PALYNOLOGICAL AGE AND CORRELATION OF A BLACK SHALE SECTION IN THE EZE-AKU FORMATION, LOWER BENUE TROUGH, NIGERIA

Pollen, spore and dinocyst species characteristic of the Late Cenomanian Triorites africaensis Zone occur in black shales of basal Eze-Aku Formation southeast Nigeria. These sediments had hitherto been assigned an Early Turonian age. The section is correlated with reported contemporaneous strata in the Middle and Upper Benue Trough and elsewhere in West Africa and northeast South America. The black, carbonaceous shales were probably deposited under anoxic bottom conditions in a shallow marine environment.