisporites Hibbert et Lacey, 1969 is ret
ained and emended and nine new generic combinations are proposed: Cris
tatisporites hibernicus (Higgs) Higgs, comb. nov., Spelaeotriletes bal
teatus (Playford) Higgs, comb. nov., Apiculiretusispora coniferus (Ked
o) Higgs, comb. nov., Cyclogranisporites ciniae (Turnau) Higgs, comb.
nov., Umbonatisporites rarisetosus (Kedo) Higgs, comb. nov., Indotrira
dites echinatus (Owens, Mishell et Marshall) Higgs, comb. nov., Indotr
iradites ornatus (Neves) Higgs, comb. nov., Indotriradites scorpius (B
alme et Hassell) Higgs comb. nov and Indotriradites mitratus (Higgs) H
iggs, comb. nov.