A LATE CRETACEOUS PLANT ASSEMBLAGE FROM EAST-CENTRAL BRITISH COLUMBIA: I, FOSSIL LEAVES
Leaf compressions, spores, and pollen grains referrable to about 45 species were collected from a series of fine silts and coal stringers in the Parsnip River valley of the Rocky Mountain Trench. The leaf assemblage described in this paper indicates a late Maestrichtian to Danian age, somewhat younger than generally comparable assemblages previously reported from the lower part of the Edmonton Formation of Alberta, and from the Hell Creek, Lance, and Fox Hills Formations in the western interior of the United States. It also contains several species reported from the Nanaimo Group on eastern Vancouver Island. Plant microfossils (to be described in a later paper) include species of Glyptostrobus, Sciadopitys, Aquilapollenites, Pistillipollenites, Alnus, Myrica, Tilia, Pterocarya, and Carya, together with tricolpate pollen of uncertain affiliation. The combined leaf and microfossil assemblages indicate a warm mesothermal and humid paleoecological setting of low relief, suggesting absence of major mountain ranges westward to the Pacific Ocean.