SUETEV PROFESSIONAL iSQti
Stratigraphic, Paleoclimatic, and 

Paleobiogeographic Significance of Tertiary 

Sporomorphs from Massachusetts

By NORMAN O. FREDERIKSEN

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1308

Subtropical Miocene, temperate Pliocene, and 

reworked tropical Eocene sporomorph assemblages 

from eastern Massachusetts are described

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, W AS H INGTON : 1 984
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

WILLIAM P. CLARK, Secretary

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

Dallas L. Peck, Director

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Frederiksen, Norman 0.

Stratigraphic, paeloclimatic, and paleogeographic significance of Tertiary sporomorphs from Massachusetts

(Geological Survey professional paper ; 1308)

Supt. of Docs, no.: I 19.16:1308

1. Palynology Massachusetts. 2. Paleobotany Tertiary. I. Title. II. Series.

QE993.F733 1984 561;.13'09744 83-18519

For sale by the Distribution Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, 

604 South Pickett Street, Alexandria, VA 22304
CONTENTS

Page Page

Abstract 1 Biostratigraphy Continued

Introduction 1

Acknowledgments 2 Reworked sporomorphs 13

Previous palynological studies 3 Possible Paleogene strata in Massachusetts 1"

Biostratigraphy 3 Eocene phytogeography and climate 17

Blockhouse Slide section 4 Miocene vegetation and climate 1^

Other Neogene localities 4 Vegetation 1^

Occurrences of Miocene taxa 6 Climate ~f:

Comparison of assemblages 13 References cited 

ILLUSTRATIONS

[Plates follow references]

PLATE 1. Miocene sporomorphs.

2. Miocene, Miocene or possibly reworked Eocene, and reworked Paleogene sporomorphs.

3. Reworked Paleogene pollen grains.

4. Reworked Paleogene and Cretaceous pollen grains.

Page

FIGURE 1. Middle Atlantic and Northeastern States, showing localities (other than those in Massachusetts) mentioned in text 2

2. Map of eastern Massachusetts 5

3. Scituate and northern half of Duxbury 7.5' quadrangles, Massachusetts 7

4. Map of western part of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts 1 ^

5. Known geologic ranges, in the Middle Atlantic States and New England, of stratigraphically important Miocene 

sporomorph taxa in Massachusetts 

6. Reworked Paleogene sporomorphs in Miocene strata of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, and known ranges of the taxa on

the Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains 14

 I Q

7. Middle Eocene topography, shoreline, and tropical-subtropical boundary in the eastern part of the United States °

8. Modern climatic and geographic ranges of exotic genera and families represented by Miocene sporomorphs from 

Massachusetts 

TABLES

TABLE 1. Sample localities and numerical list of samples 8

2. Sporomorph taxa in three Neogene samples from Blockhouse Slide, Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts 9

3. Sporomorph taxa in Miocene strata of eastern Massachusetts 11

4. Sporomorph taxa in three samples from the upper Oligocene(?) to the lower Miocene or lower middle Miocene of Maryland 12

5. Relative frequencies (percentages) of sporomorph taxa in Miocene samples from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts 19

6. Locations of illustrated specimens 21

	in

STRATIGRAPHIC, PALEOCLIMATIC, AND PALEOBIOGEOGRAPHIC 

SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

By NORMAN O. FREDERIKSEN

ABSTRACT

Little has been published on the Tertiary sporomorph (spore and 

pollen) floras of New England. For this paper, I have examined 24 

sporomorph samples from six localities in Plymouth County and Martha's Vineyard, Mass. Two independently dated samples, from the 

middle Miocene and Pliocene, respectively, of Gay Head, Martha's 

Vineyard, show that the Miocene flora of eastern Massachusetts 

represents rich subtropical forest, whereas the Pliocene flora reflects 

a relatively depauperate cool temperate forest. This middle Miocene 

sporomorph assemblage is compared with Tertiary assemblages from 

five other localities in eastern Massachusetts, and these six 

assemblages are compared with Miocene assemblages, most of them 

previously described, from Maryland and New Jersey. All six 

Massachusetts assemblages are similar to those from the Miocene of 

the Middle Atlantic States, but because the obvious qualitative 

(presence-absence) changes were few in the sporomorph floras of the 

Middle Atlantic States during the Miocene, it cannot be determined 

from the taxon lists whether all the Massachusetts samples are 

middle Miocene like the independently dated sample from Gay Head. 

Climatic differences among Miocene samples in New Jersey have 

been determined on the basis of relative frequencies of the main 

sporomorph taxa However, taxon percentages could not be found for 

the Plymouth County samples because they contain abundant reworked sporomorphs.

The reworked sporomorphs show that Miocene strata of Plymouth 

County were derived at least in part from sediments of Late 

Cretaceous, Paleocene, and early Eocene to earliest middle Eocene 

ages. Most of the reworked sporomorphs are probably early Eocene 

to earliest middle Eocene in age, and all these taxa are also found in 

the Gulf Coast, showing that the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains 

seem to have formed one floristic and climatic province in the early 

Eocene to early middle Eocene. At that time, the climate of coastal 

Massachusetts was probably winter-dry tropical.

Miocene samples of Martha's Vineyard probably lack reworked 

palynomorphs. Counts of sporomorph taxa from these samples, and 

the taxon lists for all the samples, suggest that, in the Miocene, Massachusetts was covered with dense Mixed Mesophytic coniferhardwood forest that included several exotic elements such as 

Sciadopitys, Podocarpus, Engelhardia group, and perhaps 

Gleichenia-Dicranop teris.

INTRODUCTION

Tertiary deposits in eastern Massachusetts have been 

known at least since 1824 (Hitchcock, 1824; see White, 

1890), but the ages of the scattered Tertiary outcrops in 

the region have been a matter of debate. The main purpose of this paper is to correlate the best known outcrops with well-dated sections farther south on the 

Atlantic Coastal Plain and, where possible, to determine 

correlations among the individual Tertiary outcrops of 

eastern Massachusetts. The sporomorph assemblages 

also have significant paleofloristic, paleobiogeographic, 

and paleoclimatic implications because little has been 

published on Tertiary floras of Northeastern United 

States except on the Oligocene(?) Brandon lignite flora 

of Vermont (fig. 1; Traverse, 1955; many papers by 

B. H. Tiffney). Finally, the reworked sporomorphs in 

many of the Massachusetts samples offer information 

about cycles of reworking, about the provenance of the 

Neogene sediments, and about Paleogene biogeography 

and climates.

The 24 Massachusetts samples that I studied are 

listed in table 1. They were prepared by means of standard acid maceration as well as by swirling (Funkhouser 

and Evitt, 1959) and (or) ZnBr2 separation. Residues 

were mounted in glycerine jelly or vinylite AYAF (vinyl 

acetate resin). Coordinates listed in table 6 at the end of 

the paper locate the illustrated specimens on Leitz 

microscope 871956 at the U.S. Geological Survey, 

Reston, Va., where slides used in this study are stored; 

for methods of relocating specimens on other microscopes, see Frederiksen and Christopher (1978) and 

Frederiksen (1978b).
80°

SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

75° 70° 65°

FIGURE 1. Middle Atlantic and Northeastern States, showing localities (other than those in Massachusetts) mentioned in text. Shaded area indicates eastern Massachusetts study area of figure 2. A, Brandon lignite (Traverse, 1955; Tiffney, 1977-1979). B, Legler lignite (Rachele, 

1976). C, Wells and surface samples studied by Goldstein (1974). D, Prince Georges County, Md. (table 4 of this paper). E, Calvert County, 

Md. (Garner, 1976, and probably Leopold, 1969).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am particularly grateful to C. A. Kaye, U.S. 

Geological Survey, who initiated my interest in this 

project, provided most of the samples, offered guidance 

in the field and provided background data on the 

stratigraphy and structure of eastern Massachusetts. I 

also thank B. H. Tiffney, Yale University, for some

botanical and paleobotanical interpretations, R. L. 

Pierce, Mobil Oil Corporation, for suggesting references 

to the distribution of fossil Sciadopitys, F. C. Whitmore, Jr., U.S. Geological Survey, for providing information about sampling localities hi Massachusetts, and 

L. D. Rachele for supplying slides of sporomorphs from 

the Legler lignite. B. H. Tiffney, Yale University, and T. 

A. Ager and F. C. Whitmore, Jr., U.S. Geological
PREVIOUS PALYNOLOGICAL STUDIES

Survey, reviewed the first draft of this paper and offered helpful suggestions for its improvement.

PREVIOUS PALYNOLOGICAL STUDIES

Paleocene and Eocene sporomorphs from the middle 

and southern parts of the Atlantic Coastal Plain are 

rather well known (Leopold, 1959; Groot and Groot, 

1962; Brenner and Patricelli, 1977; Brenner and others, 

1979; Frederiksen and Christopher, 1978; Frederiksen, 

1978a, 1979, 1980b), but Oligocene assemblages from 

this region have been little studied (Hazel and others, 

1977; Frederiksen and Christopher, 1978; Frederiksen, 

1980b). Only two papers (Leopold, 1969; Rachele, 1976) 

and one abstract (Sirkin and Owens, 1976) have been 

published on Neogene sporomorph assemblages from 

the Atlantic Coastal Plain south of New England, but 

an unpublished thesis (Garner, 1976) and an unpublished dissertation (Goldstein, 1974) also provide useful 

information.

Little has been published on the Cretaceous and Tertiary palynology of Massachusetts. Sayles and Knox 

(1943, p. 1607) mentioned recovering "a well-preserved 

pollen flora" from Cretaceous and Tertiary strata of the 

Marshfield area and from Martha's Vineyard (fig. 2), 

but they gave no further details. W. S. Hoffmeister (in 

Zeigler and others, 1960) and Groot and Groot (1964) 

recovered Cretaceous, Paleocene, and Eocene sporomorphs from three wells on Cape Cod (fig. 2), and E. B. 

Leopold found Eocene sporomorphs at Scituate Third 

Cliff (unpublished work cited by Chute, 1965, and Kaye, 

1967a, p. 1037; fig. 3, and locality 5 of table 1 of this 

paper). Cretaceous and Tertiary palynomorphs were 

reported by R. A. Christopher, F. E. May, and N. O. 

Frederiksen in two test wells on Nantucket and 

Martha's Vineyard (Folger and others, 1978; Hall and 

others, 1980; fig. 2). A summary of some results of the 

present palynological study was given in 1979 (Frederiksen and others, 1979). Nothing has been published on 

pre-Quaternary palynology of New England outside of 

Massachusetts, except for Traverse's (1955) extensive 

study of pollen from the Brandon lignite (probably 

Oligocene) of Vermont (fig. 1).

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY

Miocene and Pliocene strata in Massachusetts have 

been known since the 19th century when fossils from 

these units were first studied in detail (Lyell, 1843; Verrill, 1878; Ball, 1894). The presence of Eocene rocks in 

Massachusetts has been suspected since Crosby (1881) 

and Brown (1905a, b) found Eocene mollusk-bearing

boulders and pebbles in glacial drift on Cape Cod and 

Chappaquiddick Island. Fossiliferous Eocene rocks 

have also been dredged from the Continental Slope 

south of Cape Cod (Gibson, 1965, and references 

therein). Eocene fossils of various kinds have been 

found in deposits on Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, 

and on the Massachusetts mainland (Zeigler and others, 

1960; Kaye, 1967a; Folger and others, 1978; Frederiksen and others, 1979; Hall and others, 1980), but the 

question in each place is the age of the enclosing 

matrix is it Eocene, Neogene, or Pleistocene?

Correlation of Tertiary strata in Massachusetts is difficult for several reasons: outcrops are few and widely 

scattered, calcareous and vertebrate fossils are absent 

or rare in some outcrops, and reworking of fossils into 

younger strata is common. However, perhaps the most 

difficult problems are caused by glacial disturbance of 

pre-existing sediments. Thrusting, overturning, transporting, and mixing of strata by glacial action are so 

pervasive that the original Tertiary stratigraphy of the 

region is obscure, and it is possible that all Tertiary 

strata remaining in Massachusetts have been dislocated 

(Woodworth and Wigglesworth, 1934; Kaye, 1964a, b, 

1979). A good example of a confusing sequence of strata 

is found in U.S. Geological Survey well ENW-50, in the 

central part of Martha's Vineyard (fig. 2), the lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of which were described 

by Hall and others (1980). At depths between 43 and 

48m, sparse sporomorphs suggest that the strata are 

Neogene. C. A. Kaye (in Hall and others, 1980) tentatively correlated this interval with a Pliocene bed at 

Gay Head on the basis of mineralogy and the presence 

of barnacle shells. Below 48 m is an unfossiliferous interval that extends to 61 m. Between 61 and 70 m, four 

core samples contain a diverse assemblage of Neogene 

as well as Cretaceous, Paleocene, and Eocene sporomorphs. Cores from 64 to 77 m also contain early Tertiary calcareous nannofossils and foraminifers. In 1977, 

when I studied the sporomorph assemblages, I interpreted them to mean that the interval at least from 61 

to 70 m is Miocene, containing reworked Cretaceous and 

early Tertiary sporomorphs. Opposed to this interpretation is the fact, presented in the present paper, that 

reworked sporomorphs have not been recognized in 

definite Miocene samples from Martha's Vineyard. Hall 

and others (1980) interpreted the data to indicate that 

the interval from 61 to 77 m is in place (not glacially 

dislocated) and is early Tertiary in age; that is, they 

believed that the early Tertiary fossils are autochthonous and that the Neogene sporomorphs are contaminants, in spite of the absence of diverse Neogene 

sporomorph assemblages in any of the samples above 

the supposed lower Tertiary interval in the well. A third 

interpretation is that of C. A. Kaye (cited by Hall and
SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

others, 1980, p. 6, 8; oral commun., 1981) who, on the 

basis of sediment mineralogy, considered that the interval in the well at least from 53 to 77 m is likely to be 

Pleistocene. Kaye is not surprised that strata apparently of Neogene age overlie probable Pleistocene drift in 

this well: "The inversion of normal stratigraphic position indicated here is a common occurrence in the large 

Gay Head moraine, where the essential structure is an 

imbricated pile of thrust plates" (quoted by Hall and 

others, 1980, p. 6).

BLOCKHOUSE SLIDE SECTION

The only outcropping section in New England that includes more than one Tertiary lithologic unit is in the 

northern part of Gay Head cliffs, Martha's Vineyard. 

Three Neogene units are present there and were sampled in the Blockhouse Slide (table 1, loc. la; fig. 4). I 

began with this section because it includes almost the 

only units sampled for this study that have been independently dated by means of other fossils. In descending order, the units, and samples representing them, 

are:

R1280 Shelly sand

R1270A Ferruginous clay

R1267 Greensand

Further details on the sample localities and the units 

studied for this paper are given in table 1.

Fossils from the greensand at Gay Head have been 

the object of study since the 18th century (see White, 

1890). The most thorough investigations have been 

those of Dall (1894) and Kaye and others (1979). Ball 

(1894, p. 299), on the basis of vertebrates, crustaceans, 

and mollusks from the greensand, decided that this bed 

is "certainly not lower than the St. Mary's fauna and 

probably between that and the Yorktown beds." The St. 

Marys Formation is now known to be upper middle Miocene and (or) upper Miocene; the Yorktown Formation is 

Pliocene (Blackwelder, 1981). On the other hand, Kaye 

and others (1979), on the basis of vertebrates, concluded 

that the greensand at Gay Head is early middle Miocene 

in age.

The distinction of the ferruginous clay as a separate 

unit from weathered greensand seems not to have been 

mentioned in published papers except by Kaye (1964a, 

p. C136), who referred to this bed as a "massive ferruginous clay." The age of the clay has not previously 

been determined because it lacks calcareous fossils.

The first mention of the shelly sand as a distinct unit 

above the ferruginous clay at Gay Head was by Dall 

and Harris (1892, p. 36). On the basis of mollusks, the 

shelly sand has been considered by successive workers 

as "perhaps" Pliocene (Dall, 1894, p. 300), as early

Pliocene (Woodworth and Wigglesworth, 1934, p. 30), as 

Pleistocene (Raup and Lawrence, 1963), and as correlative with the Yorktown Formation to the south that 

is, as Pliocene in age (Druid Wilson, cited by Hall and 

others, 1980, p. 6). Ostracodes from the shelly sand are 

also very similar to those from the Yorktown Formation 

and indicate that the shelly sand is Pliocene or possibly 

latest Miocene in age (T. M. Cronin, oral commun., 

1981).

Table 2 shows that the greensand (sample R1267; 

lower middle Miocene) has a much more diverse sporomorph flora than the two overlying units and includes 

pollen grains from a wide variety of dicot trees. The 

sporomorph assemblages from the ferruginous clay 

(sample R1270A) and from the shelly sand (sample 

R1280; Pliocene) are much less diverse; they include little pollen from dicot trees and consist mainly of pollen 

of JPinus, shrubs and herbs, and spores of Sphagnum 

and pteridophytes. Whereas R1267 represents the rich 

forest of a humid subtropical climate (in the climatic 

classification of Trewartha, 1968), R1270A and R1280 

represent low-diversity cool temperate forests. The rare 

sporomorphs of Gleicheniidites (pi. 1, fig. 1), Paleogene 

type of Gary a (pi. 2, fig. 30), and Palmae in R1280 are 

undoubtedly reworked, whereas Podocarpus (pi. 1, fig. 

7), Pterocarya type (pi. 1, fig. 25), and Sciadopitys (pi. 1, 

figs. 2-6) are represented by many specimens in R1267, 

and these genera, in addition to possible Gleicheniidites, 

are probably indigenous in that sample. The only 

published work on Pliocene sporomophs of the Atlantic 

Coastal Plain is an abstract by Sirkin and Owens (1976) 

on supposed upper Pliocene deposits of the Delmarva 

Peninsula. These authors found a Pinus-Quercus-CaryaNAP (nonarboreal pollen) assemblage that includes 

Pterocarya type. This assemblage is much richer than 

that from the Pliocene of Massachusetts.

In summary, table 2 shows that the Gay Head floras 

of the early middle Miocene (R1267) were distinctly different from those of the Pliocene (R1280). Sporomorphs 

of R1270A are much more similar to those of R1280 

than to those of R1267; thus, the ferruginous clay is 

probably Pliocene in age.

OTHER NEOGENE LOCALITIES

Having finished the examination of the Blockhouse 

Slide assemblages (locality la of table 1), I turned to 

samples from five other localities in eastern Massachusetts, as follows (figs. 2-4): 

Locality Ib. Former White Spur, Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard

2. Zacks Cliffs, Martha's Vineyard 

3a, b. Near Marshfield Center, Plymouth County

4. Marshfield Cranberry Bog no. 1 corehole, Plymouth 

County

5. Scituate Third Cliff, Plymouth County
BIOSTRATIGRAPHY

70°

42°

1

Marshfield Q 

Center'

Area of figure 3A 

(Scituate quadrangle 

7.5' orthophotoquad)

-Area of figure 3B

(Scituate and northern 

half Duxbury quadrangles 7.5' orthophotoquads)

Wells studied by Zeigler 

and others (1960) and 

by Groot and Groot (1962)

uses

borehole 

6001

20 MILES

10 20 30 KILOMETERS

FIGURE 2. Eastern Massachusetts showing study area. County boundaries are shown by dashed line.
SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

The greensand beds at former White Spur and in Zacks 

Cliffs could represent the same bed as the middle 

Miocene greensand (sample R1267) in Blockhouse Slide, 

but this is difficult to prove because the three units are 

structurally disconnected. The greensand at former 

White Spur, although in the same moraine (probably of 

Illinoian age) as Blockhouse Slide, is in a different 

thrust plate than the slide, and the greensand in Zacks 

Cliffs is in a different moraine (probably of Wisconsinan 

age; Kaye, 1964b, c, 1980a). Tertiary strata near Marshfield and Marshfield Center and in Scituate Third Cliff 

are probably in the same Illinoian moraine as the greensand beds at Gay Head; like the deposits of Gay Head, 

the mainland units occur in imbricated thrust plates 

(Kaye, 1964a, b, 1979, 1980b).

Glauconitic silt in the Marshfield area has been 

known since Hitchcock (1833,1838, 1841) reported that 

a bed having this lithology was present in the shallow 

subsurface resting on or not far above granite bedrock. 

Hitchcock (1841, v. 2, p. 427) noted that this bed "may 

be the same stratum of green sand as has been described 

at Gay Head." On the basis of scarce mollusks, Shaler 

(1890, p. 447) believed the Gay Head greensand to be 

younger than the Marshfield area glauconitic silt and 

wrote that the silt bed was evidently Cretaceous in age. 

Bowman (1906) and Emerson (1917) stated that W. H. 

Dall (apparently in an unpublished report) had determined mollusks from the Marshfield area glauconitic 

silt to be Miocene in age. Woodworth and Wigglesworth 

(1934, p. 21) listed the few taxa of fossils found in the 

greensand near Marshfield, and, on the basis of both 

fossils and lithology, they considered this bed probably 

to be the same unit as the greensand at Gay Head.

Little previous work has been done on the age and correlation of the Tertiary glauconitic clay at Scituate 

Third Cliff. Bowman (1905, 1906) reported that useful 

fossils were virtually absent at this locality; he tentatively correlated the Scituate Third Cliff deposit with 

the glauconitic silt near Marshfield, which he considered 

to be Miocene. However, in 1906, Bowman (p. 325) 

thought the Scituate bed might instead be Eocene or 

Oligocene in age. Preliminary study of sporomorphs 

from this locality by E. B. Leopold (cited by Chute, 

1965, and Kaye, 1967a, p. 1037) also suggested that the 

deposit may be Eocene.

OCCURRENCES OF MIOCENE TAXA

Table 3 summarizes the occurrences of Miocene taxa 

at the six localities studied for this paper. Reasons for 

considering the sporomorphs to be Miocene will be explained in this and the following section of the paper. 

The list of taxa in table 3 is not exhaustive, for several

70°42'30"

1 MILE

1 KILOMETER
BIOSTRATIGRAPHY

70°42'30"

1 MILE

1 KILOMETER

 ^ A FIGURE 3. Scituate (/4) and northern half of Duxbury (B) 7.5' quadrangles, Massachusetts. Numbers refer to localities listed in table 1.

Orthophotomap base by U.S. Geological Survey, 1:25,000.
8 SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

reasons. Except for the unpublished thesis of Garner TABLE i. Sample 

(1976), no data, especially in the form of photomicrographs, are available from the Atlantic Coastal Plain _________ 

concerning Neogene sporomorphs other than those 

assigned to extant taxa In the Plymouth County

localities and numerical 

Continued

list of samples 

Numerical list of samples

Sample 

number Locality

TABLE I. Sample localities and numerical list of samples

[Blockhouse Slide and White Spur are unpublished names used by C. A. Kaye 

(written commun., 1981)]

Sample localities

Locality

number Description

1.

Ib.

2.

3.

3a

3b.

4.

5.

Gay Head Cliffs, Martha's Vineyard. Tertiary beds 

here are in imbricated thrust sheets containing 

Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Pleistocene strata; the 

entire mass is part of the Gay Head moraine probably of Illinoian age (Woodworth and Wigglesworth, 1934; Kaye, 1964b, 1972,1979). The entire 

cliff is undergoing rapid erosion.

Blockhouse Slide, northern end of Gay Head Cliffs, 

Martha's Vineyard, northwestern part of Squibnocket 7.5' quadrangle, Dukes County, Mass. Lat 

41° 21.10' N., long 70° 50.15' W. Samples R1267, 

R1270A, and R1280. The Neogene units were exposed high in the cliff in 1978-1979. The exposure 

consisted of a recumbent isoclinal syncline overlain by a thrust plate having Upper Cretaceous 

sediments at its base (Kaye, 1980b; C. A Kaye, 

written commun., 1979).

Near beach level at former White Spur, Gay Head 

Cliffs, Martha's Vineyard, lat 41° 21.16' N., long 

70° 50.12' W. The Tertiary greensand (sample 

R1555) was exposed after Hurricane "Donna" in 

1960 (C. A. Kaye, written commun., 1979).

Zacks Cliffs, Martha's Vineyard, lat 41° 19' N., long 

70° 49' W. Sample R1513. The bed containing 

sporomorphs is 0.3-0.6 m thick and has been glacially dislocated (Kaye, 1964b, fig. 1; 1964c, p. 8; 

1980a; C. A. Kaye, oral commun., 1981).

Near Marshfield Center, Plymouth County. In this 

area, the glauconitic silts are found in two 

Pleistocene thrust sheets, one above the other 

(Kaye, 1979; C. A. Kaye, oral commun., 1978).

North gravel pit, northeast of Marshfield Center, on 

the east side of Church Street, southernmost part 

of Scituate 7.5' quadrangle and northernmost 

part of Duxbury 7.5' quadrangle. Lat 42° 7.50' N., 

long 70° 42.42' W. Samples D5260 2-3.

South gravel pit, between Marshfield Center and 

Telegraph Hill, northwestern part of Duxbury 7.5' 

quadrangle. Lat 42° 6.93' N., long 70° 42.42' W. 

Samples D52591-12.

U.S. Geological Survey Marshfield Cranberry Bog 

no. 1 corehole, lat 42° 5.67' N., long 70° 43.75' W., 

Duxbury 7.5' quadrangle, Plymouth County. 

Sample R1524.

Scituate Third Cliff, Scituate 7.5' quadrangle, 

Plymouth County. Lat 42° 10.88' N., long 70° 

43.05' W. Samples D1885A and R1394A-C. The 

Tertiary siltstone and claystone are in Pleistocene 

thrust sheets (Bowman, 1906; Kaye, 1979).

D1885A Dark-greenish-gray glauconitic clay from base of 

Scituate Third Cliff, locality 5.

D5259 1-12 South pit near Marshfield Center, locality 3b. 

Samples D5259 1-4 (numbered in ascending 

order) are from the lower thrust sheet at the base 

of the pit; samples D5259 5-12 (numbered in 

ascending order) are from the upper thrust sheet. 

Light-gray (dark-gray when wet) laminated micaceous glauconitic clayey silt.

D5260 2-3 North pit near Marshfield Center, locality 3a 

Samples D5260 2-3 (numbered in ascending 

order) are from the silt above the Pleistocene sand 

and gravel in this pit. Same lithology as D5259 

1-12.

R1267 Greensand from Blockhouse Slide, Gay Head, locality la Green, weathering brown, very glauconitic, phosphatic, shelly, pebbly sand.

R1270A Highly ferruginous, slightly glauconitic massive 

clay, overlying R1267 and underlying R1280, at 

Blockhouse Slide, Gay Head, locality la

R1280 Shelly sand overlying R1270A at Blockhouse Slide, 

Gay Head, locality la Interbedded sand, silt, and 

clay, light-greenish-gray, glauconitic, shelly; sand 

is fine- to coarse-grained.

R1394A-C Scituate Third Cuff, locality 5. Sample R1394A is 

light-olive-gray, very micaceous silt from toe of 

slide; R1394B, medium-dark-olive-gray, silty, 

slightly micaceous clay from toe of slide; R1394C, 

medium-dark-olive-gray, slightly micaceous clay.

R1513 Greensand from Zacks Cliffs, locality 2.

R1524 U.S. Geological Survey Marshfield Cranberry Bog 

no. 1 corehole, locality 4. Sample is greensand 

from 14.5-15 ft (4.4-4.6 m) below surface.

R1555 Greensand near beach level, former White Spur, 

Gay Head, locality Ib.

samples I found quite a few sporomorph taxa that I 

could not assign to living genera but that I also did not 

recognize as being Paleogene in age; thus, I did not 

know whether these sporomorphs were Miocene or 

Paleogene. Most of these taxa have been omitted from 

table 3. However, I have illustrated several of the exotic 

or extinct forms found in the Miocene samples from 

Martha's Vineyard because these samples seem to lack 

reworked sporomorphs; for this reason, I believe that 

the apparently extinct sporomorph forms from the Martha's Vineyard samples are probably Miocene in age (pi. 

1, figs. 23, 24, 26; pi. 2, figs. 1-2, 5). Several of the taxa 

listed in table 3 are probably Miocene but may possibly 

be reworked from the Eocene. Boehlensipollis hohlii 

Kmtzsch 1962 (pi. 2, fig. 4) belongs to Elaeagnaceae, 

and Ephedripites hungaricus Nagy 1963 (pi. 1, fig. 12) 

was undoubtedly produced by Ephedra. The oldest
BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 9

TABLE 2. Sporomorph taxa in three Neogene samples from 

Blockhouse Slide, Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

[In descending order, samples are: R1280, Pliocene; R1270A, age uncertain; R1267, middle

Miocene]

Taxa R1280 R1270A R1267

	The Momipites spackmanianus complex has its first ap- 

	pearance in the Eocene but undoubtedly ranges up into 

	the Neogene; this taxon is discussed later in this section 

	of the paper. Neogenisporis Krutzsch 1962 appears to 

	be morphologically indistinguishable from GleichTrees: eniidites Ross 1949; however, in Europe, Neogenisporis 

Abies ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ? has a range base in the middle Oligocene whereas 

Betula __________________________ X X Gleicheniidites has a range top in the Eocene (Krutzsch,

Carya - -__ __ x 1962). Gleichenioid spores have not previously been

Castanea x reported from the Neogene of eastern United States. In

Cornaceae ? short, the very rare gleichenioid spores in the Miocene

Sr*----~------------------------------- - - x °^ Massachusetts could be reworked Gleicheniidites or

jjarix ___________________________ ___ ____ ? indigenous Neogenisporis.

L^^m6^^--------------------------- ------- x Previous palynological work on the Neogene of the

p^a________________ ? x x Atlantic Coastal Plain has been done on the Calvert,

Pinus ___________________________ xxx Choptank, and St. Marys Formations of Maryland (LeoQuercus x pold, 1969; Garner, 1976), on the Kirkwood Formation

Taxodiaceae-Cupressaceae-Taxaceae x (Goldstein, 1974) and the overlying Cohansey Sand

uga 77iT J (Rachele, 1976) of New Jersey, and on the Walston Silt

Ulmus-Zelkova ________ x , , ^ , f , ^ i ^» i /o- i Low shrubs, herbs, vines: and Beaverdam Sand of the Delmarva Peninsula (Sirkin

Caryophyllaceae ? and Owens, 1976). The Calvert Formation is lower

Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthaceae ? Miocene and lower middle Miocene, the Choptank ForCompositae, short spine x x mation is middle middle to upper middle Miocene, and

^""^^-^-^-IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ~ - * the St Marvs Formation is upper middle Miocene and

ErSceaT-_____________ x x (°r) upper Miocene (Abbott and Andrews, 1979, text-fig.

Gramineae x x x 3; Blackwelder, 1981; Gibson, in press). The Kirkwood

Myrica ? x Formation is lower Miocene to perhaps middle upper

Aquatics and semiaquatics: Miocene (Goldstein, 1974). Rachele (1976) concluded, on

Myrwphyllum - x the bag.g rf sporomorpn assemblages, that the Legler

bpargamum-lypna X . » /^ « » T T i ^

Pteridophytes and bryophytes: Kgnite in the Cohansey Sand of New Jersey is late

Lycopodium xxx Miocene or early Pliocene in age; however, from the data

Osmunda x presented by Leopold (1969), Goldstein (1974), and

Sphagnum xxx Garner (1976), and by comparison with table 2 of this

SelagineUa X fche ^ , j^^ ^ Miocene rather than

Botrychium ? ** T _., % , e ~ , ,. ., T,~ , ,

Exotics- Phocene. The Cohansey Sand overlies the Kirkwood

Carya (Paleogene type) x Formation; the Cohansey is, therefore, presumably late

Momipites spackmanianus complex ? Miocene in age. Sirkin and Owens (1976) considered the

Gleicheniidites x ? Walston Silt and the Beaverdam Sand to be late Plio-

 , ae ^^ m age

Podocarpus x ^

Pterocarya type x Garner's (1976) samples from the Calvert Formation

Sciadopitys x of Calvert County, Md., included some from the

 Fairhaven Member, which is probably lower Miocene

known occurrences of these two species in the Atlantic (Blackwelder, 1981). I also examined three samples of

and Gulf Coastal Plains are in the late middle Eocene approximately the same age from the Patuxent River

(Frederiksen, 1980a). No palynological evidence exists valley, Prince Georges County, Md. (Lower Marlboro

that the Miocene sediments of Massachusetts were 7.5' quadrangle, lat 38° 40.08' N., long 76° 42.00' W.;

derived from reworking of sediments as young as late see table 4 and fig. 1). The samples were supplied by

middle Eocene; therefore, Boehlensipollis hohKi and L. W. Ward, who noted (written commun., 1979) that

Ephedripites hungaricus in the Miocene are probably sample R2171B "contains molluscan molds much like

autochthonous. Pseudolaesopollis may include pollen those on Pamunkey River [of east-central Virginia] that

grains of both Cyrillaceae (Costaea type; Frederiksen, were found to be late Oligocene. Sample R2171D is

1980b) and Clethraceae. On the Gulf Coast, Pseudo- basal Calvert Formation (probably early Miocene)."

laesopottis ranges down into the upper Paleocene (Fred- Sample R2171C is from an intermediate position in the

eriksen, 1980b), but Clethra still lives in New England, section. All three of these samples have similar
10 SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

70°50' 70°47'30"

1 MILE

1 KILOMETER

FIGURE 4. Western part of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Squibnocket 7.5' quadrangle. Orthophotomap base by U.S. Geological

Survey, 1:25,000.
BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 11

assemblages, and they are not likely to be very different 

in age. I suspect that all three samples are Miocene 

because they all contain Sciadopitys, which I have 

never seen in an Oligocene assemblage from the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains.

Most individual taxa from the Massachusetts 

Miocene (table 3) have no known biostratigraphic 

significance within the middle and upper Tertiary of the 

Atlantic Coastal Plain. Cyrilla-Cliftonia, Gordonia, 

Sapotaceae, and Symplocos still live in Eastern United 

States but not as far north as Maryland (however, Symplocos still lives as far north as Virginia and therefore is 

not included in fig. 5). The modern range of Podocarpus 

does not extend north of Mexico, and Pterocarya is now 

extinct in the Americas. Cyrilla-Cliftonia, Gordonia, 

Podocarpus, and Pterocarya type range stratigraphically as high as the Cohansey Sand (probably upper 

Miocene) in New Jersey (Rachele, 1976), and Wolfe 

(1975) and Sirkin and Owens (1976) found Pterocarya 

type in the Pliocene of Eastern United States (fig. 5). 

Gordonia is not known certainly from older rocks than 

the Brandon lignite (probably Oligocene) of Vermont 

(Traverse, 1955). Ephedra, Sapotaceae, and Symplocos 

have not been reported in Maryland from strata higher 

than the Calvert Formation (lower Miocene to lower 

middle Miocene; Leopold, 1969; Garner, 1976). 

Symplocos was not found in the Kirkwood Formation of 

New Jersey, but Ephedra and Sapotaceae range there as 

high as beds that are approximately Calvert in age 

(Goldstein, 1974). Among pollen forms that now occur 

in the Middle Atlantic States and New England, Compositae pollen is found as low in the section as the 

Calvert Formation in Maryland (Leopold, 1969; Garner,

TABLE S. Sporomorph taxa in Miocene strata of eastern 

Massachusetts

[All taxa listed here are probably represented by nonreworked grains; however, particularly 

in samples from Plymouth County, some taxa may be represented in part by reworked 

specimens]

TABLE 3. Sporomorph taxa in Miocene strata of eastern 

Massachusetts Continued

Plymouth County

D5259 1-12 R1524 D1885A 

D5260 2, 3 R1394 A-C

Trees:

Betula 

Carya 

Corylus 

CyrUla-Cliftonia

Ilex

Juglans type 

X 

X 

X 

X

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X

X X 

X X 

X X 

X

X X 

X X

Martha's Vineyard

R1267

7

X 

X 

X 

X

7

X 

X

9

R1513

X 

X 

X

X 

X

R1555

X 

X 

X 

X

X

Plymouth County

D5259 1-12 R1524 D1885A 

D5260 2, 3 R1394 A-C

Liquidambar 

Momipites 

spackmanianus comPodocarpus 

Pterocarya type

Satix 

Sapotaceae 

Sciadopitys 

TaxodiaceaeCupressaceaeTaxaceae 

TUia 

Ulmus-Zelkova - 

Low shrubs, herbs, v 

Boehlensipollis 

hohlii Krutzsch

LiJ\J£i

ChenopodiaceaeAmaranthaCompositae, 

short spine 

Compositae, 

long spine 

Ephedripites 

hungaricus 

Nagy 19631 

Gramineae 

Malvaceae 

Pseudolaesopollis spp. 1 

X

X

?

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X

X 

X 

X

ines: 

X

X 

X 

X

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X

Aquatics and semiaquatics:

SparganiumTypha 

Pteridophytes and br 

Gleicheniidites or 

Neogenisporis 1 

Lycopodium 

Sphagnum 

Selaginetta 

X

yophytes:

X 

X 

X 

X 

X

X

X

X 

X

X 

X 

X

X 

X 

X

X 

X

X 

X 

X

X

X

X 

X

X

X

X 

X 

X

X 

X 

X 

X

X

X 

X 

X 

X

X 

X 

X

X 

X

X 

X 

X

Martha's Vineyard

R12G7

X

?

X 

X 

X

X 

X 

X

X

X

X 

X

?

X

X

?

X 

X

X

X 

X

X 

X 

X 

X

R1513

X

?

X 

X 

X

X 

X

?

X 

X 

X

X 

X

X

?

X 

X

R1555

X 

X 

X

X 

X 

X

X

X 

X 

X 

X

X

X

X 

X

'Probably Miocene but possibly reworked from the Eocene.
12 SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

1976). Compositae pollen first appears in the Kirkwood 

Formation of New Jersey in strata of approximately 

late middle Miocene age (Goldstein, 1974), but I doubt 

that the apparent lack of pollen of this family in strata 

of Calvert age in New Jersey is very significant; in my 

experience, Compositae pollen is erratic in its occurrence throughout the Neogene. Umbelliferae pollen has 

its lowest known occurrence, in the Middle Atlantic 

States, in the Choptank Formation (middle middle to 

upper middle Miocene) of Maryland (Leopold, 1969), but 

this pollen form is considerably sparser even than Compositae pollen in the Neogene; thus, the lower limit of 

the range of Umbelliferae pollen must be considered to 

be poorly known.

Sciadopitys (umbrella pine) now lives only in Japan. 

The few previous records of the genus in eastern North 

America are:

1. Elsik and Dilcher (1974, p. 74, pi. 28, fig. 59) illustrated a pollen grain from the middle Eocene of 

Tennessee that they tentatively attributed to 

Sciadopitys.

2. Leopold (1969, p. 409) stated that Sciadopitys pollen 

occurred in the Paleogene of the Middle Atlantic 

States but was lacking from the Miocene of the 

same region. However, I saw no specimens of the 

genus during an extensive palynological study of 

the Paleogene of Virginia (Frederiksen, 1979).

3. A clay sample from western Kentucky contained 

pollen of Sciadopitys and Pterocarya type, along 

with presently native sporomorph taxa, and was 

thought to be Pliocene but possibly Miocene or 

latest Oligocene in age (R. H. Tschudy, quoted by 

Finch and Minard, 1966).

I have seen many specimens of Sciadopitys in 

samples from various localities of the Atlantic Coastal 

Plain:

1. The genus is found in many of the samples of table 3, 

including those from Martha's Vineyard that seem 

to lack reworked Paleogene palynomorphs.

2. Sciadopitys also occurs together with other Neogene 

sporomorphs in core samples at depths between 61 

and 70 m in probable Pleistocene deposits in well 

ENW-50 on Martha's Vineyard (this well is discussed at the beginning of the "Biostratigraphy" 

section of this paper). A list of most of the Neogene 

sporomorph taxa in the cores was given by Hall 

and others (1980, p. 6); however, the following taxa 

found in the well samples do not appear on the published list: Sciadopitys, Liquidambar, Podocarpus, 

and possibly Momipites annulatus Frederiksen & 

Christopher 1978.

3. I also found pollen of Sciadopitys in samples from 

Maryland of probable early Miocene age (table 4).

All specimens of Sciadopitys that I have found in the 

Neogene of the Atlantic Coastal Plain belong to S. serrata (Potonie" & Venitz 1934) Martin & Rouse 1966. Additional records of Sciadopitys from North America and 

other continents are mentioned in the section on Miocene climate.

Momipites is a form genus for pollen of the 

Engelhardia-Alfaroa-Oreomunnea complex (family 

Juglandaceae). Specimens of Momipites are sparse in 

the Miocene samples from Plymouth County and very 

rare in the samples from Martha's Vineyard. Pollen of 

Momipites is common in the lower Tertiary of the 

Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains, and the possibility existed that all the grains of this genus in the Miocene 

samples might be reworked. Rachele (1976, fig. 6(9)) illustrated a specimen that she referred to as Engelhardia 

from the upper Miocene Legler lignite of New Jersey. 

She kindly sent me several slides of her material, and I 

found that triatriate pollen grains are sparse in the 

samples but that several forms of Momipites are present. These are illustrated in plate 1, figures 18, 20-22. 

Because these specimens are from lignite, they are 

unlikely to be reworked. Figures 17-18 and 19-20 of

TABLE 4. Sporomorph taxa in three samples from the upper 

Oligocenef?) (sample R2171B) to the lower Miocene or lower middle

Miocene (sample R2171D) of Maryland 

[Sample R2171C is from an intermediate position in section]

Taxa Samples

R2171D R2171C R2171B

Alnus 

Carya

Castanea

Ephedra

Ericaceae

Fagus 

Gramineae

X

X 

X

? 

X

Juglans 

Liquidambar 

Momipites spackmanianus

complex 

Myricaceae 

Nyssa 

aff. Palmae 

Picea 

Pinus 

Platanus 

Podocarpus 

Quercus 

Rhoipites angustus Frederiksen 1980a 

Sapotaceae 

Sciadopitys 

Symplocos 

Taxodiaceae-Cupressaceae-Taxaceae 

Tilia 

Ulmus-Zelkova 

X 

X 

X

X

?

X

X 

X 

X 

X 

X

X 

X

X 

X

X 

X 

X 

X

X 

X 

X 

X 

X

X 

X

X 

X 

X

X 

X 

X 

X 

X

X 

X

X 

X

X 

X 

X 

X

X

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X
BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 13

plate 1 are similar to the type specimens of Momipites 

spackmanianus (Traverse 1955) Nichols 1973, and M 

annulatus Frederiksen & Christopher 1978, respectively. The type specimens of these two species are morphologically different from each other, but in Oligocene and 

Miocene samples that I have seen, a complete range of 

morphotypes exists between these two end members 

(see also the specimens from the Miocene Calvert Formation of Maryland illustrated by Garner, 1976, pi. 8, 

figs. 18-21); thus, Momipites spackmanianus and M 

annulatus may be conspecific. For simplicity, I refer to 

these two species in this paper as belonging to the 

Momipites spackmanianus complex. The M. spackmanianus complex ranges down into the uppermost Eocene 

of the Gulf Coast (Frederiksen, 1981) and is 5-36 percent of total sporomorphs in the upper Oligocene of 

South Carolina (Frederiksen and Christopher, 1978), but 

it seems to decrease rapidly in relative frequency in the 

Miocene.

The specimen from the Legler lignite labelled 

Momipites aff. M coryhides Wodehouse 1933 (pi. 1, 

figs. 21-22) is similar to early Tertiary specimens 

assigned to this species (the type specimen of M. coryloides is from the middle Eocene), but, because of the 

paucity of Momipites specimens in the Legler lignite 

samples, I could not determine whether the lignite contains a distinct group of specimens similar to M. coryloides or whether the specimen of plate 1, figures 21-22 

is simply an end member of the population forming the 

M. spackmanianus complex.

Specimens attributed in this paper to Pterocarya type 

probably belong mainly or entirely to Pterocarya itself. 

Although Juglans may also produce Pterocarya-Uke 

grains (Nichols, 1973), in my experience Pterocarya type 

specimens are far more common throughout the Tertiary of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains than 

Juglans type grains. For example, in the Miocene of 

Massachusetts (table 3), Pterocarya type was found at 

all six sampled localities, whereas Juglans type was 

found at only one. Cyclocarya (one extant species in 

China, included by some authors in Pterocarya) has 

pollen grains somewhat similar to, but probably distinguishable from, those of Pterocarya s.s. (Kuprianova, 

1965).

COMPARISON OF ASSEMBLAGES

Sporomorph assemblages of the Calvert, Choptank, 

St. Marys, Kirkwood, and Cohansey Formations of the 

Middle Atlantic States (Leopold, 1969; Goldstein, 1974; 

Garner, 1976; Rachele, 1976; table 4 of this paper) are 

very similar to each other and to the assemblages from 

the six Massachusetts localities of table 3, at least as far

Umbelliferae 

Compositae 

Pterocarya type 

Gordonia

Podocarpus 

Cyri//a-C/i/tonia

Sci'adop/tys 

Sapotaceae 

Ephedra

PLIOCENE

MIOCENE

Upper Middle

>-

Lower

->

OLIGOCENE

FIGURE 5. Known geologic ranges, in the Middle Atlantic States and 

New England, of stratigraphically important Miocene sporomorph 

taxa in Massachusetts. See text for sources of data

as presence-absence data are concerned. Clearly, all six 

Tertiary deposits of table 3 are Miocene in age. They 

have much more diverse floras than the Pliocene 

samples of table 2; they are unlikely to be Oligocene, the 

probable age of the Brandon lignite of Vermont, because 

they contain pollen of Compositae, Umbelliferae, and 

Sciadopitys (fig. 5); and the Paleogene sporomorphs in 

some of the table 3 samples must be reworked. I cannot 

determine from the available data whether all six 

deposits of table 3 are the same age; that is, whether 

they are all middle Miocene like sample R1267. However, the samples from near Marshfield Center contain 

Ephedra, Symplocos, and Sapotaceae. If the specimens 

of these taxa are indigenous and not reworked, these 

samples should be no younger than Calvert age; that is, 

no younger than middle Miocene (fig. 5).

If climatic fluctuations took place during Miocene 

time as suggested by Goldstein (1974), then sporomorph relative frequency data would be useful for 

zoning the Miocene and perhaps for determining 

whether all the samples of table 3 are the same age. Unfortunately, the presence of large numbers of reworked 

sporomorphs in samples from Plymouth County makes 

accurate counts of Miocene specimens from these 

samples difficult or impossible.

REWORKED SPOROMORPHS

Figure 6 lists the 42 Paleogene sporomorph taxa that 

have been found as reworked specimens in Miocene 

samples from Plymouth County. These strata are composed at least in part of reworked sediments; the ages of
14 SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

Miocene samples 

from Massachusetts

Ranges on the Gulf and Atlantic 

Coastal Plains

Taxa Marshfield Marshfield Scituate 

Center bog Third 

pits core Cliff 

D52591-12 R1524 D1885A 

052602,3 R1394A-C

X

70 X

ch 

X ?

X 

X X 

X

X 

X

X 

X X

X X

X 

X X

X X 

X X

X X 

X X

X X 

X

XXX 

X 

X X

X X 

Y Y

EOCENE

Middle

Middle 

and 

upper 

parts

T

Lower 

part

->

Lower

PALEOCENE

Upper

?

Lower

Nuxpollenites psilatus Frederiksen 1979

Milfordia hungarica (Kedves 1965) Krutzsch 1970 X

Pompeckjoidaepollenites subhercynicus (Krutzsch 

1954) Krutzsch in Go'czan eta/. 1967

"P/atycaryapo//is semicyc/us" 

Krutzsch & Vanhoorne 1977

P/atycaryapo//enites triplicates (Elsik 1974) 

Frederiksen & Christopher 1978

P/atycaryapo//enites swasticoidus (Elsik 1974) 

Frederiksen & Christopher 1978

Momipites-PlicatopoHis-Platycaryapollenites 

complex of Frederiksen 1979

Interpollis microsupplingensis Krutzsch 1961

Dicolpopollis cf. D. kalewensis of 

Tschudy 1973a

Anacolosidites reklawensis Elsik 1974

P/atycarya p/atycaryoides (Roche 1969) 

Frederiksen & Christopher 1978

Intratriporopollenites ollivierae 

Gruas-Cavagnetto 1976

Carya spp. <29 (xm

Triatriopollenites turgidus (Pflug in Thomson 

& Pflug 1953) Frederiksen 1979

Basopollis obscurocostata Tschudy 1975

Kyandopo//enites anneratus Stover in Stover 

etal 1966

Trudopollis plena Tschudy 1975

PorocolpopoUenites virginiensis Frederiksen 

1979

Pistillipollenites macgregorii Rouse 1962

Nudopollis terminalis (Pflug & Thomson in 

Thomson & Pflug 1953) Pflug 1953

Momipites cory/oides Wodehouse 1933 

Milfordia minima Krutzsch 1970

Milfordia incerta (Pflug & Thomson in 

Thomson & Pflug 1953) Krutzsch 1961

Tricolpites asper Frederiksen 1978a

FIGURE 6. Reworked Paleogene sporomorphs in Miocene strata of Plymouth County, Mass., and known ranges of the taxa on the Gulf ana

Atlantic Coastal Plains.
BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 15

Taxa

PHcatopollis spp. of the P. lunata type 

Pseudopllcapollls limltata Frederiksen 1978a

Labrapollis globosa (Pflug in Thomson & Pflug 

1953) Krutzsch 1968

Favitricolporites baculoferus Pflug in Thomson 

& Pflug 1953) Srivastava 1972

Tricolpites redactus Frederiksen 1978a

Subtriporopollenites anulatus Pflug & 

Thomson in Thomson & Pflug 1953

Momipites strictus Frederiksen & Christopher 1978 

Momipites actinus Nichols & Ott 1978

Momipites inaequalis group of Frederiksen & 

Christopher 1978

Cicatricosisporites dorogensis Potoni6 & 

Gelletich 1933

Casuarinidites spp.

Thomsonipollls magnified (Pflug in Thomson & 

Pflug 1953) Krutzsch 1960

Momfpites tenuipolus group of Nichols 1973 

Betula infrequens Stanley 1965 

Holkopollenites spp. of H. chemardensis type

Choanopollenites alabamicus (Srivastava 1972) 

Frederiksen 1979

Pseudoplicapollis serena Tschudy 1975

Pseudoplicapollis cf. P. endocuspis 

Tschudy 1975

Miocene samples 

from Massachusetts

Marshfield Marshfield Scituate 

Center bog Third 

pits core Cliff 

D5259 1-12 R1524 D1885A 

D5260 2,3 R1394A-C

X X 

X

X

X 

X

X

978 X 

X

XXX

X X 

XXX

X X 

? X 

XXX 

X

)

X 

X ?

X

Ranges on the Gulf and Atlantic 

Coastal Plains Continued

EOCENE

Middle

Middle 

and 

upper 

parts

Lower 

part

Lower

PALEOCENE

Upper Lower

FIGURE 6. Continued

at least some of the reworked sediments may be inferred 

from the known ranges of the reworked sporomorphs. 

Nine sporomorph forms (not listed in fig. 6) are Late 

Cretaceous types not known to range into the Tertiary: 

Appendicisporites sp., Aquilapollenites sp. (pi. 4, fig. 

20), Basopollisl sp. (pi. 4, fig. 16), Complexiopollis 

funiculus Tschudy 1973b (pi. 4, fig. 15), Endoinfundibulapottisl sp. (pi. 4, figs. 17-18), Holkopollenites sp. 

(CP3D-3 of Wolfe, 1976), Nyssapollenites sp., 

Plicapollis sp. (pi. 4, fig. 14), and Trudopollis sp. (pi. 4, 

fig. 19). Two species, Pseudoplicapollis serena Tschudy 

1975 (pi. 4, fig. 6) and Pseudoplicapollis cf. P. endocuspis Tschudy 1975 (pi. 4, figs. 10-11), are known 

only from the Upper Cretaceous and lower Paleocene. 

Five species, Momipites actinus Nichols & Ott 1978 

(pi. 2, fig. 14), Momipites strictus Frederiksen & 

Christopher 1978 (pi. 2, fig. 13), Subtriporopollenites 

anulatus Pflug & Thomson in Thomson & Pflug 1953 

(pi. 3, figs. 4-5), Tricolpites redactus Frederiksen 1978a, 

and Kyandopollenites anneratus Stover in Stover et al 

1966 (pi. 4, fig. 12) are restricted to the Paleocene; K anneratus is known only from the upper Paleocene. Eight 

or nine species and species groups of figure 6 are apparently restricted to the lower Eocene and lowermost
16 SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

part of the middle Eocene. None of the reworked 

sporomorphs have ranges limited to rocks younger than 

early middle Eocene.

In short, the reworked sporomorphs suggest that 

rocks of at least three ages contributed sporomorphs 

(and sediments) to the Massachusetts Miocene: Upper 

Cretaceous, Paleocene, and lower Eocene to lowermost 

middle Eocene. Of these three age groups of rocks, those 

of the lower Eocene and lowermost middle Eocene undoubtedly contributed the most sediment to the 

Miocene. Evidence is, first, that reworked sporomorphs 

of the Cretaceous and Paleocene are rare in the Miocene, 

even though Cretaceous rocks of the region are rich in 

sporomorphs as shown by the abundance of reworked 

Cretaceous sporomorphs in Pleistocene sediments of the 

area (R. A. Christopher, written commun., 1977). Second, one of the more common reworked species in the 

Miocene is Platycarya platycaryoides (Roche 1969) 

Frederiksen & Christopher 1978 (pi. 2, fig. 19). In 

Southeastern United States, this species ranges from 

the lower Eocene to the upper part of the middle Eocene 

or even slightly higher, but it is abundant only in the 

lower Eocene and, to a lesser degree, in the lowermost 

middle Eocene (Tschudy, 1973a; Elsik, 1974; Frederiksen and Christopher, 1978; Frederiksen, 1979).

Figure 6 includes data from 19 samples, all of which 

are from Plymouth County, Mass. All Miocene samples 

examined from this county contain reworked Paleogene 

sporomorphs. It was difficult to estimate the frequency 

of reworked specimens relative to total sporomorphs in 

these sediments because many of the specimens found 

belong to taxa having such long ranges that the grains 

could be either Eocene or Miocene. Furthermore, 

autochthonous grains could not be distinguished from 

allochthonous specimens on the basis of the preservation or staining properties of the grains, as preservation 

is generally excellent and most grains of all ages accept 

stain in a similar way. However, I estimate that reworked specimens make up about 1-10 percent of total 

sporomorphs in the different Miocene samples from 

Plymouth County. In contrast, none of the three 

Miocene samples examined from Martha's Vineyard 

(R1267, R1513, R1555) contain sporomorphs that I 

recognized as reworked, with the possible exception of 

Gleicheniidites in sample R1267 (this genus is discussed 

in the section "Occurrences of Miocene Taxa"). Apparently, the Miocene sediments of Martha's Vineyard 

are at least in part of different provenance than those of 

Plymouth County.

POSSIBLE PALEOGENE STRATA IN MASSACHUSETTS

As mentioned previously in this paper, several 

authors have concluded on the basis of fossils that lower

Tertiary strata still exist in Massachusetts. Folger and 

others (1978) identified Paleocene and Eocene rocks in 

two boreholes on Nantucket Island. Hall and others 

(1980) believed that Paleocene and Eocene strata are included in the section cut by well ENW-50 on Martha's 

Vineyard, but C. A. Kaye (cited by Hall and others, 

1980; oral commun., 1981) considered that these strata 

are Pleistocene and contain reworked early Tertiary 

fossils. E. B. Leopold (cited by Chute, 1965, and Kaye, 

1967a) thought that the glauconitic clay at Scituate 

Third Cliff in Plymouth County (fig. 3) might be Eocene 

on the basis of Eocene sporomorphs recovered from that 

bed, but I have shown in this paper that the bed is 

Miocene and contains reworked sporomorphs of Cretaceous to Eocene ages.

The only remaining records of possible lower Tertiary 

rocks on the Massachusetts mainland are in papers by 

Zeigler and others (1960) and Groot and Groot (1964). 

W. S. Hoffmeister recovered sporomorphs from three 

wells on Cape Cod (fig. 2). He reported (Zeigler and 

others, 1960, p. 1397) that these specimens "have a 

definite Eocene aspect. Although Upper Cretaceous 

elements are also present, the evidence points to an 

Eocene age (probably Lower Eocene).... Encountering 

the foraminiferal genus Elphidium at 230 feet in the 

No. 1 well helps to confirm the Eocene age for these 

sediments...." Hoffmeister did not name or illustrate 

any of the sporomorph taxa he found, and I have been 

unable to obtain his slides to check whether the Eocene 

material might be reworked. However, Groot and Groot 

(1964) looked at material from a well near Holden's 

Pond, Cape Cod, probably one of the same wells examined by Hoffmeister (the easternmost of the three Cape 

Cod wells in fig. 2 of this paper). Groot and Groot (1964) 

also considered their well samples to be Eocene in age. 

They presented a list of sporomorph form-taxa found in 

the samples, but these genera have such long ranges 

that the list is not very helpful in deciding whether the 

early Tertiary sporomorphs are reworked or not. However, Groot and Groot (1964, pi. 1) also illustrated 13 

specimens from their samples, and these are very interesting. Among the grains illustrated by Groot and 

Groot are the following:

"Extratriporopollenites" (pi. 1, fig. 6) = probably Choanopottenites

sp., Upper Cretaceous 

"LatipoUis conspicuus" (pi. 1, fig. 11) and perhaps "Triporate pollen

sp. 2" (pi. 1, fig. 12) = Choanopollenites conspicuus (Groot &

Groot 1962) Tschudy 1975, Upper Cretaceous to lower Paleocene 

"Triporate pollen sp. 3" (pi. 1, fig. 10) = Kyandopottenites anneratus Stover in Stover et aL 1966, upper Paleocene 

"Triatriopottenites" (pi. 1, fig. 3) = Betula infrequens Stanley 1965,

Upper Cretaceous to lower part of the middle Eocene 

"Triporopollenites" (pi. 1, fig. 2) = Casuarinidites sp., lower

Paleocene to middle Eocene 

"Caryapollenites" (pL 1, fig. 4) = Carya spp. < 29 /on of Tschudy

(1973a) and Frederiksen and Christopher (1978), upper Paleocene

to lower part of the middle Eocene
EOCENE PHYTOGEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 17

The remainder of the taxa shown in the plate of Groot 

and Groot (1964) have long ranges, generally at least 

from Upper Cretaceous to Eocene.

In summary, the well samples contain sporomorphs 

of Late Cretaceous, Paleocene, and perhaps early 

Eocene to early middle Eocene ages according to the 

plate of Groot and Groot (1964); the same strata contain 

Eocene sporomorphs and post-Paleocene foraminifers 

according to Zeigler and others (1960). Thus the 

sporomorph assemblages from the Cape Cod wells are 

very similar to the reworked sporomorphs in Miocene 

material from Plymouth County (this paper) and in 

Quaternary samples from various Massachusetts 

localities (Groot and Groot, 1964, and references 

therein). If the samples from the Cape Cod wells are 

Eocene, as assumed by Zeigler and others (1960) and 

Groot and Groot (1964), then it is necessary to postulate 

that Cretaceous and Paleocene sporomorphs were 

reworked into Eocene sediments, which in turn were 

reworked into Miocene and then again into Quaternary 

sediments. It seems much more likely to me that only 

two cycles of massive sporomorph reworking have 

taken place in eastern Massachusetts; that is, during 

Miocene and Quaternary times. In summary, I do not 

believe that any reliable evidence exists that lower Tertiary strata are still present on the Massachusetts 

mainland.

EOCENE PHYTOGEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE

Besides providing provenance information about the 

Miocene sediments, figure 6 is also significant because 

few other data are available, or are likely to become 

available, on the nature of Paleogene floras of Northeastern United States. No Paleogene rocks are known to 

crop out in this region except the Brandon lignite of 

Vermont, which is probably Oligocene (Traverse, 1955; 

Tifmey, 1977, 1979). Sporomorphs are present in subsurface Paleogene rocks of offshore eastern Canada, but 

very little has been published about them in that region 

(Williams, 1975; Williams and Brideaux, 1975; Williams 

and Bujak, 1977; Barss and others, 1979). It is interesting that all Paleogene species and species groups 

found in Miocene strata of Massachusetts (fig. 6) are 

also known from the Paleogene of the Gulf Coast; apparently, at least the early Eocene to earliest middle 

Eocene flora of the Coastal Plain extended with little 

change from the Gulf Coast at least as far north as 

Massachusetts. A similar phenomenon was observed in 

Virginia, where the late Paleocene and early Eocene 

sporomorph floras are very similar to coeval floras of 

the Gulf Coast (Frederiksen, 1979).

Several reasons may be suggested to explain the

strong resemblance of the Eocene flora of Massachusetts to the coeval flora of the Gulf Coast:

1. Massachusetts was at a lower latitude in the Eocene 

than now (fig. 7). I obtained the following figures 

from the paleocontinental maps of Smith and 

Briden (1977), extrapolating to values at 49 m.y. 

ago, the age of the early Eocene-middle Eocene 

boundary (Hardenbol and Berggren, 1978) and the 

approximate age of the reworked Eocene sporomorphs in the Massachusetts Miocene deposits:

Eocene

Present (49 m.y. ago}

Latitude of Boston, Mass. 42.4° 38° 

Latitude of Georgia-Florida boundary 30.7 ° 29 ° 

Difference in latitude 11.7° 9°

These figures and the maps of Smith and Briden 

(1977) show that Massachusetts was about 4° 

closer to the equator at 49 m.y. ago than now, 

mainly because of the counterclockwise rotation of 

North America since the Eocene. An additional effect of the rotation of North America was a smaller 

difference in latitude between the Gulf Coast and 

Massachusetts in the Eocene than now.

2. As Wolfe (1979, p. 26) pointed out, "Until development of extensive ice sheets and an ice-covered 

Arctic Ocean in the late Cenozoic, cold waves from 

the Arctic probably would not have been as intense 

as at present." Therefore, greater equability would 

have prevailed at middle and high latitudes than 

exists now (Potter, 1976, p. 85-86; Lamb, 1977, 

p. 281).

3. The warm trade wind belt was much broader during 

times of ice-free poles than now, and the entire 

Atlantic and Gulf Coastal province probably lay 

within this belt in the Eocene (Flohn, 1964, p. 513). 

Previous work on Eocene climates in Eastern United 

States has been based on material from the Gulf Coast 

and the Mississippi embayment. Middle Eocene plant 

megafossils from Kentucky and Tennessee, at the 

northern end of the Mississippi embayment, suggest a 

climate near the boundary between winter-dry tropical 

and humid subtropical in the climatic classification of 

Trewartha (1968) (Dilcher, 1973; D. L. Dilcher, in 

Frederiksen, 1980c, p. 730). Along the eastern Gulf 

Coast, the late middle Eocene to late Eocene climate 

was probably winter-dry tropical on the basis of sporomorphs (Frederiksen, 1980c). Maximum warmth in the 

North American Tertiary seems to have prevailed in the 

middle Eocene (Wolfe, 1978). Considering the great 

similarity between the Eocene sporomorph floras of the 

Gulf Coast, Virginia, and Massachusetts, I think we are 

justified in extending the tropical zone into coastal New 

England in the middle Eocene (fig. 7). Additional 

evidence about Paleogene climates in Massachusetts 

comes from the discovery by Kaye (1967a) of bauxite
18 SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

90'

SUBTROPICAL

r

TROPICAL^)

100 200 300 400 MILES

I I I 1 I 

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 KILOMETERS

30"-

Figure 7. Middle Eocene topography, shoreline (dashed line), and tropical-subtropical boundary (thick line) in the eastern part of the United

States. Paleolatitudes are from Smith and Briden (1977).
MIOCENE VEGETATION AND CLIMATE 19

TABLE 5. Relative frequencies (percentages) of sporomorph taxa in

Miocene samples from Martha's Vineyard, Mass. 

[Count was at least 300 grains per sample. T^trace (less than 1 percent)]

sample

pebbles in Pleistocene drift on Martha's Vineyard. Kaye 

(1967a, p. 1037) wrote that "The age of the New 

England . . . baUXitization ... is Conjectural, but in all

likelihood it is the same as that of the deposits in Arkan- TW sample

sas and in southeastern United States." Tertiary baux- ________________________ ime?

ites and mineable kaolin deposits in the latter regions Spores T

formed in late Paleocene to middle Eocene time (Gordon Conifers:

and others, 1958; Overstreet, 1964; Tschudy and Patter- Pinus haP^xy^n tyP6 20 2<>

son, 1975). Bauxite apparently forms only in tropical ^ !!l?l^_^_II~~~~~~~III~ 2g *?

and near-tropical climates where humus is destroyed Sciadopitys 7 5

before humic acids can be produced (Schwarzbach, Tsuga T 2

1963, p. 23). Kaolin deposits are found in eastern Taxodiaceae-Cupressaceae-Taxaceae (TCT) 5 14

Massachusetts, western Massachusetts, and western Podocarpus 2

Vermont (Burt, 1929, and references therein; Kaye, JX^^^^_____________________ 22 15

1967b) and may be the same age as the formation of Carya 5 4

bauxite in the same region. At Brandon, Vt., the kaolin Alnus 2

underlies the lignite (Hitchcock and others, 1861, v. 1, Castanea j.

p. 227-228; Woodworth, 1904) that is Oligocene or pos- Ilex T

sibly early Miocene in age. The kaolins indicate that Pteroca^atype T

, /i_ .L i i » T TI i i . Ulmus-Zelkova T

deep weathering took place in New England, apparently Myrica ___ T

in the early Tertiary, in a warm, moist climate. Betula T

Fagus T

	Monocots, mostly herbs and shrubs:

MIOCENE VEGETATION AND CLIMATE Com^itl ~I~~~~~~~~~~~~~ T I

	Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthaceae T

VEGETATION Monocolpate (probably Palmae) T

	Other angiosperms 5 8

Table 5 shows the percentage composition of

sporomorph taxa in two of the three Miocene samples modern pollen spectra, but in Eastern United States,

from Martha's Vineyard, which appear to lack reworked Quercus is greatly over-represented by pollen (Davis,

sporomorphs. Sporomorphs were too sparse to count in 1963; Watts, 1969). Among other common pollen types

the third sample, R1513. Relative frequencies of the in temperate to subtropical forests of the Northern

taxa in samples R1267 and R1555 are rather similar; the Hemisphere, Picea, Tsuga, and Fagus are generally

main difference between the two samples is in the represented by pollen roughly in proportion to the abunpercentage of TCT pollen (Taxodiaceae-Cupressaceae- dance of trees of these taxa in the vegetation, but Thuja

Taxaceae), which is about three times greater in R1555 (Cupressaceae), Tilia, and Acer are considerably underthan in R1267. The TCT grains in these samples are all represented by pollen (Faegri and Iversen, 1975).

or nearly all nonligulate; thus, they do not belong to Sciadopitys produces abundant pollen; in Miocene

such taxodiaceous genera as Cryptomeria, Glyp- brown coals of Germany, this genus is 50 percent or

tostrobus, Metasequoia, and Sequoia or perhaps even more of the sporomorph assemblage in some samples

Taxodium. In both samples, conifer pollen makes up (Thiergart, 1949; Thomson and Pflug, 1953; Krutzsch,

more than half the assemblage; the main angiosperm 1971). However, these data do not necessarily indicate

forms are Quercus and Carya. "Other angiosperms" in that Sciadopitys is over-represented by pollen because

table 5 are mainly triporates and tricolporates that wood and abundant needles of this genus are also found

could not be identified with modern taxa. All the angio- in the coals (Teichmuller, 1958).

sperms of table 5 are wind-pollinated except Ilex and Correction factors intended to translate pollen persome Compositae. Pinus, Betula, and Alnus are heavy centages into relative frequencies of trees in the forest

producers of pollen and are always over-represented in are difficult to apply in Quaternary studies and much

Quaternary pollen spectra (Faegri and Iversen, 1975, more difficult to apply to Miocene sporomorph samples.

and references therein). Therefore, the scarcity of Betula Interpretation of table 5 is the more uncertain because

and Alnus pollen in the two samples means trees of these samples are from marine deposits whose sporothese two genera must also have been scarce in the morph contents reflect the broad regional vegetation

vegetation. In Europe and Japan, Quercus is slightly and not particular local plant communities. Even

over-represented to slightly under-represented in though Pinus and Quercus were probably not as domi-
20 SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

nant in the vegetation as the sporomorph percentages in 

table 5 suggest, surely Pinus, Picea, Sciadopitys, TCT, 

Quercus, Carya, and other temperate to subtropical 

hardwoods were abundant; the prevailing vegetation 

may be described as high-diversity low-dominance 

conifer-hardwood forest.

The low percentages of sporomorphs from herbs and 

shrubs (table 5) could be misleading to some extent 

because sporomorphs from nonarboreal plants are not 

widely distributed, at least by wind; however, because 

most sporomorphs are delivered to the sea by streams 

rather than by wind (Muller, 1959), the low percentages 

of nonarboreal pollen in table 5 probably indicate that 

Massachusetts was heavily forested in the Miocene. The 

inner edge of the Massachusetts Coastal Plain during 

the Tertiary probably extended from about the position 

of Boston southwestward across the State (Woodworth 

and Wigglesworth, 1934, p. 85; Kaye, 1967a, fig. 1). 

Therefore, during the Miocene transgression, the 

Coastal Plain was probably very narrow or may not 

have existed at all, and the forest contributing 

sporomorphs to the sea lived mainly or entirely in hilly 

country better drained than habitats on the present 

Coastal Plain.

Wolfe (1977, p. 48) considered that the Miocene vegetation of Eastern United States was probably Mixed 

Mesophytic forest. Table 3 confirms Wolfe's impression 

that the Miocene flora of this region had many genera in 

common with the modern Mixed Mesophytic forest of 

the central Appalachian Mountains, and the relative frequencies of the various Miocene taxa (table 5) are fairly 

similar to those in the modern forest. Holocene pollen 

spectra from Mixed Mesophytic forest in Tennessee are 

dominated by Quercus or co-dominated by Quercus and 

Pinus and also have significant percentages of one or 

more of the following: Fraxinus, Carya, Liquidambar, 

and Tsuga (Martin and Gray, 1962; Delcourt, 1979).

CLIMATE

Figure 8 lists the modern taxa that are represented by 

Miocene sporomorphs from the Massachusetts samples 

but do not now live in New England. As I explained in 

the section "Other Neogene Localities," table 3 emphasizes the modern taxa in the sporomorph flora; 

floristic, geographic, and climatic affinities remain to be 

determined for the sporomorphs that could not be identified with modern taxa Cyrilla and Cliftonia are difficult if not impossible to distinguish from each other on 

the basis of pollen grains; living members of the Engelhardia group are the genera Engelhardia, Alfaroa, and 

Oreomunnea, all of which have similar pollen grains; 

and Gleichenia and Dicranopteris have the same kinds

of spores. Nearly all the taxa of figure 8 are now confined to climates that are warmer than the present cool 

temperate climate of New England. An exception is 

Ephedra; this genus now lives primarily in boreal (largely montane-boreal), summer-dry subtropical, and semiarid to arid regions. However, Ephedra distachya L. extends along "sandy shores and stream-banks" into 

temperate northwestern France and the central Ukraine 

(Tutin and others, 1964, p. 40). Ephedra undoubtedly 

had a broader climatic range in the Tertiary than now. 

Most of the taxa of figure 8 still live in North America 

In fact, of the taxa in figure 8, only Pterocarya and 

Sciadopitys are now lacking from the region that extends from southeastern United States to Central 

America Figure 8 shows that nearly all the warm temperate to subtropical elements in the Miocene flora of 

Massachusetts are also found in Asia but few of these 

taxa now live in Europe and Africa

Sciadopitys (pi. 1, figs. 2-6) is now confined to broadleaved deciduous and broad-leaved evergreen forests in 

mountains of central and southern Japan (Numata 

1974). Sciadopitys has existed at least since the 

Cretaceous, and during the Paleogene it ranged from 

Japan to Siberia Kazakhstan, Europe, Ellesmere 

Island, and British Columbia (Tokunaga 1955; Florin, 

1963; Piel, 1971; Rouse and others, 1971; Krutzsch, 

1971; Rouse, 1977). It has also been reported from the 

Neogene of Alaska and western Canada (Martin and 

Rouse, 1966; Leopold, 1969), but the genus has not been 

found in the Tertiary of the Rocky Mountains. The 

widespread distribution of Sciadopitys in the Tertiary 

indicates that it has had a much broader climatic range 

than at present; Krutzsch (1971, p. 33) remarked that 

fossil pollen similar to modern Sciadopitys "shows a 

considerably greater (broader) climatic amplitude than 

for example the tsugoid forms." The association of 

Pinus, Picea, Tsuga, Sciadopitys, TCT, and Podocarpus 

in the Miocene of Massachussetts is interesting because 

it is very similar to conifer-taxad associations in modern 

broad-leaved evergreen forests of southwestern Japan 

(Numata 1974). These forests are dominated by Quercus and Castanopsis but include stands of Pinaceae 

(Pinus, Picea, Tsuga, Abies), Taxodiaceae (Sciadopitys, 

Cryptomeria), Cupressaceae (Chamaecyparis), Taxaceae 

(Torreya), and Podocarpaceae (Podocarpus).

In summary, the data of figure 8 indicate that in the 

Miocene Massachusetts was warmer than now. Probably the climate at that time was humid subtropical in 

the sense of Trewartha (1968), but because the number 

of taxa in figure 8 is a rather small proportion of the 

total identified taxa in the flora (table 3), Massachusetts 

was probably in the northern part of the subtropical 

belt.

In a previous section of the paper I showed that the
MIOCENE VEGETATION AND CLIMATE 21

Taxon

Sciadopftys 

Ephedra

Pterocarya 

Cyri//a and Chftonia 

Engelhardia group 

Gleichenia and Dtcranopteris 

Gordonia 

Palmae 

Podocarpus 

Sapotaceae 

Symp/ocos

Me

D

 derr 

ra

Cf

clin 

nge

Aw

natic

Ar

Modern geographic range

i. . ~ Australia North Central Europe Africa Asia an(j

America and New 

including South Zea|and 

Mexico America

X 

XXX X 

X X 

X X 

XX X 

XX XXX 

X X 

XX XXX 

XX XXX 

XX XXX 

XX XX

FIGURE 8. Modern climatic and geographic ranges of exotic genera and families represented by Miocene sporomorphs from Massachusetts. 

[Climate symbols are those of Trewartha (1968): D = temperate; Cf = humid subtropical; Aw = winter-dry tropical; Ar = wet tropical. Some 

taxa listed here also occur in summer-dry subtropical, semiarid, or even arid climates.]

Eocene climate of coastal Massachusetts was probably 

winter-dry tropical. On the basis of modern climatic affinities of plant megafossils from the Brandon lignite, 

which is probably Oligocene, Tiffney (1978, p. 79) considered that the climate of Vermont in Brandon time 

was similar to that "found in southeastern China, 

southeastern North America, and the mountains of 

Vera Cruz, Mexico." These data of Tifmey (1978) indicate that in the Oligocene, inland New England was 

humid subtropical in the sense of Trewartha (1968) and 

was perhaps in the warm part of that climatic belt. 

Along the coast the climate should have been slightly 

more equable that is, the annual high and low temperatures should have deviated less from the annual 

mean than inland. In the present paper I have shown 

that in the Miocene, coastal New England was probably 

also humid subtropical but probably lay in the cooler 

part of that belt and that during at least part of Pliocene 

time this region was temperate, apparently cool temperate. These four Tertiary data points (Eocene of Massachusetts, Oligocene of Vermont, and Miocene and Pliocene of Massachusetts) indicate much better than was

previously possible for New England the nature of the 

Eocene climate there and the trend toward cooler 

climates after the Eocene.

TABLE 6. Locations of illustrated specimens

[Sample localities are described in table 1. All illustrated specimens are from the Miocene of 

Massachusetts except those from sample R1292A, which is from the Legler lignite. 

Ocean County, N. J. (see Rachele, 1976)]

Plate Figure

1 1

2

3

4-5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

Slide

D5259-l(2)

R1555(l)

R1267(2)

R1555(l)

Rl 267(2)

R1267(2)

R1555U)

R1394Q2)

R1555U)

R1555(l)

D5259-K4)

R1267(2)

D5259-K1)

R1513(l)

Coordinates

oq Q v Qft n 4O.t7 X «7U.U

28.0 x 101.5

60.1 x 107.9

25.9 x 112.1

52.0 x 106.1

35.4 x 107.9

27.3 x 104.0

45.0 x 101.3

27.3 x 104.0

29.9 x 100.5

32.5 x 102.2

48.2 x 106.6

31.4 x 94.3

40.0 x 99.6
22 SIGNIFICANCE OF TERTIARY SPOROMORPHS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

TABLE 6. Locations of illustrated specimens Continued TABLE 6. Locations of illustrated specimens Continued

Plate Figure

16

17

18

19

20

21-22

23

24

25

26

27-28

2 1 J. Z9

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

3 1j.

2

3

4-5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

Slide

R1267(2)

D5259-2(6)

R1292A(3)

D5259-K4)

R1292A(3)

R1292A(1)

R1267(2)

R1267(2)

D5259-K1)

R1267(2)

D5259-5(3)

R1267(2)

D5259-K2)

D5259-ll(3)

R1555(1)

D5259-3(4)

D5259-K2)

D5259-3(4)

D5259-K4)

D5259-9(4)

D5259-K2)

D5259-1K3)

D5259-K2)

D5260-3(3)

D5259-1K3)

D5259-3(4)

R1394Q2)

D5260-3(3)

D5259-K2)

D5260-3(3)

D5259-2(6)

D5259-8(3)

D5260-3(3)

D5260-3(3)

D5259-4(4)

D5259-2(6)

D5259-8(3)

D5259-ll(3)

D5259-6(4)

D5260-3(3)

D5259-4(4)

D5260-3(3)

D5260-3(3)

D5259-6(4)

D5259-l(l)

D5259-l(l)

D1885AU)

D5260-3(3)

D5259-K4)

D5259-ll(3)

D5259-5(3)

D5260-2(3)

R1394C(2)

D5259-4(4)

D5260-3(3)

D5259-2(6)

D5259-7(3)

R1394C(2)

D5260-2(3)

D5259-9(4)

D5260-3(3)

Coordinates

36.0 x 109.2

34.5 x 106.0

48.4 x 106.7

33.5 x 110.2

49.3 x 101.4

25.1 x 112.2

43.5 x 108.7

42.0 x 98.6

18.5 x 95.6

35.4 x 96.6

30.5 x 95.0

35.5 x 98.3

11.6 x 98.2

10.0 x 108.3

26.7 x 103.5

31.5 x 107.4

28.7 x 99.3

30.0 x 92.8

30.0 x 93.4

33.1 x 103.0

17.3 x 96.2

10.1 x 100.0

27.7 x 112.0

o£.\j QO A v x CM yt.ti9

10.5 x 96.6

31.0 x 109.6

43.9 x 103.4

14.0 x 106.1

12.6 x 111.8

28.0 x 102.0

30.0 x 98.0

33.9 x 113.0

27.0 x 107.3

14.9 x 110.1

30.0 x 100.8

34.5 x 96.3

36.6 x 112.5

12.0 x 97.3

35.7 x 100.7

28.0 x 104.8

34.4 x 106.8

30.6 x 111.0

14.0 x 106.0

34.5 x 104.6

26.6 x 108.6

24.3 x 100.6

33.0 x 108.3

15.2 x 98.7

30.9 x 96.9

14.0 x 107.0

33.2 x 107.3

34.0 x 94.8

44.0 x 112.6

34.5 x 110.9

27.0 x 107.5

33.2 x 107.0

13.7 x 104.6

48.0 x 107.2

32.0 x 110.0

34.6 x 103.6

14.0 x 106.1

Plate Figure Slide Coordinates

23 D5259-8(3) 36.9 x 102.5

24 D5259-9(4) 31.0 x 93.0

25 D5259-K2) 16.3 x 99.9

26 D5259-ll(3) 11.9 x 106.3

27 D5259-K1) 22.2 x 107.3

4

1 D^9^Q 1/11 9^ 7 y Q7 ft

2 R1394Q2) 45.5 x 106.5

3 R1394A(1) 48.6 x 100.0

4 D5259-4(4) 32.0 x 97.6

5 D5260-3(3) 13.0 x 97.2

6 D5260-3(3) 27.1 x 101.0

7 D5259-K4) 29.9 x 94.8

8 D5259-K4) 33.1 x 107.8

9 D5260-3(3) 14.9 x 103.1

10-11 R1524U) 48.8 x 101.5

12 D5259-K2) 16.8 x 97.0

13 D5259-1K3) 13.0 x 99.6

14 D5259-6(4) 36.9 x 112.0

15 D5259-6(4) 34.5 x 113.1

16 D5260-3(3) 29.1 x 109.0

17-18 D5260-3(3) 31.0 x 99.5

19 D5259-K2) 32.0 x 100.3

20 D5259-5(3) 33.6 x 109.0

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Cod: Science, v. 132, p. 1397-1398.

PLATES 1-4

Contact photographs of the plates in this report are available at cost, from U.S. Geological Survey 

Library, Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225.
PLATE 1

(Magnification X 1,000]

FIGURE 1. GleichenUdites sp.; near Marshfield Center.

2-6. Sciadopitys serrata (Potonie & Venitz 1934) Martin & Rouse 1966; Gay Head.

7. Podocarpus sp.; Gay Head.

8-11. Tsuga spp., for comparison with Sciadopitys. In Tsuga the protrusions are more 

obviously hollow, more evenly spaced, and within any one specimen more 

uniform than in Sciadopitys. In different forms of Tsuga the protrusions may 

be small (fig. 9) to large (fig. 11). Figures 8,10, 11, Gay Head; figure 9, Scituate 

Third Cliff.

12. Ephedripites hungaricus Nagy 1963; near Marshfield Center.

13-14. Myrica spp. Figure 13, Gay Head, probably Miocene; figure 14, near Marshfield 

Center, probably Miocene but possibly Paleogene.

15. Comptoniat sp.; Zacks Cliffs.

16. Betula sp.; Gay Head.

17-18. Momipites spackmanianus (Traverse 1955) Nichols 1973. Figure 17, near Marshfield Center; figure 18, Legler lignite, New Jersey.

19-20. Momipites annulatus Frederiksen & Christopher 1978. This species has a triradiate structure, but the annulus, shape, and size are probably the same as in M. 

spackmanianus. Figure 19, near Marshfield Center; figure 20, Legler lignite, 

New Jersey.

21-22. Momipites aff. M. coryloides Wodehouse 1933; Legler lignite, New Jersey.

23-24. Triporopottenites spp. Neither specimen has modifications of the exine at the 

pores, but the specimens differ in exine thickness. Both specimens are from Gay 

Head.

25. Pterocarya type;near Marshfield Center.

26. Fraxinoipottenites sp.; Gay Head. 

27-28. Gordonia sp.; near Marshfield Center.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1308 PLATE 1

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MIOCENE SPOROMORPHS
PLATE 2

[Magnification X 1,000. Specimens are from near Marshfield Center unless otherwise indicated]

FIGURES 1-2. Cornaceae?; Gay Head.

3. Symphcos sp.

4. Boehlensipollis hohlii Krutzsch 1962.

5. Pseudolaesopoltis sp.; Gay Head.

6. Symplocos sp.

7. Tetracolporopollenites sp. (Sapotaceae); note shortness of colpi.

8. Cicatricosisporites dorogensis Potonie & Gelletich 1933.

9. Mttfordia minima Krutzsch 1970.

10. MilfonKa hungarica (Kedves 1965) Krutzsch 1970.

11. Milfordia incerta (Pflug & Thomson in Thomson & Pflug 1953) Krutzsch 1961.

12. Momipites microfoveolatus (Stanley 1965) Nichols 1973.

13. Momipites strictus Frederiksen & Christopher 1978.

14. Momipites actinus Nichols & Ott 1978.

15. Momipites tenuipolus group of Nichols 1973, emend. Frederiksen & Christopher

1978.

16-18. "PlatycaryapoUis semicyclus" Krutzsch & Vanhoorne 1977. Figure 17 is a specimen from Scituate Third Cliff.

19. Platycaryaplatycaryoides (Roche 1969) Frederiksen & Christopher 1978.

20. Platycarya sp.

21. Platycaryapollenites swasticoidus (Elsik 1974) Frederiksen & Christopher 1978.

22. Platycaryapollenites triplicatus (Elsik 1974) Frederiksen & Christopher 1978.

23. PUcatopoUis sp. of the P. triorbicularis type.

24-25. PUcatopoUis spp. of the P. lunata type.

26-29. Momipites-PKcatopottis-Platycaryapollenites (MPP) complex of Frederiksen 1979. 

Note the thick exine and uneven outline in all these specimens, typical of the 

MPP complex which, so far as known, is limited to the lower Eocene and lowest 

part of the middle Eocene on the Gulf Coast.

26. A specimen similar to Momipites coryloides Wodehouse 1933.

27. Note the broad, uneven pseudocolpus.

28. A specimen that seems to be corroded but probably has affinities to 

Platycaryapollenites.

29. A specimen having morphological affinities to the Momipites tenuipolus

group; compare with plate 2, figure 15. 

30. Carya sp. < 29 /im.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1308 PLATE 2

Miocene (figs. 1-2), Miocene or possibly reworked Eocene (figs. 3-7), and reworked Paleogene (figs. 8-20) sporomorphs
PLATE 3

[Magnification X 1,000. Specimens are from near Marshfield Center unless otherwise indicated]

FIGURES 1-2. Triatriopollenites turgidus (Pflug in Thomson & Pflug 1953) Frederiksen 1979.

3. LabrapoUis globosa (Pflug in Thomson & Pflug 1953) Krutzsch 1968. 

4-5. Subtriporopollenites anulatus Pflug & Thomson in Thomson & Pflug 1953.

6. Casuarinidites convexus (Groot & Groot 1962) Frederiksen & Christopher 1978.

7. Casuarinidites sp.

8. Casuarinidites pulcher (Simpson 1961) Srivastava 1972; specimen is from Scituate 

Third Cliff.

9. Casuarinidites aff. C sparsus Frederiksen & Christopher 1978.

10. Betula infrequens Stanley 1965.

11. Pistillipollenites mcgregorii Rouse 1962.

12. InterpoUis microsupplingensis Krutzsch 1961.

13. Anacotosidites reklawensis Elsik 1974.

14. Dicolpopottis cf. D. kalewensis of Tschudy 1973a; specimen is from Scituate Third

Cliff.

15-16. Tricolpites asper Frederiksen 1978a 

17-19. Intratriporopottenites ottivierae Gruas-Cavagnetto 1976. Specimen of figure 19 is

from Scituate Third Cliff. 

20-21. Nuxpollenites psilatus Frederiksen 1979. The outline is slightly uneven; this is

also true of the protologue specimens from Virginia

22. Nuxpollenites sp. An unusually small specimen for this genus; perhaps this is an 

	immature grain.

23. Porocolpopollenites virginiensis Frederiksen 1979.

24. Favitricolporites baculoferus (Pflug in Thomson & Pflug 1953) Srivastava 1972.

25. Holkopollenites chemardensis Fairchild in Stover et al. 1966.

26. Holkopollenites? sp.

27. Thomsonipoltts magnifica (Pflug in Thomson & Pflug 1953) Krutzsch 1960.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1308 PLATE 3

18 19 - 20

Reworked Paleogene pollen grains
PLATE 4

[Magnification X 1,000. Specimens are from the Marshfield Center area unless otherwise indicated]

FIGURE 1. NudopoUis tenrdnalis (Pflug & Thomson in Thomson & Pflug 1953) Pflug 1953.

2. Trudopollis plena Tschudy 1975; Scituate Third Cliff.

3-4. Pompeckjoidaepollenites subhercynicus (Krutzsch 1954) Krutzsch in Goczan et al. 

	1967. Specimen of figure 3 is from Scituate Third Cliff.

5. Basopollis obscurocostata Tschudy 1975.

6. PseudopticapoUis serena Tschudy 1975.

7-8. PseudopticapoUis limitata Frederiksen 1978a

9. PseudopticapoUisI or NudopoUisl

10-11. PseudopticapoUis cf. P. endocuspis of Frederiksen 1979.

12. KyandopoUenites anneratus Stover in Stover et al. 1966.

13. Choanopollenites sp.

14. PticapoUis sp.

15. Complexiopottis funiculus Tschudy 1973b.

16. BasopoUisl sp.

17-18. EndoinfundibulapolUs! sp.

19. Trudopollis sp.

20. AquUapoUenites sp.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1308 PLATE 4

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Reworked Paleogene and Cretaceous pollen grains

11

20

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