Upper Paleocene and lowermost Eocene angiosperm pollen biostratigraphy of the eastern Gulf Coast and Virginia

Strata comprising most of the upper Paleocene in eastern North America are divided into two new pollen zones, the Carya and Platycarya platycaryoides Interval Zones. Pollen data have proven to be important for correlations between Alabama-western Georgia and eastern Mississippi and between the eastern Gulf Coast and Virginia. Migration of tropical plant taxa from the Caribbean to the Gulf Coast began at least 4 m.y. before the end of the Paleocene. The Terminal Paleocene Extinction Event, accompanied by a distinct pulse of plant immigration from Europe, began several hundred thousand years before the end of the Paleocene.