Organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst records from a prospective Turonian - Coniacian (upper Cretaceous) GSSP, Slupia Nadbrzezna, Poland

AbstractA river section at Słupia Nadbrzeżna, central Poland, has been proposed as a candidate Turonian – Coniacian (Cretaceous) GSSP, in combination with the Salzgitter-Salder quarry section of Lower Saxony, Germany. Results of a high-resolution (25 cm) palynological study of the boundary interval in the Słupia Nadbrzeżna section are presented. Terrestrial palynomorphs are rare; marine organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts dominate the palynological assemblage. The dinoflagellate cyst assemblage has a low species richness (5–11 per sample; total of 18 species recorded) and diversity (Shannon index H = 0.8–1.4), dominated by four taxa: Circulodinium distinctum subsp. distinctum; Oligosphaeridium complex; Spiniferites ramosus subsp. ramosus; Surculosphaeridium longifurcatum. Declining proportions of O. complex and S. ramosus subsp. ramosus characterise the uppermost Turonian, with an increased dominance of S. longifurcatum in the lower Coniacian. The Turonian – Coniacian boundary interval includes an acme of C. distinctum subsp. distinctum in the upper Mytiloides scupini Zone, a dinoflagellate cyst abundance maximum in the Cremnoceramus walterdorfensis walterdorfensis Zone, and the highest occurrence of Senoniasphaera turonica in the basal Coniacian lower Cremnoceramus deformis erectus Zone. Most previously reported Turonian – Coniacian boundary dinoflagellate cyst marker species are absent; a shallow-water oligotrophic epicontinental depositional setting, remote from terrestrial influence, likely limited species diversity and excluded many taxa of biostratigraphic value

High Diversity in Cretaceous Ichthyosaurs from Europe Prior to Their Extinction

Background: Ichthyosaurs are reptiles that inhabited the marine realm during most of the Mesozoic. Their Cretaceous representatives have traditionally been considered as the last survivors of a group declining since the Jurassic. Recently, however, an unexpected diversity has been described in Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous deposits, but is widely spread across time and space, giving small clues on the adaptive potential and ecosystem control of the last ichthyosaurs. The famous but little studied English Gault Formation and ‘greensands’ deposits (the Upper Greensand Formation and the Cambridge Greensand Member of the Lower Chalk Formation) offer an unprecedented opportunity to investigate this topic, containing thousands of ichthyosaur remains spanning the Early–Late Cretaceous boundary. Methodology/Principal findings: To assess the diversity of the ichthyosaur assemblage from these sedimentary bodies, we recognized morphotypes within each type of bones. We grouped these morphotypes together, when possible, by using articulated specimens from the same formations and from new localities in the Vocontian Basin (France); a revised taxonomic scheme is proposed. We recognize the following taxa in the ‘greensands’: the platypterygiines ‘Platypterygius’ sp. and Sisteronia seeleyi gen. et sp. nov., indeterminate ophthalmosaurines and the rare incertae sedis Cetarthrosaurus walkeri. The taxonomic diversity of late Albian ichthyosaurs now matches that of older, well-known intervals such as the Toarcian or the Tithonian. Contrasting tooth shapes and wear patterns suggest that these ichthyosaurs colonized three distinct feeding guilds, despite the presence of numerous plesiosaur taxa. Conclusion/Significance: Western Europe was a diversity hot-spot for ichthyosaurs a few million years prior to their final extinction. By contrast, the low diversity in Australia and U.S.A. suggests strong geographical disparities in the diversity pattern of Albian–early Cenomanian ichthyosaurs. This provides a whole new context to investigate the extinction of these successful marine reptiles, at the end of the Cenomanian

Geochemical and palynological sea-level proxies in hemipelagic sediments: A critical assessment from the Upper Cretaceous of the Czech Republic

Geochemical and palynological records are presented for an expanded Turonian–Coniacian hemipelagic succession in the central Bohemian Cretaceous Basin. A high-resolution stratigraphic framework is provided by biostratigraphy and organic carbon stable-isotope (δ13Corg) chemostratigraphy. A short-term (100 kyr) sea-level curve has been derived from high-resolution transgressive/regressive maxima / shore-proximity data established from basin-wide sediment geometries. The viability of geochemical and palynological parameters as potential sea-level proxies is tested against this independently derived sea-level record. Elemental chemostratigraphy is demonstrated to offer a reliable means of identifying medium- to long-term (0.4–2.4 Myr) sea-level trends. Manganese maxima are associated with periods of high sea level, and troughs with intervals of low sea level. Falling Mn contents accompany regression and rising values transgression. Major transgressive events associated with medium-term sea-level change are marked by sharp increases in Ti/Al ratios, but short-term (100 kyr) sea-level cycles are not consistently identified. Long-term δ13Corg variation and dinoflagellate cyst species richness are positively correlated and show similarities to the sea-level curve. Baseline trends have a cycle duration close to the 2.4 Myr long-eccentricity cycle. Dinocyst species richness closely follows short-term changes in sea level, with marked increases in dinocyst diversity coincident with most short-term flooding events. Periods of rapid sea-level rise caused an influx of a more diverse ‘outer shelf’ assemblage into the study area, together with the addition of shallower water species, some of which may have been transported into the central basin by hypopycnal flows. Changes in the proportion and abundance of peridinioid dinoflagellate cysts (principally Palaeohystrichophora infusorioides) were controlled principally by changing nutrient levels. Proximity proxies derived from geochemical and palynological data are not always consistent with the independent sea-level model. This exemplifies the need to understand all factors influencing elemental geochemical and palynological proxies before making simplistic sea level interpretations