Thursday, 30 August 2007 - 11:50 AM
4.A.D-6

Paleobotany of Livingston Island: the first report of Upper Cretaceous fossil flora from Hannah Point

Marcelo Leppe1, Walter Michea2, Carlos Muñoz-Ramírez3, Sylvia Palma-Heldt3, and Francisco Fernandoy3. (1) Scientific Department, Chilean Antarctic Institute-INACH, Plaza Muñoz Gamero 1055, Punta Arenas, 000000000000, Chile, (2) Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Chile, Plaza Ercilla 803, Casilla 13518, Correo 21, Santiago, 000000000000, Chile, (3) Departamento Ciencias de La Tierra, Universidad de Concepción, ., Casilla 160-C, Concepción, 000000000000, Chile

This is the first report of fossil flora from Hannah Point, Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The fossiliferous content of an outcrop located between two igneous rock units of upper Cretaceous age consists of leaf imprints and fossil trunks. The leaf assemblage contains 18 taxa of Pteridophyta, Pinophyta and one angiosperm. The plant assemblage is similar to that known from the lower Cretaceous of the South Shetland Islands, but several taxa are upper Cretaceous in age. The most probable age for this fossil flora is Coniacian-Santonian, supported by previous K/Ar isotope studies of the basalts over and underlying the fossiliferous sequence.

[Manuscript]

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