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The tropical rainforests of northwestern Amazonia possess the highest plant diversity of any biome in the world. Understanding their origin, development, maintenance, and future in the face of ongoing global warming requires study of the plant fossil record and a predictive time framework. In this region, palynology is the best biostratigraphic tool because palynomorphs are the most abundant fossils. To construct a biostratigraphic zonation for the Neogene of the Solimões/Amazon basin in northwestern Amazonia, we analyzed palynological information from 25 sections, a total of 143,411 palynomorph grains from 622 samples. Using graphic correlation, we propose seven palynological zones that comprise the Miocene and a portion of the Pleistocene—the Pliocene is absent in the region. We then calibrated these zones against the geological timescale through correlation with a previously calibrated zonation and U/Pb geochronology.
Jaramillo et al. (Thu,) studied this question.