Galeacornea guayaguensis sp. nov., a new elaterate pollen species from the Cretaceous of central-western Argentina

Abstract

Here we present a revision of the elaterate pollen species that belong to the genus Galeacornea. We also describe a new species, Galeacornea guayaguensis sp. nov., from the Early Cretaceous (Albian?) of central-western Argentina. The specimens from this species were retrieved from sediments of the Lagarcito Formation (San Luis Basin) located at the Sierra de Guayaguás ranges in the San Juan province. Galeacornea guayaguensis shares with the other Galeacornea species the shape of the grain and the presence of an annular rim and distal appendages. The ridge-like appendages of G. guayaguensis are similar to those of G. stoveri and G. tarimensis, although they never fuse with the annular rim or with each other at their ends as it respectively occurs in these species. This new pollen species provides further evidence on the morphological variation of elaterate grains and extends the geographical distribution of Galeacornea to southern South America, far beyond the palaeophytogeographic Albian–Cenomanian Elaterates Province of the equatorial region. Finally, we propose a new combination of the species Quantonenpollenites crassatus to Galeacornea crassatus, considering that the morphological features of the former perfectly fit the diagnosis of the genus Galeacornea.