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Quantitative palynology of the Paleocene Lower Wilcox Group of Texas: taxonomy, biostratigraphy, and paleoecology

Publication Details

Publication Code
RI0291
Publication Year
2025
DOI
10.23867/RI0291D
Series
Report of Investigations

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Abstract/Description:

Palynological analysis of four onshore wells (Edmond Olinick No. 1, Jerome Olinick No. 16, Lawrence Keseling No. 1, Moczygemba VT No. 11) in the Paleocene Lower Wilcox Group of Texas in the United States has yielded abundant and diverse palynomorph taxa from Paleocene shallow marine deltaic paleoenvironments. Information about the morphologies, biological affinities, paleoecologies, and stratigraphic ranges of the observed palynomorphs is presented here with the goal of serving as a practical reference guide for the palynology of the Lower Wilcox Group. The consistent presence of dinoflagellate cysts in the samples indicates a marine depositional environment, but the low abundance and species composition of the dinoflagellate cyst assemblages suggest a shallow or restricted marine depositional setting, possibly intermittently hypersaline. These palynological observations confirm lithological interpretations of a deltaic paleoenvironment for the studied well sections. The terrestrial pollen and plant spore assemblages are allochthonous but appear to mainly reflect a regionally proximal pollen and plant spore source area, with several common taxa indicating nearby coastal, salt marsh, and freshwater marsh or bog paleoenvironments. The palynological biostratigraphy in the onshore Lower Wilcox of Texas is generally in good agreement with previously published palynological biostratigraphy for the deepwater Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico) Wilcox Group.