Paleopalynology of Papua

Khan, A.M.: Palynology of Tertiary sediments from Papua-New Guinea. Ph.D. thesis submitted to the School of Biological Sciences, Sydney, Canberra, A-C-T., March 1971. This thesis (promotor: Prof. A.R.H. Martin) consists of a pioneer study of Tertiary palynology of Papua; 107 spp. (including 36 Pteridophytes, 10 Gymnosperms, 52 Angiosperms and 9 spp. microplankton) are described; 8 new genera, 29 new spp. are distinguished (2 gen., 9 spp. in Pteridophytes, 1 sp. in Gymnosperms, 6 new gen., 19 new spp. in Angiosperms). Application is made in establishing boundaries between Upper Miocene/Lower Pliocene, Lower/Upper Pliocene, and Upper Mio-Pliocene/Pleistocene. All material is derived from 16 core samples (over a depth of c. 2300 m thick sediment) from Iviri No. 1 Well in the Fly River delta, at 144 45’ E and 76’ S, where the earliest Tertiary sediments are Upper Miocene, the transgression having taken place over the peneplainisation of the whole Cretaceous surface in Turonian-Senonian time.