A New Species of Bukryaster from the Upper Cretaceous of Southeast Oklahoma

Abstract

A new species of the calcareous nannofossil Bukryaster Prins, 1970, occurs in the Ozan Formation of southeast Oklahoma. The Ozan Formation is a member of the Cretaceous Gulfian Series, considered Campanian in age; it consists of marly shales in the lower layers and chalks in the upper layers. The formation has been found to contain a diverse assemblage of marine and terrestrial fossils with cephalopods, oysters, and Inoceramus common in several layers. In addition to the megafossils, the Ozan contains a wide variety of ostracods, hystrichosphaerids, acritarchs, dinoflagellates, spores and pollen, and both micro-and megaforaminifera. The most common fossils however, are the coccoliths and associated nannofossils.