Contribuciones al estudio palinológico del Cretácico Inferior de la Cuenca Vasco-Cantábrica: los afloramientos ambarígenos de Peñacerrada (España)

Abstract

The outcrops with amber from Lower Cretaceous of Peñacerrada are located in the south margin of the Vasco Cantabrian Basin (Spain). The palynological samples come from the middle unit of the Escucha Formation and consist of mudstones, limes and lignites deposited in the sandy channels of a deltaic plain. The palynoflora is rich and diverse constituted by a high number of taxa of the Briophyta, Lycophyta, Pteridophyta, Coniferophyta, Cycadophyta/Ginkgophyta, Gnetophyta and Magnoliophyta divisions, which developed in warm and wet climatic conditions. The inaperturate and bisaccate anemophilous and Corollina pollen grains and cingulate, taeniate and psilate, possibly hidrophilous, spores numerically dominated the assemblages. On the one hand, these associations show the existence of coniferous forests formed by trees of the Araucariaceae and Cupressaceae families, with a rich undergrow constituted by