Article: Plant microfossils from the Lower Triassic of Western Australia

Seventeen species of plant microfossils, made up of nine spores, six pollen grains, and two bodies of uncertain function, are described from the Kockatea Shale, a marine formation of early Triassic age, occurring in the Perth Basin, Western Australia. Nine new species are proposed and a new form genus Lundbladlspora is instituted to include certain trilete spores of probable lycopodiaceous affinities. Species belonging to the genus Taeniaesporites (Leschik) are described for the first time from the southern hemisphere.Microfloras from the Kockatea Shale differ completely from any known to occur in Australian Permian sediments and are considered to represent a specialized plant community which succeeded the Glossopteris-Flora. at the end of Permian time. They resemble in some respects Upper Permian and Triassic microfloras from Europe, and Scythian assemblages from the Peace River area in Canada. The palaeofloristic and stratigraphical implications of the palynological data are discussed.