Libopollis, a new pollen genus from the upper cretaceous (Maestrichtian) of North America

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Abstract
Libopollis, a previously undescribed genus of dispersed fossil angiosperm pollen from the Upper Cretaceous of North America, has been studied with light, scanning electron, and transmission electron microscopes. The subspherical to rounded triangular amb, reticulate sculpture, and hexaporotricolpate apertures distinguish this genus from previously described taxa of dispersed fossil angiosperm pollen. The type species, L. jarzenii sp. nov., is characterized by a subspherical amb, rarely perforate muri, angular lumina, and equatorially constricted colpi. Libopollis perferomura sp. nov. has a rounded triangular amb, circular lumina, perforate muri, and is planaperturate. Libopollis occurs in Upper Cretaceous (Maestrichtian) deposits in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Wyoming. The Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico deposits have palynofloras characteristic of the southern Aquilapollenites phytogeoprovince. Pollen characteristic of Normapolles province assemblages occurs with Libopollis in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina. Libopollis jarzenii is one of the few species occurring in both North American Upper Cretaceous phytogeoprovinces in roughly contemporaneous deposits, and thus has biostratigraphic potential for correlation of terrestrially derived palynofloras between the two provinces.