Bulletin of the Geological Society of Malaysia, Volume 3, March 1970, pp. 77 – 88
Visiting Fulbright Professor, University of Malaya
(Permanent address: Department of Geology & Geography, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, U.S.A.)
Abstract: Plant megafossils were collected from two localities and two stratigraphic levels in the measured section of later Mesozoic rocks that crop out near Maran, Pahang, West Malaysia. Comparisons of lithologies and of lithologic sequences suggest that the Maran section is equivalent to the medial portion of the type-section of the Tembeling Formation along the Tekai River to the northwest. Similar rocks are exposed along a belt essentially parallel to the peninsular axis, and plant megafossils are known from four areas about evenly-spaced along the belt.
A biostratigraphic zone appears to be represented by the association of Gleichenoides (ferns) and Frenelopsis (conifers) in the lower Maran florule; this is the same association of plants found also in the Panti area of southern Johore. A second biostratigraphic zone appears to be represented by different species of Gleichenoides with several kinds of cycadophytes in the upper Maran florule; this association of plants is found also in the Ulu Endau area between Panti and Maran. The composite of both Maran florules is nearly identical to the Gagau composite flora collected from several localities in northern Pahang.
Subject to future verification, it appears that the plant-bearing beds in the Gagau and Maran areas are of equivalent age; that the Gagau plant-bearing beds (Lotong sandstone) are equivalent therefore to the medial part of the Tembeling type-section; that the Ulu Endau flora correlates floristically with the upper Maran fiorule; and that the Panti flora correlates floristically with the lower Maran florule. The Maran plants most closely resemble species of Neocomian age from other parts of the world. The later sediments in the West Malaysia belt are considered to be early Cretaceous in large part, with a limited palynological record suggesting a Jurassic age for the deposits lower in the series. An open forest of few plant taxa is inferred to have occupied the region, under a climatic regime having a distinct dry season.
https://doi.org/10.7186/bgsm03197007
