The scientific borehole Baden-Sooss penetrates a succession of Badenian (Langhian, Middle Miocene) sediments at the type locality of the Badenian, the old brickyard Baden-Sooss in the Vienna Basin. The sedimentary succession of the 102-m-cored interval consists of more than 95% bioturbated, medium-to-dark gray marly shales with carbonate contents between 11 and 25% and organic carbon contents between 0.35 and 0.65%. Biostratigraphic investigations on foraminifera (mainly lower part of Upper Lagenid Zone) and calcareous nannoplankton (standard zone NN5) indicate an early Badenian (Langhian) age. Cycles in carbonate content, organic carbon content, and magnetic susceptibility have been identified by power spectra analysis. Correlations between the three variables are extremely significant. Using cross-correlation, periods around 40 m correlate significantly with the 100 kyr−1 eccentricity cycle, the ∼20 m periods with the obliquity cycle, and the 15 to 11-m periods with both precession cycles. Wavelet transformation and decomposition of composite periodic functions were used to obtain the position of the cycle peaks in the profile. Cross-correlation with orbital cycles (La2004) dates the Baden-Sooss core between −14.379 ± 1 and −14.142 my ± 9 kyr.

Three burrow systems produced by Jaxea nocturna and one cluster of burrows produced by Upogebia pusilla where investigated in the Bay of Panzano, Northern Adriatic Sea, to determine preferred orientations. The distributions of dip directions differ between both producers. Steep shafts into the consolidated mud followed by large, shallowly inclined tunnels oriented in a manner similar to a spiral are characteristic for Jaxea nocturna burrows. In contrast, the Y-shaped burrows of Upogebia pusilla have entrance shafts that are less steep which are connected by a near-horizontal section, where a blind ending tunnel branches. Orientations of the dominating, shallowly inclined burrow parts are not randomly distributed in either Jaxea or in Upogebia burrows. Three preferred axial orientations with almost equal proportions in each direction are characteristic for the Jaxea burrow from the centre of the bay. This system transforms to a squared structure near the coast, where one direction parallels the shoreline and the other is oriented at right angles to the coast. The latter orientation demonstrates significant constancy in all investigated burrows. Upogebia burrow clusters coincide with the three preferred orientations of the Jaxea burrow from the bay centre, but the proportions of the directions are unequal. Burrow segments connecting the steep entrance shafts in Upogebia are oriented almost parallel to the shoreline, whereas at right angles to the coast the flat blind-ending tunnels incline towards the open sea. The study shows a strong coincidence between empirical and theoretical distributions of the dominating orientations in both species.

A new ichnogenus and ichnospecies Saronichnus abeli is described for a protrusive trace fossil produced by the lucinoid bivalve Thyasira michelottii from storm-dominated siliciclastics of the Miocene (Lower Badenian) Grund Formation. A chemosymbiotic life strategy under dysaerobic conditions is proposed for this bivalve. The trace fossil expresses an adaptation to oxygen-poor habitats.

The trace fossils Arenicolites, Asterosoma, Diplocraterion, Zoophycos, Ophiomorpha, Saronichnus, Scolicia and Thalassinoides have been recognized in the siliciclastics of the Grund Formation. Their occurrence and distribution is related to storm deposition. In proximal storm deposits, only monospecific Asterosoma occurs. It is typical of the transition between the Skolithos and the proximal Cruziana ichnofacies. A more diverse trace fossil association of the proximal and archetypical Cruziana ichnofacies occurs in more distal storm deposits. The vertical structures (Arenicolites, Diplocraterion, Ophiomorpha) are related to opportunistic colonization of the storm beds (post-event community). The horizontal forms (Scolicia, Thalassinoides) represent fair weather conditions. The chemosymbiotic structures (Saronichnus, Zoophycos) are a record of trophic competition that pressures trace makers to deeper and more complex feeding than simple deposit feeding. The horizontal and chemosymbiotic trace fossils represent the resident community. The development from the Skolithos via the proximal Cruziana ichnofacies to the proximal-archetypical Cruziana ichnofacies indicates a deepening from the middle shoreface to upper offshore environments.

Excavations in the type area of the Grund Formation (Middle Miocene, Lower Badenian) in Lower Austria showed four different lithofacies. Sandy beds with typical vertically arranged sedimentological features like erosive base, basal concentrations of coarse shell debris, mud-clasts and clast-horizons, normal graded beds, horizontal lamination of the upper plane bed, concentrations of plant and wood debris, asymmetrical ripples at the top, and synsedimentary deformation structures point to storm-induced event deposits. The sands were mainly deposited as tabular to slightly wedge-shaped sand-sheets; only extreme events produced channel-shaped sediment bodies. Pelitic layers at the top of such event-strata represent fair-weather conditions. The basal shell debris mainly contains mixed, synchronous-allochthonous, highly fragmented but determinable marine faunas from shallow to moderately deep environments. Together with land snails and bones of terrestrial vertebrates bottom currents transported the shelly fauna from shallow-marine to offshore areas. Paleocurrent data from groove marks, gastropod orientation, asymmetrical ripples and small dunes point to a transport towards ESE-E-NE, from a coastal area at the margin of the Bohemian Massif. The various lithofacies clearly reflect a proximal-distal trend from the shoreface to the offshore area. The development from the Skolithos to the proximal Cruziana ichnofacies to the proximal-archetypical Cruziana ichnofacies indicates an upward deepening from middle shoreface to upper offshore environments. The role of the Early Badenian transgression versus extreme storm events responsible for the proximal-distal trend and the lithological and ichnological development is discussed.

Trace fossils from the North Alpine Molasse Basin are potentially a good source of information about benthic infaunal life, palaeoenvironmental parameters, and sequence stratigraphy. Unfortunately, they are underrepresented in the literature. An interesting trace fossil assemblage has been discovered in the lower Middle Miocene (Lower Badenian) Grund Formation. It was studied during two excavation campaigns in 1998 and 1999 at the type locality of this formation (former “Grunder Schichten”). Several deep trenches were excavated in the farmland between the villages of Grund and Guntersdorf (Fig. 1), north of Hollabrunn in northern Lower Austria (compare Pervesler & Uchman 2004, Pervesler & Zuschin 2004, Roetzel & Pervesler 2004).

Mollusc bearing Neogene strata were collectively designated as "Grund Beds" in the 19(th) century. The different lithostratigraphic formations of these Grund Beds were studied in the Austrian Molasse Basin north of the Danube (Alpine-Carpathian Foredeep). Biostratigraphic methods and paleomagnetic measurements revealed that the entire Karpatian Laa Formation spans nannoplankton Zone NN4. It is transgressive on the Lower Miocene, Ottnangian marine sequences. The upper part of the Laa Formation correlates with the first occurrence of Globigerinoides bisphericus and is correlated in the type locality with the reverse Chron C5Cr and the normal chron C5Cn.2n. A distinct unconformity separates the Karpatian and Bademan sequences. The first Badenian transgression of the Molasse Basin resulted in a elastic sequence which, for the time being, has no lithostratigraphic designation. The lower part belongs to nannoplankton Zone NN4, with the first occurrence of Praeorbulina glomerosa glomerosa (Middle Miocene, Zone M5). The upper part of this basal elastic sequence belongs to nannoplankton Zone NN5. A coarse conglomerate, overlying a further unconformity, is interpreted as the transgression horizon of the fine elastic, more than 250 m thick Grand Formation. It spans nannoplankton Zone NN5 and contains Praeorbulina glomerosa circularis. Higher up in the sections, this species occurs together with Orbulina suturalis (plankton Zone M6). Ostracods and molluscs from the Grund Formation is distinctly different from the Karpatian, and indicate an unambiguously Badenian age. The normal paleomagnetic polarity measured in the type locality of the Grand Formation is interpreted as Chron C5Bn.2n. The Gaindorf Formation is coeval with the Grand Formation, developed along the western coast of the Molasse Basin. The more eastern development of the Mailberg Formation stratigraphically corresponds to the upper part of the Grund Formation with the cooccurrence of Po. glomerosa circularis and O. suturalis. In the Mailberg Formation a reverse magnetization is interpreted as correlating with Chron C5Bn.r.

During an actuopalaeontological study numerous resin casts were made in the Bay of Safaga (Red Sea, Egypt). This yielded, among others, several burrow replicas of Alpheus migrans Lewinsohn & Holthuis, 1978 (Decapoda, Alpheidae), a suspected Lessepsian migrant first described from the eastern Mediterranean. In addition, one specimen was captured while casting, a second was entombed in one of the resin casts. The burrows have the general shape of a three-dimensional, dichotomous system modified by a reticulate pattern. They consist of shallower primary U's connected by deeper secondary U's, have up to 6 openings at the surface and reach down to a maximum depth of 70 mm. This is the first record of this species from the Red Sea, where it occurs abundantly in muddy sediments between 34 and 36 m water depth.

Benthic ecologists and palaeoecologists usually associate soft bottoms with infaunal species. On the sublittoral muddy soft bottoms in the inner Gulf of Trieste, however, a complex epifauna is developed, whose biomass, structural features and taphonomy is investigated here. The total biomass amounted to an average of 556 g wet weight/m2 and is strongly dominated by suspension feeders, followed by predators and deposit feeders. The biomass can be divided into two major groups: biomass on benthic islands (isolated and small-sized rockgrounds and shellgrounds which are embedded in or lie on the sediment) and sediment dwellers. The former category includes so-called multi-species clumps, which make up 92.5% of the total biomass. The latter category encompasses organisms that inhabit the sediment surface itself. The epigrowth on benthic islands makes up 84.6% of total epifaunal biomass and is exclusively represented by suspension feeders. Serpulids are strongly dominant, followed by ascidians, sponges, anemones and bivalves. The vagile organisms associated with multi-species clumps represent 7.9% of the total epifauna and are also mostly suspension feeders. The echino-derms Ophiothrix quinquetnaculata and Cucumaria planci are the two dominant forms, followed by crustaceans and echinoids. Soft-bottom dwellers represent only 7.5% of total epifaunal biomass and consist mainly of deposit feeders and predators. Three different post-mortem pathways can be recognized for the studied epifauna. Taphonomic loss due to selective preservation is the most important taphonomic process shaping the death assemblage and affects especially the soft-bodied epigrowth on benthic islands. Mineralized epigrowth and shelled soft-bottom dwellers are the main source of benthic islands. Vagile faunas on such islands, in contrast, are strongly affected by disarticulation / fragmentation and their body parts contribute considerably to the sediment composition. The death assemblage does not reflect the trend of low biomass near the shallow stations off the mouth of the Isonzo River and higher biomass at most stations positioned further away from the river and in deeper water (> 10 m), but acccurately reflects the borders of the epifauna, which coincide with the sedimentary facies and the preponderance of the suspension-feeding life habit.

Most arthropod burrows show a marked preferred orientation: they are not random in alignment. A recent burrow made by Jaxea nocturna Nardo is compared to three fossil burrows from the Austrian Tertiary. In each system very steep and very flat burrow sections can be distinguished. In three cases, including the Recent one, flat burrow sections dominate in length. In all burrow sections the distribution of trend angles is also not uniform but indicate preferred directions. In those cases where two mean vectors exist their position is nearly orthogonal, in systems with three mean vectors they form angles of nearly 60°. A relationship between these preferred directions to coastline orientation and current direction is likely.