Foliar Morphology And Anatomy Of The Gigantopterid Plant Delnortea Abbottiae, From The Lower Permian Of West Texas

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142005/1/ajb214202.pd

Freshwater Fossil Pearls from the Nihewan Basin, Early Early Pleistocene

Fossil blister pearls attached to the shells of an Anodonta mollusk from China, early Early Pleistocene, are reported here for the first time. The pearls were investigated in detail using a variety of methods. Micro-CT scanning of the fossil pearls was carried out to discover the inner structure and the pearl nucleus. Using CTAn software, changes in the gray levels of the biggest pearl, which reflect the changing density of the material, were investigated. The results provide us with some clues on how these pearls were formed. Sand grains, shell debris or material with a similar density could have stimulated the development of these pearls. X-ray diffraction analysis of one fossil pearl and the shell to which it was attached reveals that only aragonite exists in both samples. The internal structures of our fossil shells and pearls were investigated using a Scanning Electron Microscope. These investigations throw some light on pearl development in the past

Jurassic–Cretaceous radiolarian-bearing strata from the Gresten Klippen Zone and the St. Veit Klippen Zone (Wienerwald, Eastern Alps, Austria): Implications for stratigraphy and paleogeography

Two sections of the klippen zones in the Wienerwald area have been investigated for their stratigraphy: (1) The Gern section of the Main Klippen Zone, a part of the Gresten Klippen Zone, and (2) the St. Veit Klippen Zone in the Lainz Tunnel and the neighboring outcrops in western Vienna. New biostratigraphic data are based on radiolaria from siliceous intervals and a few findings of calcareous nannofossils from marlstones. In the Gresten Klippen Zone, radiolarian assemblages from limestones of the Gern locality indicate a middle Oxfordian to early Kimmeridgian age of the Scheibbsbach Formation. Radiolarian and nannofossil data from the St. Veit Klippen Zone in the Lainz railway tunnel locality, as well as correlated outcrops from the Lainzer Tiergarten and the Gemeindeberg in the southwest of Vienna, indicate the presence of mainly Bajocian to lower Oxfordian red radiolarites and cherts (Rotenberg Formation). Siliceous, grey limestones and cherts of the Fasselgraben Formation range from the upper Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian to the Valanginian–Barremian. The Main Klippen Zone was derived from the European margin to the north, and this zone is regarded as a Helvetic paleogeographic unit. The St. Veit Klippen Zone in the Lainz Tunnel section contains no ophiolitic material and shows a tectonic contact with the surrounding Rhenodanubian nappe system, which indicates no primary sedimentary contact of the St. Veit Klippen Zone with the Flysch units, as well as demonstrating the presence of two structurally separated Alpine tectonic units. Thus, a direct correlation with the Ybbsitz Zone is not supported, and an original paleogeographic position in the transition from the Penninic Ocean to the Austroalpine continental fragment is proposed.© 2018 Andrzej ŚLĄCZKA et al