Early Carboniferous (Early Viséan – Serpukhovian) Palynomorphs

Abstract. Well preserved assemblages of Early Carboniferous miospores have been recovered from a number of wells including A1–NC92, A1–37, A1 A–84, B1–2, G1–82, B1–14 and J1–81A. In some cases the palynomorph assemblages are quantitatively sparse and frequently show evidence of reworking of Late Devonian forms. A series of readily indentifiable palynological events have been established from examination of Wells J1–81A, A1–NC92, A1–14, A1–37 and A1 A–84. The oldest miospore assemblage has been recognised in Well A1–37 in the interval 7914 to 8185 ft. and in the lowest part of Well A1–NC92 above 9623 ft. and is characterised by abundant Spelaeotriletes balteatus occurring together with S. owensi, Radiizonates genuinus and Vallatisporites agadesi. The assemblage is supplemented in the lower part of the interval by Spelaeotriletes pretiosus and Vallatisporites vallatus. This association is considered to be no older than Early Viséan. Assemblages containing Spelaeotriletes pretiosus and Vallatisporites vallatus from the Rhadames Basin in western Libya (Massa et al., 1980) were considered to be Tournaisian age but the abundance of Spelaeotriletes balteatus in the present samples strongly suggests an earliest Viséan age to be more probable. Tournaisian sediments probably occur in some of the wells but the poor state of preservation together with problems of reworking do not at the present time permit them to be positively identified palynologically.

The second association which is recognised in Well A1–NC 92 in the interval 8900 to 9623 ft., in Well J1–81A . . .