Triassic and earliest Jurassic miospores from the Murihiku Supergroup, New Zealand

Many refs; 21 plates, 5 figs^ New Zealand Geological Survey 125th Anniversary 1865-1990 - t.p.

This bulletin records the first comprehensive survey of miospore distribution in Triassic to earliest Jurassic strata of the New Zealand Murihiku Supergroup. It is based on 47 productive samples from Southland, 24 samples from Nelson, and 13 samples from Kawhia Regional Synclines, in sections for which invertebrate faunas of Malakovian to Aratauran (Smithian to Sinemurian) age provide correlation with the New Zealand and international stratigraphic stages. Attention is concentrated on the miospores: 109 miospore taxa are treated systematically and illustrated; microplankton (acritarchs and dinoflagellates) which are abundant in many assemblages are also recorded but not discussed in detail. Eight new species are described ... new combinations are instituted ... Five zones and one subzone are established for the Etalian (Anisian) to Aratauran (Hettangian) interval. ... Together with an unclassified "pre- #clematisi#" interval, the Triassic zones are grouped into the #Aratrisporites# Assemblage. The miospore assemblages conform to the Ipswich biogeographic province of Dolby & Balme (1976), which was situated on southern high latitudes during the Triassic period. Within this province, the continental sequences of eastern Australia and Antarctica are correlated with the New Zealand marine sequence, based on miospore successions.