For Oligocene and Miocene sediments of the Central Paratethys realm, regional chronostratigraphic stages have been defined on the basis of characteristic faunal assemblages, often containing abundant endemic elements. Although considerable progress has been made in correlating Paratethyan stages with the Global Time Scale (GTS), the task remains incomplete, especially for the Early Miocene period. The present study focuses on Lower Miocene deposits of the Central Paratethys in southeastern Germany, i. e. the Upper Marine Molasse (OMM) and Upper Brackish Molasse (OBM) of the North Alpine Foreland Basin (NAFB, Molasse Basin). The sediments concerned are assigned to the regional Ottnangian stage of the Central Paratethys, which corresponds to the middle Burdigalian in the GTS. We present a formal lithostratigraphic definition of the Untersimbach and Neuhofen Formations (both OMM), combined with litho-, bio-and magnetostratigraphic investigations, which together provide an improved chronology for the middle Burdigalian interval in the NAFB. The base of the Ottnangian stage is shown to correlate with polarity chron C5En, and we consider an absolute age of around 18.2 Ma to be most plausible. As the OMM in the southeast German part of the NAFB represents a single transgressive-regressive sequence, our new data suggest that the Ottnangian transgression began during chron C5En (~18.2 Ma), whereas the onset of the regressive phase lies within chron C5Dr.2r (~18 Ma). The uppermost marine deposits (top OMM/"Glaukonitsande & Blättermergel") and the lowermost brackish sediments (OBM/Oncophora Formation) are correlated with polarity chron C5Dn (~17.4 Ma). Moreover, our results clearly demonstrate that the lower Oncophora Formation (normal polarity) is not time-equivalent to the OBM/Kirchberg Formation in the southwest German sector of the NAFB (largely reverse polarity) as has hitherto been assumed. The lower Oncophora Formation is most probably contemporaneous with the lowermost OBM sediments (Grimmelfingen Formation) in the southwest German Molasse Basin.

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Proton magnetic resonance spectra including all observable 13C-H-couplings have been measured for chloro-cyclobutadiene-irontricarbonyl.bromo-cyclobutadiene-irontricarbonyl and methyl-cyclobutadiene-irontricarbonyl. The results are discussed with respect to structure and bonding. The structure of a cyclic diene with alternating double and single bonds can be excluded for the four-membered ring of all three compounds. Instead the complex bonded cyclobutadiene contains an electron distribution of higher symmetry with — despite the influence of the substituent — nearly uniform bond orders.

The complete proton resonance spectrum of 1.2-diphenyl-cyclobutadiene-irontricarbonyl was measured including all observable 13C-H-coupling constants within the four-membered ring. The couplings were assigned. Their analysis excludes the structure of a rectangular cyclobutadiene with alternating double and single bonds; the carbon-carbon bonds of the four-membered ring have nearly uniform bond orders.