Episodic river flooding events revealed by palynological assemblages in Jurassic deposits of the Brent Group, North Sea

Slater, Sam M.; McKie, Tom; Vieira, Manuel; Wellman, Charles H.; Vajda, Vivi

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.06.028

Cited by 21 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(71 reference statements)

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“…The Burniston assemblages compare well with the 'fern prairies' described by Boulter and Windle (1993) based on spore-pollen data from Bathonian deposits of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Yorkshire. The palynology of the Burniston succession is also similar to Middle Jurassic spore-pollen assemblages from the UK North Sea (Slater et al 2017), Scandinavia (Tralau 1967(Tralau , 1968Tralau and Artursson 1972;Gry 1969;Guy-Ohlson 1971, 1978, 1986Mehlqvist et al 2009;Vajda 2001;Vajda and Wigforss-Lange 2009) and Ukraine (Shevchuk et al 2018, this issue), revealing extensive, relatively homogenous vegetation extending across Europe at this time.…”

Section: Floral Reconstructionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Dinosaur-plant interactions within a Middle Jurassic ecosystem—palynology of the Burniston Bay dinosaur footprint locality, Yorkshire, UK

Slater

Wellman

Romano³

et al. 2017

Palaeobio Palaeoenv

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Dinosaur footprints are abundant in the Middle Jurassic Ravenscar Group of North Yorkshire, UK. Footprints are particularly common within the Bathonian Long Nab Member of the Scalby Formation and more so within the socalled 'Burniston footprint bed' at Burniston Bay. The Yorkshire Jurassic is also famous for its exceptional plant macrofossil and spore-pollen assemblages. Here we investigate the spore-pollen record from the dinosaur footprint-bearing successions in order to reconstruct the vegetation and assess possible dinosaur-plant interactions. We also compare the spore-pollen assemblages with the macroflora of the Scalby Ness Plant Bed, which occurs within the same geological member as the Burniston succession. The spore-pollen assemblages are dominated by Deltoidospora spp., the majority of which were probably produced by Coniopteris. Lycophyte spores (including megaspores) are common in the Yorkshire Jurassic, but lycophyte parent plants are extremely poorly represented in the macroflora. Seed ferns, represented by Alisporites spp., are moderately abundant. Conifer pollen assemblages are dominated by Araucariacites australis (probably produced by Brachyphyllum mamillare), Perinopollenites elatoides and Classopollis spp., with additional bisaccate pollen taxa. Abundant Ginkgo huttonii in the macroflora suggests that much of the monosulcate pollen was produced by ginkgoes. The diverse vegetation of the Cleveland Basin presumably represented an attractive food source for herbivorous dinosaurs. The dinosaurs probably gathered at the flood plains for fresh-water and also used the non-vegetated plains and coastline as pathways. Although assigning specific makers to footprints is difficult, it is clear that a range of theropod, ornithopod and sauropod dinosaurs inhabited the area.

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Section: Floral Reconstructionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Dinosaur-plant interactions within a Middle Jurassic ecosystem—palynology of the Burniston Bay dinosaur footprint locality, Yorkshire, UK

Slater

Wellman

Romano³

et al. 2017

Palaeobio Palaeoenv

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“…the UK North Sea (e.g. Slater et al 2017), Yorkshire (Couper 1958;Wellman 2015, 2016;Slater et al 2018b, this issue) and Poland (Ziaja 2006). The Ukrainian Middle Jurassic flora is also similar to coeval assemblages from Sweden (Tralau 1967(Tralau , 1968Guy-Ohlson 1971Vajda 2001) and Denmark (Dybkjaer 1988;Mehlqvist et al 2009).…”

Section: сOmparison With Other Regional Florasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palynology of Jurassic (Bathonian) sediments from Donbas, northeast Ukraine

Shevchuk

Slater

Vajda

2018

Palaeobio Palaeoenv

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A palynological and sedimentological study of an outcrop succession adjacent to the village of Kamyanka within the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine was carried out. The successions occur within the Dnieper-Donets Basin, which hosts vast successions (> 20 km) of post midDevonian strata and is one of the main hydrocarbonproducing basins in Europe. Middle Jurassic sandstones, siltstones and claystones represent the sedimentary successions at the Kamyanska locality. Few palynological studies have been performed on the Jurassic of Ukraine and even fewer presented in the international literature. Thirty spore taxa and 21 pollen taxa were identified, together with taxa kept in open nomenclature (e.g. bisaccate pollen). Two palynological assemblages were identified within the Kamyanska succession (assemblages A and B) dated as Bathonian. Assemblage A is dominated by the fern spores (Cyathidites and Osmundacidites) and gymnosperm pollen produced by Cupressaceae (Perinopollenites elatoides), ginkgophytes/Cycadales/ Bennettitales (monosulcates) and Cheirolepidiaceae (Classopollis). Assemblage B differs in also comprising high abundances of Gleicheniidites and higher percentages of Pinuspollenites and Araucariacites compared to assemblage A. Another difference between the two units is the high relative abundance of seed fern pollen (Alisporites) in the upper part of assemblage B. The thermal alteration index (TAI) of the palynomorphs is estimated to range from 3 to 3.5, indicating a burial depth corresponding to the mature main phase of liquid petroleum and, to some extent, gas generation. Comparisons between the miospore and macrofloral assemblages show that the palynoflora and macroflora are strongly similar at broad taxonomic levels. Importantly, the miospore assemblages described here compare well with European Middle Jurassic assemblages indicating limited provincialism, with similar vegetation extending from eastern Ukraine and across most of Western Europe.Keywords Mesozoic . Kamyanka . Petroleum . Vegetation . Thermal alteration index (TAI) . Dnieper-Donets Basin ІntroductionThe Jurassic is an interesting period in the Earth's history as it saw the rise to ecological dominance of the dinosaurs, the evolution of birds, extant sub-classes of mammals, the fragmentation of Pangea and two major flood basalt events, both associated with massive biotic change. This took place in a context of generally elevated CO 2 and muted latitudinal temperature gradients; i.e. temperature differences between the tropics and the polar regions were less extreme compared to the present (Steinthorsdottir and Vajda 2015; Slater et al. 2018a, this issue). The poles were ice-free, and the vegetation was characterised by little provincialism (Vajda and WigforssLange 2009). However, in order to compare and contrast the vegetation between different regions through the palynoflora,

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“…Structureless silty mudstone interbeds ( Fig. 6E) are interpreted as muddy hyperpycnal flows (Slater et al, 2017;cf. Mulder et al, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Rannoch Formation consists predominantly of micaceous, very fine-to fine-grained sandstone beds, many of which have bioturbated tops and contain low-angle and hummocky crossstratification; these beds are interpreted to record storm events (Richards & Brown, 1986;Scott, 1992;Hampson et al, 2008). In the lower part of the Rannoch Formation, the sandstone beds are separated by mudstone intervals that are bioturbated and record suspension fallout during fair-weather periods (Richards & Brown, 1986) or are structureless and record rapid deposition from muddy hyperpycnal flows (Slater et al, 2017). These heterolithic intervals are assigned to the distal lower shoreface (cf.…”

Section: Geological Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterization of effective permeability in heterolithic, distal lower-shoreface sandstone reservoirs: Rannoch Formation, Brent Group, UK North Sea

Onyenanu¹,

Hampson²,

Fitch³

et al. 2019

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The reservoir properties of distal lower shoreface and distal wave-dominated delta-front deposits, which consist of sandstone beds with locally scoured bases and mudstone interbeds, are poorly understood. The lower Rannoch Formation (Middle Jurassic Brent Group) forms an interval of such heterolithic sandstones in many North Sea reservoirs, and is used to illustrate a workflow for rapid estimation of reservoir properties and their sensitivity to key parameters. Mudstone-interbed thickness distributions in cored reservoir successions are compared to the thickness distribution of sandstone scour-fills in an outcrop analogue(s) in order to identify mudstones with the potential to form laterally extensive barriers to vertical flow. Effective kv/kh at the scale of several typical reservoirmodel grid cells (200 x 100 x 20 m) is estimated in intervals bounded by these mudstone barriers via a simple analytical technique that is calibrated to previously documented reservoir-modelling experiments, using values of sandstone proportion measured in cored reservoir successions. Using data from the G2 parasequence (Grassy Member, Blackhawk Formation, east-central Utah, USA) outcrop analogue, mudstones bounding 3-8 m thick, upward-coarsening successions in the lower Rannoch Formation may define separate stratigraphic compartments in which grid-cell-scale effective kv/kh is estimated to be 0.0001-0.001 using a streamline-based analytical method.

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Episodic river flooding events revealed by palynological assemblages in Jurassic deposits of the Brent Group, North Sea

Cited by 21 publications

References 57 publications

Dinosaur-plant interactions within a Middle Jurassic ecosystem—palynology of the Burniston Bay dinosaur footprint locality, Yorkshire, UK

Dinosaur-plant interactions within a Middle Jurassic ecosystem—palynology of the Burniston Bay dinosaur footprint locality, Yorkshire, UK

Palynology of Jurassic (Bathonian) sediments from Donbas, northeast Ukraine

Characterization of effective permeability in heterolithic, distal lower-shoreface sandstone reservoirs: Rannoch Formation, Brent Group, UK North Sea

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