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Marine palynomorphs have been studied from a new section on Seymour Island in the James Ross Basin, northern Antarctic Peninsula.  At 65°S, both during the Maastrichtian and at the present day, it is an exceptional locality to investigate the nature of climates and sea level in the high southern palaeolatitudes across the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) transition. Until now, Antarctic marine palynological studies have relied on dinoflagellate cyst zonation schemes from New Zealand and southeastern Australia.  New high resolution data from this important location has allowed us to propose the first formal dinoflagellate cyst zonation scheme for the Antarctic Peninsula placing this Maastrichtian to earliest Paleogene succession from Seymour Island into a firm stratigraphical context.

The shallow marine López de Bertodano Formation (c.1100m thick) records the final c.3 myrs of the Cretaceous and crosses the K-Pg boundary. Varied and stratigraphically useful Manumiella spp. form the basis of two new ?late Maastrichtian zones (the Manumiella seymourensis Range Zone and the Manumiella bertodano Interval Zone).  In addition, the exceptional expanded nature of this sequence allows the insertion of a new early Danian Hystrichosphaeridium tubiferum Acme Zone between the latest Maastrichtian Manumiella druggii Range Zone and the Danian Trithyrodinium evittii Acme Zone.  The oldest beds correlate well with the late Maastrichtian of New Zealand.

In a wider context, a review of Maastrichtian to earliest Paleogene marine palynofloras across the south polar region suggests the presence of a new South Polar Province for this time period with consequent implications for Antarctic palaeogeography.

Dinoflagellate cysts, Biogeography, Palaeogeography, Biostratigraphy