Plate tectonic reconstructions for the Cretaceous have assumed that the major continental blocks-Eurasia,

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[1] An 8 million year record of subtropical and midlatitude shelf-sea temperatures, derived from oxygen isotopes of well-preserved brachiopods from a variety of European sections, demonstrates a long-term Cenomanian temperature rise (16-20°C, midlatitudes) that reached its maximum early in the late Turonian (23°C, midlatitudes). Superimposed on the long-term trend, shelf-sea temperatures vary at shorter timescales in relation to global carbon cycle perturbations. In the mid-Cenomanian and the late Turonian, two minor shelf-sea cooling events (2-3°C) coincide with carbon cycle perturbations and times of high-amplitude sea level falls. Although this evidence supports the hypothesis of potential glacioeustatic effects on Cretaceous sea level, the occurrence of minimum shelf-sea temperatures within transgressive beds argues for regional changes in shelf-sea circulation as the most plausible mechanism. The major carbon cycle event in the latest Cenomanian (oceanic anoxic event 2) is accompanied by a substantial increase in shelf-sea temperatures (4-5°C) that occurred $150 kyr after the commencement of the d 13 C excursion and is related to the spread of oceanic conditions in western European shelf-sea basins. Our oxygen isotope record and published d 18 O data of pristinely preserved foraminifera allow the consideration of North Atlantic surface water properties in the Cenomanian along a transect from the tropics to the midlatitudes. On the basis of fossil-derived d 18 O, estimated dw ranges, and modeled salinities, temperature-salinity-density ranges were estimated for tropical, subtropical, and midlatitude surface waters. Accordingly, the Cenomanian temperate shelf-seas waters have potentially the highest surface water density and could have contributed to North Atlantic intermediate to deep waters in the preopening stage of the equatorial Atlantic gateway.

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