LATE PERMIAN PALYNOMORPHS FROM THE BUCKLEY FORMATION, CENTRAL TRANSANTARCTIC MOUNTAINS, ANTARCTICA

Thirty species of dispersed plant microfossils were recovered from Glossopteris-bearing shales and coals of the Buckley Formation (Permian) on Mount Achernar in the central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica. Palynoassemblages of variable diversity, thermal maturity and preservation were also recovered from other Buckley outcrops at Mount Picciotto, Mount Sirius and Coalsack Bluff. Although Jurassic volcanic activity in the region thermally altered all palynomorphs, they could usually be sufficiently cleared with Schulze's Solution for photomicrography and identification. Recovered taxa, some of which suggest a Late Permian age (equivalent to Australian Stage 5) for the section, include: Didecitriletes ericianus, Lophotriletes novicus, Marsupipollenites triradiatus, Praecolpatites sinuosus, Retusotriletes nigritellus, Protohaploxypinus amplus, P. limpidus, P. microcorpus, P. samoilovichii, Striatopodocarpites fusus, S. cancellatus and S. gondwanensis. These taxa provide the first palynological evidence supporting correlation of this part of the Buckley Formation with previously published Late Permian assemblages from the Nilsen Plateau, Ohio Range and Prince Charles Mountains in Antarctica.