Geo log i cal Quar terly, 2015, 59 (4): 781–782 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7306/gq.1263
In te grated stra tig ra phy of the Campanian/Maastrichtian bound ary suc ces sion of the Mid dle Vistula River sec tion, cen tral Po land: part II
Ed ited by: Ireneusz Walaszczyk PREFACE
The Up per Campanian and Lower Maastrichtian of the Mid dle Vistula River val ley sec tion (cen tral Po land) is a con tin u ous lithologically mo not o nous suc ces sion that yields all biostratigraphically crit i cal macro- and microfossil groups (ammonites, bel em - nites, inoceramid bi valves, foraminifera, nannofossils and dinoflagellates). The se quence also re tains a good sta ble iso tope and palaeomagnetic sig nal. The sec tion is lo cated in what was the tran si tional zone be tween the Bo real and Tethyan biogeographic prov inces, and was in the mid dle of the North Eu ro pean Biogeographic Prov ince, with both west ern and east ern fau nal el e ments of the Prov ince. Fur ther more, the Campanian/Maastrichtian bound ary in ter val is well ex posed and eas ily ac ces si ble. All these fea - tures make the Mid dle Vistula River sec tion a crit i cal ref er ence se quence that pro vides in for ma tion that sup ple ments the re cord from the Global Stratoype Sec tion at Tercis in southeast ern France (Odin, 2001; Odin and Lamaurelle, 2001), and the sec tion at Kronsmoor in north ern Ger many (Niebuhr et al., 2011).
The set of pa pers pre sented in this is sue of Geo log i cal Quar terly is the con tin u a tion of a se ries of strati graphic stud ies of the Campanian/Maastrichtian bound ary suc ces sion of the Mid dle Vistula River sec tion, ini ti ated over a de cade ago. The start ing point of the whole pro ject was the geo log i cal re in ter pre ta tion of the Campanian/Maastrichtian bound ary in ter val by Walaszczyk, Machalski, and Marcinowski, joined by Remin in 2007. This pro ject dem on strated the pres ence of a com plete fossiliferous suc ces sion across the bound ary. The ini tial re in ter pre ta tion was based on inoceramid bi valves (Walaszczyk, 2004), and these re sults were sub se quently con firmed on the ba sis of new stud ies on ammonites (Machalski, 2012) and bel em nites (Remin, 2007, 2012). To gether, these dem on - strated the im por tance of the Mid dle Vistula sec tion as a po ten tial ref er ence sec tion for the bound ary in ter val.
The first part of a multi-authored re port was pub lished in 2012 (Acta Geologica Polonica, vol. 54 part 4), and con cen trated on bel em nites (Keutgen et al., 2012; Remin, 2012), the group long re garded as crit i cal for biostratigraphy of the Campanian–Maastrichtian in ter val, and still of great value in strati graphi cal and biogeographical in ter pre ta tions. The pa per on sponge as sem blages (Œwierczewska-G³adysz, 2012) was not in tended as a dis cus sion on biostratigraphy; rather it doc u ments one of a few groups in the re cord with a high po ten tial for en vi ron men tal in ter pre ta tion.
This pres ent re port con tains four pa pers, pre sent ing var i ous strati graphi cal as pects of the bound ary suc ces sion. The first pa - per, by Remin, is the con tin u a tion of his bel em nite stud ies. In this sur vey, based on newly col lected ma te rial, the au thor pres ents a new strati graphic-tax o nomic in ter pre ta tion of the ge nus Belemnitella from the Mid dle Vistula suc ces sion. The base of the Belemnella obtusa/Belemnella vistulensis Zone, the Belemnella-marker of the lower bound ary of the Maastrichtian Stage, is shown to be equiv a lent to the top of the Belemnitella najdini–B. pos te rior Zone, as pro posed in the pa per. The top of the pos te rior Zone co - in cides with the al most to tal dis ap pear ance of the Campanian Belemnitella clade, and is a da tum that is a good proxy for the Campanian/Maastrichtian bound ary. It may also mark a more sig nif i cant bi o log i cal event than pre vi ously re al ized.
Peryt and Dubicka pres ent a re-study of the ben thic and plank tonic foraminiferal re cord. Their anal y sis is fo cused on the bound - ary in ter val, but also pro vides in for ma tion ex tend ing down into the Mid dle Campanian Bostrychoceras polyplocum ammonite Zone.
The ac count of the plank tonic foraminifera sup ple ments the ear lier sur vey of the se nior au thor (Peryt ,1980); the ben thic forams were treated re cently by both au thors in the con text of their re gional stud ies (Dubicka and Peryt, 2012), which places the pres ent re - port in a wider re gional con text. The plank tonic spe cies Rugoglobigerina milamensis, R. hexacamerata and R. pennyi, the FOs of which were re cog nised in the up per part of the “Inoceramus” redbirdensis Zone, ap pear to be very good prox ies for the Campanian–Maastrichtian bound ary, as cur rently de fined. Only a sin gle ben thic form, Neoflabellina reticulata, has a FO close to the base of the Maastrichtian, in the lat est Campanian.
Plasota, Nawrocki and Walaszczyk doc u ment the magnetostratigraphy of the se quence in one of the few palaeomagnetic stud - ies un der taken in the Mid dle Vistula sec tion. The biostratigraphically well-con strained in ter val stud ied by these au thors is re ferred to magnetostratigraphic chron C32n, and the Campanian/Maastrichtian bound ary is lo cated near the top of the C32n2n subchron.
There are a num ber of nar row re versed po lar ity in ter vals in the C32n2n chron, which may, how ever, be the re sult of par tial remagnetisation.
The last pa per of this re port, by Remin, Machalski and Jagt, is not based on the ma te rial from the Vistula sec tion. The au thors de scribe the re cent dis cov ery of the heteromorph ammonite, Diplomoceras cylindraceum, one of the three ammonite prox ies used for the pres ent def i ni tion of the base of the Maastrichtian (see Odin and Laumurelle, 2001), from beds far be low the bound ary as cur rently de fined by the GSSP. The spec i men, found in the Campanian of the Roztocze Hill, in east ern Po land, is from the Mid dle
Campanian Bostrychoceras polyplocum Zone. This re cord dem on strates be yond doubt that the first oc cur rence of this spe cies has no value as a sec ond ary marker for the base of the Maastrichtian stage.
Fur ther re ports on the Vistula sec tion will deal with nannoplankton, dinoflagellate cysts, sta ble iso tope and chemostratigraphy.
Ac knowl edge ments. The con stant fi nan cial sup port of the In sti tute of Ge ol ogy of the Fac ulty of Ge ol ogy of the Uni ver sity of War saw (BST grant No. 173 502) is warmly ac knowl edged.
REFERENCES
Dubicka, Z., Peryt, D., 2012. Lat est Campanian and Maastrichtian palaeoenvironmental changes: im pli ca tions from an epicontinental sea (SE Po land and west ern Ukraine). Cre ta ceous Re search, 37: 272–284.
Keutgen, N., Remin, Z., Walaszczyk, I., 2012. Early rep re sen ta tives of the bel em nite ge nus Belemnella (Cephalopoda) from the up per most Campanian–Lower Maastrichtian of the Mid dle Vistula River sec tion, cen tral Po land. Acta Geologica Polonica, 62: 535–559.
Machalski, M., 2012. Stratigraphically im por tant ammonites from the Campanian–Maastrichtian bound ary in ter val of the Mid dle Vistula River sec tion, cen tral Po land. Acta Geologica Polonica, 62: 91–116.
Niebuhr, B., Hampton, M.J., Gallagher, L.T., Remin, Z., 2011. In te grated stra tig ra phy of the Kronsmoor sec tion (north ern Ger many), a ref - er ence point for the base of the Maastrichtian in the Bo real Realm. Acta Geologica Polonica, 61: 193–214.
Odin, G.S., ed., 2001. The Campanian–Maastrichtian bound ary: char ac teri sa tion at Tercis les Bains (France): cor re la tion with Eu rope and other con ti nents. De vel op ments in Palae on tol ogy and Stra tig ra phy, 19.
Odin, G.S., Lamaurelle, M.A., 2001. The global Campanian–Maastrichtian stage bound ary. Ep i sodes, 24: 229–238.
Peryt, D., 1980. Planktic foraminifera zonation of the Up per Cre ta ceous in the Mid dle Vistula Val ley, Po land. Palaeontologia Polonica, 41:
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Remin, Z., 2007. Analiza paleontologiczna i znaczenie stratygraficzne belemnitów górnego kampanu i dolnego mastrychtu profilu doliny œrodkowej Wis³y (in Pol ish). Ph.D. the sis, Uni ver sity of War saw, Warszawa.
Remin, Z., 2012. The Belemnella stra tig ra phy of the Campanian–Maastrichtian bound ary: a new meth od olog i cal and tax o nomic ap proach.
Acta Geologica Polonica, 62: 495–533.
Œwierczewska-G³adysz, E., 2012. Hexactinellid sponge as sem blages across the Campanian–Maastrichtian bound ary in the Mid dle Vistula River sec tion, cen tral Po land. Acta Geologica Polonica, 62: 561–580.
Walaszczyk, I., 2004. Inoceramids and inoceramid biostratigraphy of the Up per Campanian to basal Maastrichtian of the Mid dle Vistula River sec tion, cen tral Po land. Acta Geologica Polonica, 54: 95–168.
782 Ireneusz Walaszczyk
