Bennettitales From Lower Cretaceous Chengzihe Formation In Jixi Basin Of Heilongjiang, China

The Jixi coal-bearing basin is one of the important industrial coal bases and significant fossil sites in China. The Lower Cretaceous Chengzihe Formation well outcropped in this basin, and composed of non-marin strata alternated by marin beds, yielding abundant fossil plants and marine bivalves and dinoflagellates. The Bennettitalean plants are rich and well-preserved in compression in the Formation. However, the Bennettitalean plants from this formation have not been studied in detail on their taxonomy before.This thesis focuses on the study of the taxonomy of the Bennettitalean plants, particularly on their cuticular characteristics from the fossils collected in the Lower Cretaceous Chengzihe Formation of the Chengzihe-Wanrengou geological section in the Jixi basin. The thesis decribes in detail two Bennettitalean taxa, Pterophyllum chengzihense Liu and Tyrmia jixiensis Sun et Liu, newly found from this section, and makes correlation of the Chengzihe Formation to its coeval strata home and abroad. The study would be beneficial for putting forward the taxonomic study of Bennettitales in this area and for the biostratigraphic study of the Chengzihe Formation.Besides, the present thesis also discusses the paleoclimate and...