Palynodinium minus sp. nov. : a new dinoflagellate from the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary in New Zealand

This is the first record of a representative of the organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst genus Palynodinium from the New Zealand region.
Previously, Palynodinium grallator has been reported from two sites in offshore Tasmania during Ocean Drilling Program, Leg 189. The
new species Palynodinium minus is found consistently in latest Maastrichtian? and earliest Danian strata (latest Haumurianeearliest Teurian)
in two sections located along the mid-Waipara and Grey rivers, North Canterbury, South Island. It occurs in a narrow stratigraphic interval
at the CretaceousePaleogene transition and is potentially a stratigraphically important index species in the region. Its range coincides with
that of the global earliest Danian index fossil Carpatella cornuta and a basal Danian acme interval of Trithyrodinium evittii, and is correlated
to ca. 65.5e65.2 Ma. Its highest occurrence is at the base of an acme interval of Palaeoperidinium pyrophorum. It has only been recorded from sections composed of siliciclastic shelf sediments, suggesting that it might have had a palaeoecological preference for relatively near-shore environments.