High coral diversity is coupled with reef-building capacity during the Late Oligocene Warming Event (Castro Limestone, Salento Peninsula, S Italy)

The Oligocene, well known as the apex of Cenozoic reef growth, is a crucial period of time to investigate the mutual relationship between coral reef construction and coral diversity and their link with palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental changes. Here we provide a complete characterization of the upper Oligocene reef complex of the Castro Limestone (Salento Peninsula, S Italy), which is one of the best-preserved Oligocene coral reefs of the Mediterranean region. By combining facies analysis with the first detailed characterization of its coral fauna, we show that the Castro Limestone has both a rich scleractinian coral fauna (25 genera and 41 species) and a large reef volume, and it represents a luxuriant fringing reef formed within the euphotic zone in clear water conditions facing the open sea. The coral fauna differs both in its composition and in its proportions among reef palaeoenvironments, ranging from the shallow back reef to the fore reef slope, and its stratigraphic and palaeogeographic distribution testifies to the persistence of a cosmopolitan Tethyan fauna in Oligocene time, with the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific provinces being more closely connected than the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. The age of the Castro Limestone is here reassigned to the middle-late Chattian, which coincides with the Late Oligocene Warming Event (LOWE) when atmospheric CO2 values declined. We suggest that the strong reef-building capacity of the Castro Limestone, coupled with high coral diversity, was not hampered by warming conditions but most probably promoted by the reduced pCO2 and a suitable local/regional physiographic setting

HIGH CORAL DIVERSITY IS COUPLED WITH REEF-BUILDING CAPACITY DURING THE LATE OLIGOCENE WARMING EVENT (CASTRO LIMESTONE, SALENTO PENINSULA, S ITALY)

The Oligocene, well known as the apex of Cenozoic reef growth, is a crucial period of time to investigate the mutual relationship between coral reef construction and coral diversity and their link with palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental changes. Here we provide a complete characterization of the Upper Oligocene reef complex of the Castro Limestone (Salento Peninsula, S Italy), which is one of the best-preserved Oligocene coral reefs of the Mediterranean region. By combining facies analysis with the first detailed characterization of its coral fauna, we show that the Castro Limestone has both a rich scleractinian coral fauna (25 genera and 41 species) and a large reef volume, and it represents a luxuriant fringing reef formed within the euphotic zone in clear water conditions facing the open sea. The coral fauna differs both in its composition and in its proportions among reef palaeoenvironments, ranging from the shallow back reef to the fore reef slope, and its stratigraphic and palaeogeographic distribution testifies to the persistence of a cosmopolitan Tethyan fauna in Oligocene time, with the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific provinces being more closely connected than the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. The age of the Castro Limestone is here reassigned to the middle-late Chattian, which coincides with the Late Oligocene Warming Event (LOWE) when atmospheric CO2 values declined. We suggest that the strong reef-building capacity of the Castro Limestone, coupled with high coral diversity, was not hampered by warming conditions but most probably promoted by the reduced pCO2 and a suitable local/regional physiographic setting

High-diversity larger foraminiferal assemblages calibrated with calcareous nannoplankton biozones in the aftermath of EECO (Collio, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northeastern Italy)

The Eocene of Collio (easternmost Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northeastern Italy) contains rich larger foraminiferal assemblages mainly dominated by nummulitids of genera Nummulites and Assilina. Herein, we document, by typological and biometric approaches, upper Ypresian to lower Lutetian taxa, dated by an integrated biostratigraphy combining the Shallow Benthic Zones (SBZ) with the nanno- fossil biozones. A total of seven species of Alveolina, 12 species of Assilina and 33 of Nummulites are described (in Appendix A), some of them left in open nomenclature. The larger foraminiferal assemblages indicate that all the collected samples are assignable to SBZ12 and SBZ13 and their high diversity suggests high resilience of these shallow-water taxa after the Early Eocene Climate Optimum warming event. The occurrence of the calcareous nannofossil Blackites inflatus together with Alveolina violae Nummulites friulanus, N. campesinus, N. quasilaevigatus, Assilina maior maior and A. cuvillieri, typical SBZ12 markers, suggests that SBZ12 extends at least to the basal Lutetian, thus the SBZ12/13 boundary occurs in the lowermost Lutetian instead of at the Ypresian/Lutetian transition

Black earths from Veneto and Piedmont (Northern Italy): origin, composition and potential use in different painting techniques

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The Jurassic–Cretaceous depositional and tectonic evolution of the southernwestern margin of the Neotethys Ocean, Northern Oman and United Arab Emirates

The concept that the autochthonous, parautochthonous and allochthonous Permian–Cretaceous sequences in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman record the transition from platform, slope to basin sedimentation within the southern part of Neotethys has been fundamental to the interpretation of the geological history of the region. The results of a major geological mapping programme of the UAE, carried out by the British Geological Survey for the Federal Government of the UAE, coupled with the detailed examination of key sections within northern Oman has led to a re-evaluation of the geological evolution of this region. This detailed study has led to a greater appreciation of the sedimentology and depositional setting of the sediments laid down along the northeastern Arabian continental margin during the Jurassic to Cretaceous, allowing a more refined model of Neotethys Ocean basin evolution to be established. The model charts the progressive breakup of the Arabian continental margin and closure of Neotethys during the mid to late Cretaceous and is divided into three main stages: Stage 1—Initial rifting and formation of the Neotethys Ocean, followed by a prolonged period of stable, passive margin sedimentation which extended from the Permian to Late Jurassic times; Stage 2—Uplift and erosion of the shelf margin during the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, coincident with increased carbonate-clastic sedimentation in the outer ramp, distal slope and basinal areas; Stage 3—Increased instability during the Late Cretaceous leading to the breakup of the platform margin and foreland basin sedimentation accompanying the obduction of the Oman-UAE ophiolite. Data obtained for the upper part of the platform and platform margin to slope successions has revealed that the topography of the “shelf”-slope-basinal margin was more subdued than previously thought, with this more gentle ramp margin morphology persisting until early to mid-Cretaceous times when the platform margin started to become unstable during ophiolite obduction. The thrust-repeated allochthonous sedimentary rocks of the Hamrat Duru Group were deposited on the outer platform margin/lower slope rise to basinal plain of this basin margin and includes the dismembered remains of two turbidite fan systems which fed carbonate-rich detritus into deeper parts of the ocean. A re-evaluation of the chert-rich sequences, previously equated with deposition on the abyssal plain of Neotethys, has led to the conclusion that they may record sedimentation at a much shallower level within a starved ocean basin, possibly in a mid-ramp (above storm wave base) to outer ramp setting. A marked change in basin dynamics occurred during the mid-Cretaceous leading to the development of a shallow ramp basin margin in Oman with terrestrial to shallow marine sedimentary rocks interdigitating with red siliceous mudstones. By contrast, the contemporaneous succession in the Dibba Zone of the UAE indicates considerable instability on a steep shelf break. This instability is recorded by the presence of several major olistostrome deposits within the Aruma Group of the UAE which are thought to have been generated in advance of the rapidly obducting Oman-UAE ophiolite

Permian high-temperature metamorphism in the Western Alps (NW Italy)

During the late Palaeozoic, lithospheric thinning in part of the Alpine realm caused high-temperature low-to-medium pressure metamorphism and partial melting in the lower crust. Permian metamorphism and magmatism has extensively been recorded and dated in the Central, Eastern, and Southern Alps. However, Permian metamorphic ages in the Western Alps so far are constrained by very few and sparsely distributed data. The present study fills this gap. We present U/Pb ages of metamorphic zircon from several Adria-derived continental units now situated in the Western Alps, defining a range between 286 and 266 Ma. Trace element thermometry yields temperatures of 580-890°C from Ti-in-zircon and 630-850°C from Zr-in-rutile for Permian metamorphic rims. These temperature estimates, together with preserved mineral assemblages (garnet-prismatic sillimanite-biotite-plagioclase-quartz-K-feldspar-rutile), define pervasive upper-amphibolite to granulite facies conditions for Permian metamorphism. U/Pb ages from this study are similar to Permian ages reported for the Ivrea Zone in the Southern Alps and Austroalpine units in the Central and Eastern Alps. Regional comparison across the former Adriatic and European margin reveals a complex pattern of ages reported from late Palaeozoic magmatic and metamorphic rocks (and relics thereof): two late Variscan age groups (~330 and ~300 Ma) are followed seamlessly by a broad range of Permian ages (300-250 Ma). The former are associated with late-orogenic collapse; in samples from this study these are weakly represented. Clearly, dominant is the Permian group, which is related to crustal thinning, hinting to a possible initiation of continental rifting along a passive margin

Revision of Oligocene Mediterranean meandroid corals in the scleractinian families Mussidae, Merulinidae, and Lobophylliidae

Traditional morphology-based systematics indicates close evolutionary relationships between Caribbean and Indo-Pacific ‘faviid’ and ‘mussid’ reef corals. However, molecular phylogenies reveal three distinct family-level clades, which diverged by middle Eocene time: (1) Caribbean faviids + mussids; (2) Indo-Pacific faviids; and (3) Indo-Pacific mussids. During the early Cenozoic, members of these clades also occurred in a third geographical region, the Mediterranean, but became extinct in that region during the Miocene, as the Tethys broke up. We perform morphological phylogenetic analyses including Caribbean, Indo-Pacific and Mediterranean Oligocene and Recent taxa to reconstruct the pattern of divergence between the three regions, and examine how it was related to biogeography. First, fossil specimens were selected from museum collections, and a total of 13 species (three of which are new) were distinguished using nine morphological features. These 13 species were then added to a dataset with taxa consisting of 62 Recent plus one additional extinct species, and with 50 characters. In addition to traditional macromorphology, the characters include new micromorphological and microstructural features observed using electron microscopy and transverse thin sections. Phylogenetic analysis was performed on the dataset using parsimony. The results show that, contrary to traditional systematics, 11 of the 13 Mediterranean extinct coral species group more closely with Indo-Pacific taxa than they do with Caribbean taxa. Recent Caribbean taxa and Indo-Pacific ‘mussids’ form distinct clades; but Indo-Pacific ‘faviids’ form four poorly resolved subclades basal to the Caribbean clade. These results suggest that Mediterranean meandroid corals belong to a cosmopolitan pantropical fauna, from which modern Caribbean meandroid corals diverged as the Caribbean became isolated. Phylogenetic analyses including fossils have higher resolution than analyses including only modern corals. The systematics of the 13 extinct species are formally revised. Two new species – Variabilifavia ausuganensis sp. nov. and Echinophyllia sassellensis sp. nov. – and one new genus – Paraleptoria gen. nov. – are named, and one undescribed species is left in open nomenclature. Two previously synonymized genera are resurrected