The Lower Jurassic succession in the Beyaz Aladağ Unit (Eastern Taurides) includes Hettangian-Pliensbachian shallow-marine carbonates. The studied Sinemurian-Pliensbachian strata, characterized by abundant oncoids and megalodontid bivalve shells, contain a diversified benthic foraminiferal assemblage including orbitopsellids, hauraniids, biokovinids, cyclamminids, and siphovalvulinids taxa. This paper focuses on the morphological analysis of the key biostratigraphic marker species Lituosepta recoarensis Cati, 1959, Lituolipora termieri (Hottinger, 1967), Bosniella oenensis Gušić, 1977, and introduces a new Larger Benthic Foraminifera, Sievoides blumenthali sp. nov. Some poorly known morphological characteristics of these index species have been illustrated, and some potential discrepancies have been improved. The selected taxa have been documented here for the first time from the Beyaz Aladağ Unit, Eastern Taurides. The new species, probably restricted to the Pliensbachian Orbitopsella Zone, is characterized by a coarse agglutinated wall with an irregular, subepidermal polygonal network, a developed spiral stage followed by a long uniserial cylindrical stage, and a simple aperture. It differs from the type species Sievoides kocyigiti Farinacci & Ekmekçi (2004) by a developed spiral stage and stratigraphic position (Pliensbachian). This new species is distributed in the peri-Mediterranean platforms (Taurides, Apennines, Dinarides). The discovery of Sievoides blumenthali in the Lower Jurassic confirms the earlier appearance of the larger Foraminifera having a wall with a subepidermal network, which is known to be common in the Mid-Late Jurassic.
This article presents the results of an investigation into the complex history of the eurypterid species "Eurypterus podolicus Chernyshev, 1947", for which neither an original description nor a type series is known. The study confirms that this species is a nomen nudum, as it was never formally described. Moreover, the specimens of "Eurypterus podolicus" from the Borys Chernyshev's collection lack distinct morphological features that would justify recognizing it as a separate species.
We report on new finds of pufferfish (Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae) beak-like jaws from well-constrained stratal packages at seven Pliocene localities in Tuscany (central Italy). Although these specimens cannot be identified confidently below the family level, their broad distribution and abundance suggest that pufferfishes were established components of the Mediterranean ecosystems under the warm-water conditions that characterised most of the Pliocene Epoch. As some Pliocene intervals are regarded as robust analogues for near-future climate scenarios, our Tuscan fossils provide a deep-time perspective supporting the idea that continued warming may once again promote the invasion and expansion of tetraodontids and other thermophilic vertebrates in the region - a process already underway as the ongoing 'tropicalization' and 'Lessepsian invasion' drive a dramatic surge in Mediterranean pufferfish diversity and abundance.
The Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Phytoplankton Ecosystem Evolution and its associated Calcification Event were major evolutionary innovations of calcareous marine pelagic micro-organisms. Beginning about 160 Ma in the Oxfordian Stage calcareous nannofossils and calcareous dinoflagellates began calcifying their tests that subsequently accumulated as calcareous ooze. By the Tithonian Stage and continuing into the early Valanginian, calpionellids added to the diversification and expansion of this new pelagic ecosystem. This gradual, progressive ecosystem change in the oceanic photic realm was associated with increased burial of light carbon isotope. This calcareous plankton ecosystem suffered a crisis about 135 Ma by the late Valanginian Carbon Isotope Excursion. This isotope excursion was temporally related to emplacement of the Parana-Etendeka LIP in the Paran & aacute; Basin in South America. The upper Valanginian Carbon Isotope Excursion (VCIE) is a positive delta 13C peak 1.5%o to 3.0%o. In a thick terrigenous section, Japan, this excursion has four subunits bracketed by three radioisotope ages on ash beds. The VCIE began at 135.56 Ma and ended at 132.50 Ma. Its mean duration was 2.47 Myr. The VCIE subunits are correlated globally. Among these sections the age of the VCIE spans from 135.79 Ma to 132.25 Ma. The VCIE documents increased terrigenous sediment deposition and relative sea-level rise in the Gulf of Mexico, west-central Atlantic, France, Italy, and Oman. Globally, climate became more humid with lower atmospheric pCO2 as subaerial volcanics were emplaced and weathered. Coincident was the late Valanginian Nannofossil-Calpionellid-Calcareous-Dinoflagellate Crisis characterized by decreased abundance and diversity of these three groups. The biotic crisis is related to the VCIE and changing paleoenvironmental processes. This study illustrates ocean-climate processes that affected the latest Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous Earth system.
This study revisits the uppermost Jurassic-lowermost Cretaceous succession of Serra Gelada (Alicante, SE Spain) based on new field observations and petrographic analyses. It is the second publication presenting and discussing results and interpretations of the PhD thesis of the first author, defended forty years ago. Several previous interpretations, including the identification of mud-mound facies, tectonic breccias, and hardgrounds, are reassessed. The Tithonian-lower Berriasian limestones are reinterpreted as deposits formed in very shallow-marine environments, ranging from subtidal to intertidal settings and strongly influenced by microbial activity. A major outcome of this study is the recognition of a genuine paleokarst system comprising dolines, caves, chimneys, and chaotic collapse breccias. These features record a significant phase of subaerial exposure during the late Berriasian-early Valanginian and indicate that Serra Gelada formed a small paleo-island, most likely uplifted through salt tectonics involving Triassic evaporites. During the Valanginian transgression, wave erosion produced an abrasion surface across the karstified rocky substrate, while marine sediments progressively infilled the cavities and fractures, ranging from microscopic to decimetric scale. In addition to collapse breccias, coloured micritic infills help visualize repeated episodes of fracturing, cementation, and sediment percolation from the Valanginian to the earliest Aptian. These processes are interpreted in relation to the extensional tectonic phase that affected the External Zones of the Betic Range. Petrographic and cathodoluminescence analyses reveal a complex cement stratigraphy recording successive stages of early marine cementation, meteoric-phreatic diagenesis with limited marine mixing, and later burial diagenesis. This revised interpretation provides a more robust reconstruction of the geological evolution of Serra Gelada and contributes to a better understanding of the paleogeographic evolution of the Prebetic domain during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition.
