Research paperDinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphy of the Upper Albian to Lower Maastrichtian in the southwestern Barents Sea

•Dinoflagellate cysts in the Barents Sea date the sections as Albian to Maastrichtian.•The record contains several significant hiatuses.•The results facilitate correlation with adjacent offshore basins.

The present study of five wells from Upper Albian to Lower Maastrichtian succession in the southwestern Barents Sea yields the first dinoflagellate cyst-based palynological event biostratigraphy for the area. The research focuses on the Upper Cretaceous Kveite and Kviting formations due to the lack of formal palynological documentation, and enables the formation of a biozonation of greater resolution than currently achievable by micropalaeontology. Four new interval zones and one abundance subzone are described, from base upward: Palaeohystrichophora infusorioides and Palaeohystrichophora palaeoinfusa Interval Zone (intra Early Cenomanian-intra Late Cenomanian), Dinopterygium alatum Interval Zone (?intra Early Coniacian-Late Santonian), Palaeoglenodinium cretaceum Interval Zone (Early Campanian), and the Chatangiella bondarenkoi Interval Zone (Late Campanian) encompassing the Heterosphaeridium bellii Abundance Subzone (intra-Late Campanian). The zones are well correlated to existing palynological zonations from the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, where the previously described Subtilisphaera kalaalliti Interval Zone (intra Late Albian-?intra Early Cenomanian), Heterosphaeridium difficile Interval Zone (Middle Turonian to ?intra Early Coniacian) and Cerodinium diebelii Interval Zone (Early Maastrichtian) are recognised. These data also reveal the presence of three significant unconformities of Late Cenomanian-Early Turonian, Middle Campanian and Late Maastrichtian-Paleocene age.