A high-resolution late Paleocene–early Eocene organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst zonation of the United States Atlantic Coastal Plain

Over the past decades, many expanded sedimentary records from the US Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP) have been studied in detail to assess causes and consequences of the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; ∼ 56 Ma). In ACP sections, the PETM, which is globally marked by a distinct negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE) lasting ∼ 180 kyr following a large input of ¹³C-depleted carbon into the ocean–atmosphere system, has been recorded near the base of the Marlboro Clay. However, truly detailed site-to-site correlations within the CIE interval remain difficult in view of the absence of suitable stratigraphic markers offering the required resolution. Here, augmenting earlier studies involving various other marine microfossil groups, we present a high-resolution regional organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) zonation scheme covering the uppermost Paleocene to lowermost Eocene sediments of the Aquia and Marlboro Clay formations at six ACP localities. We propose five latest Paleocene (ACP Pv–Pz) and six earliest Eocene (all within the PETM interval; ACP E0aE0f) regional informal dinocyst zones. In addition, we emend the genus Hystrichokolpoma and employ several new species, of which four, viz. Impagidinium witmeri sp. nov., Nematosphaeropsis elongatus sp. nov., Hystrichokolpoma heroldiae sp. nov., and Cannosphaeropsis frielingii sp. nov., are formally described. Furthermore, we calibrate the dinocyst zones against magneto-, bio-, and ecostratigraphic records to allow robust regional correlation and age assessments with an average time resolution of < 10⁵ years for the late Paleocene and < 10⁴ years within the PETM interval. The scheme provides new opportunities for portraying the environmental and sedimentological evolution across the US Atlantic Coastal Plain during the PETM in unprecedented detail.