Abstract
At most localities where the palynological Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary has been located in continuous deposition sequences in nonmarine rocks, an anomalous abundance of fern spores occurs immediately above the boundary. The fern-spore anomaly is characterized by unusually high relative abundance of fern spores and dominance by only one of a few species at each locality; it is independent of lithology. Its presence at the K-T boundary at localities from New Mexico to Saskatchewan is evidence of a regional bioevent in earliest Tertiary time: the overwhelming dominance of the continental flora by pioneer species following catastrophic destruction of existing plant communities by the terminal Cretaceous event.
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Fleming, R.F., Nichols, D.J. (1990). The fern-spore abundance anomaly at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary: A regional bioevent in western North America. In: Kauffman, E.G., Walliser, O.H. (eds) Extinction Events in Earth History. Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences, vol 30. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0011157
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0011157
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