Late Palaeozoic palynomorph assemblages from the Karoo Supergroup and their potential for biostratigraphic correlation, Kalahari Karoo Basin, Botswana

Late Carbonifeous to Permian core samples from two borehole sections, STRAT 1 and CKP 6, that penetrate the glacial to postglacial and coal-bearing Lower Karoo sequence, Kalahari Karoo Basin, Botswana, contain well preserved pollen and spore palynomorphs. The palynomorph assemblages comprise 165 species of spores and pollen, and few acritarchs and chlorophycean algae. This paper presents a local biozonation of three succeeding assemblage zones, recognisable in each borehole section. The assemblage zones are named: the Hamiapollenites bullaeformis Biozone, the Cyclogranisporites gondwanensis Biozone and the Platysaccus papilionis-Striatopodocarpites fusus Biozone, in ascending order of stratigraphy. Assemblages are compared and correlated with assemblages described from other Gondwana areas of Africa, Australia, Arabia, South America and Antarctica. A general analysis of taxa from the Kalahari Karoo Basin indicates a distinct similarity with assemblages from the Paran Basin of South America. The Hamiapollenites bullaeformis Biozone is comparable with the Vittatina costabilis Interval Zone of the Paran Basin. Assemblages from the Cyclogranisporites gondwanensis and the Platysaccus papilionis-Striatopodocarpites fusus zones are comparable with the Lueckisporites virkkiae Interval Zone. Age determination for the assemblages in the Kalahari Karoo Basin is inferred from comparison with similar assemblages from previous Gondwana studies, and ranges from the Late Carboniferous (Kasimovian-Gzhelian) to latest Early or possibly earliest Middle Permian (Late Cisularian to Early Guadalupian).