Micropalaeontological dating of the Prémontré mammal fauna (MP10, Prémontré Sands, EECO, early late Ypresian, Paris Basin)

The Mont-des-Récollets section (N France): a key site for the Ypresian-Lutetian transition at mid-latitudes – reassessment of the boundary criterion for the base-Lutetian GSSP

“…At the Mont-des-Récollets, as well as in all up to now investigated outcrops and boreholes (Steurbaut et al 2015), these glauconitic clayey sands correspond to the top of calcareous nannofossil zone NP12. They were first described at the Mont-Panisel near Mons (d'Omalius d'Halloy 1862) and have recently been included in the Hyon Sand Formation (Steurbaut 2015). They occur throughout the southern part of the Belgian Basin, with maximum thickness of about 25 m.…”

“…Fortunately, analysis of the topographic situation and the lithological descriptions of the sediments in the nearby Cassel borehole, allowed the reconstruction of the entire succession. The lithostratigraphic nomenclature adopted here is from Steurbaut (2015), following earlier recommendations by Steurbaut (1998; 1974; a controversial term validated by Steurbaut & Nolf 1986), the Merelbeke Clay Member (De Moor & Germis 1971), the Pittem Clay Member (Geets 1979), the Vlierzele Sand Member (Kaasschieter 1961) and the Aalterbrugge Sand Member (Hacquaert 1939) are incorporated into the Gentbrugge Formation. This term replaces the previous term Gent Formation (Maréchal 1994;Wouters & Vandenberghe 1994), preoccupied for a unit within the Quaternary of Belgium (Laga et al 2002: 140).…”

“…) with thickness of about 9 m (cf. Steurbaut et al 2015). In the centre of Gent (Blandijnberg or 'Colline de Saint-Pierre' auct.)…”

“…This is based on the identification of clayey sediment chips, fine to mediumgrained glauconite and tests of Palaeonummulites aquitanicus (see taxonomic discussion in Baccaert 2007Baccaert , 2017. At the Mont-des-Récollets, as well as in all up to now investigated outcrops and boreholes (Steurbaut et al 2015), these glauconitic clayey sands correspond to the top of calcareous nannofossil zone NP12. They were first described at the Mont-Panisel near Mons (d'Omalius d'Halloy 1862) and have recently been included in the Hyon Sand Formation (Steurbaut 2015).…”

“…During the last decade the Mont-des-Récollets outcrops have not been subject of further investigations. However, progress was made in the understanding of the stratigraphy of the different units encountered at Mont-des-Récollets: Gentbrugge Formation in the Zemst area (Steurbaut et al 2015), Brussel Sand Formation in the Brussels area (Damblon & Steurbaut 2000) and Lede Sand Formation in the Brussels area (Herman et al 2001) and in the Oosterzele-Balegem area (Smith et al 2004). Interpretation and correlation of the Mont-des-Récollets strata were greatly advanced by the recent introduction of several new calcareous nannofossil taxa (Steurbaut 2011) and by the high resolution nannofossil studies of a series of ODP borehole sections in the Atlantic (Agnini et al 2014) and of several outcrop sections in Belgium (Steurbaut et al 2015) and in the Aquitaine Basin (Lin et al 2017).…”