J38/f58 - Taratu Formation (Cretaceous to of New Zealand)

Where: Kakahu, New Zealand (45.4° S, 170.5° E: paleocoordinates 60.2° S, 153.8° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

When: Taratu Formation (Onekakara Group), Late/Upper Cretaceous to Late/Upper Cretaceous (100.5 - 48.6 Ma)

• On palynological evidence, Raine (1988) reported a Teurian (Paleocene) age for coal measures in the Kakahu area, assigning them to the PM3 palynological zone of Raine (1984). The base of this zone probably approximates the Cretaceous - Tertiary boundary while the upper limit may be Early Eocene. He noted that the leaf beds at this locality grade upwards into Bortonian (mid Eocene) marine strata.

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; coal

• Wellman (1953) described the geology of the Kakahu area where coal measures containg plant macrofossils unconformably overlie metamorphosed Torlesse sediments (mainly Mesozoic) at the base of a marine sequence. The coal beds and much of the overlying marine sediments are here interpreted as belonging to the Onekakara Group of Carter (1988), covering "paralic and shallow shelf and ramp sediments deposited during a Late Cretaceous - Oligocene marine transgression, caused by flexural subsidence of the eastern New Zealand margin during post-rift cooling" The plant fossils come from his Taratu Fm, equivalent to the Broken River Formation of Field & Browne (1986).

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: adpression

Primary reference: M. Pole. 1997. Paleocene plant macrofossils from Kakahu, south Canterbury, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 27(3):371-400 [C. Jaramillo/C. Jaramillo]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 168544: authorized by Carlos Jaramillo, entered by Carlos Jaramillo on 24.04.2015

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
unclassified
  -
Conifer indet., Angiosperm indet.
Conifer indet.
Adittional conifers shoots
Angiospermae
 Laurales - Lauraceae
Lauraceae indet.
Lauraceae indet. Jussieu 1789 laurel
 Proteales - Proteaceae
Proteaceae indet.
Proteaceae indet. de Jussieu 1789
 Oxalidales - Cunoniaceae
Cunoniaceae indet.
Cunoniaceae indet. Brown 1814
or Sapindaceae
 Coniferales - Podocarpaceae
Kakahuia campbellii, Prumnopitys opihiensis n. sp.
Kakahuia campbellii Pole 1997 podocarp
Prumnopitys opihiensis n. sp. Pole 1997 podocarp
Polypodiopsida
 Schizaeales - Polypodiidae
Lygodium sp.
Lygodium sp. Swartz 1800 climbing fern