A bioclast-based astronomical timescale for the Maastrichtian in the type area (southeast Netherlands, northeast Belgium) and stratigraphic implications: the legacy of P.J. Felder

Abstract

The present paper, dedicated to the legacy of local geologist–engineer Peter Jozef (Sjeuf) Felder, who died in 2009, confirms his view that bioclasts constitute a valuable tool in the correlation of outcrops and borehole cores across the type area of the Maastrichtian Stage in the vicinity of Maastricht. His approach of interpreting changes in bioclast contents as having been influenced by Milankovitch cyclicity has here been applied successfully to the entire sedimentary complex of Maastrichtian (latest Cretaceous) age in the study area. In the present approach, results are corroborated by index fossils, mainly dinoflagellate cysts but also calcareous nannofossils, which allow correlation with the Stevns-1 core reference section in eastern Denmark. With the exception of local remnants ofBelemnella obtusaZone age, the Maastrichtian Stage in its type area encompasses the last 4.6 Ma of the Cretaceous Period (i.e. theBelemnella sumensis/Acanthoscaphites tridensZone up to the K/Pg boundary). P.J. Felder's bioclast analyses have enabled the detection of twelve 400 kyr eccentricity cycles of Milankovitch cyclicity in the area. However, the section is not continuous; there is a hiatus ofc.700 kyr between the Gulpen and Maastricht formations at the ENCI-HeidelbergCement Group quarry. In addition, smaller hiatuses, usually in the range of several 20 kyr cycles, have been detected in the upper Maastricht Formation.

Peer Review #1 of "A new ophiacanthid brittle star (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea) from sublittoral crinoid and seagrass communities of late Maastrichtian age in the southeast Netherlands (v0.1)"

“…This setting has been interpreted as middle sublittoral, under subtropical conditions and with sea grass communities (Liebau 1978;). On evidence of index forms amongst coleoid cephalopods (Christensen et al 2005; and inoceramid bivalves (Jagt & Jagt-Yazykova 2018), the lower portion of the Maastricht Formation has been shown to be of late, though not latest, Maastrichtian age, thus corroborating age assignments on the basis of dinoflagellates and calcareous nannoplankton (see Schiøler et al 1997;Keutgen 2018). All these biota allow correlation of these shallow-water biocalcarenites along the fringes of Palaeozoic massifs ( Fig.…”

Type‐Maastrichtian gastropod faunas show rapid ecosystem recovery following the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary catastrophe

“…Stratigraphical distribution of gastropod taxa across the K/Pg boundary in the Maastrichtian type area; age estimates are based on Herngreen et al . () and Keutgen (). Taxa indicated in bold with grey shadow each represent >2% in relative abundance of the latest Maastrichtian gastropod assemblage.…”

“…; Gras & Geluk ; Vonhof et al . ; Keutgen ). Indeed, the chemo‐ and biostratigraphy of the upper Maastricht Formation suggest that the uppermost Maastrichtian is still relatively complete, with unit IVf‐6 representing the last tens of thousands of years of the Cretaceous Period (Smit & Brinkhuis ; Vonhof & Smit ; Keutgen ).…”

Episkeletozoans and bioerosional ichnotaxa on isolated bones of Late Cretaceous mosasaurs and cheloniid turtles from the Maastricht area, the Netherlands

“…Based on the most recent cyclostratigraphical and chronostratigraphical age models for the type Maastrichtian (Keutgen, 2018), the base of the Valkenburg Member (Lichtenberg Horizon) can be dated as 66.8 Ma, and the base of the overlying Gronsveld Member as 66.7 Ma. The Lichtenberg Horizon represents the early stages of a transgression from a relative lowstand during a phase of tectonic inversion, whereas the overlying Gronsveld Member represents a relative highstand during tectonic re-laxation, with the maximum flooding surface situated around the middle of this unit.…”

“…In general, associated skeletal elements of mosasaurid squamates are rare, but isolated teeth, tooth crowns and elements of post-cranial skeletons have proved to be fairly common at some levels within the Gulpen and Maastricht formations in the type area of the Maastrichtian Stage (Fig. 1), of latest age (see Keutgen, 2018). The same holds true for chelonioid turtles, the commonest representative in the area being Allopleuron hofmanni (Gray, 1831).…”