Silicified sea life – Macrofauna and palaeoecology of the Neuburg Kieselerde Member (Cenomanian to Lower Turonian Wellheim Formation, Bavaria, southern Germany)

Abstract

Schneider, S., Jager, M., Kroh, A., Mitterer, A., Niebuhr, B., Vodražka, R., Wilmsen, M., Wood, C.J. and Zagoršek, K. 2013. Silicified sea life - Macrofauna and palaeoecology of the Neuburg Kieselerde Member (Cenomanian to Lower Turonian Wellheim Formation, Bavaria, southern Germany). Acta Geologica Polonica, 63(4), 555-610. Warszawa. With approximately 100 species, the invertebrate macrofauna of the Neuburg Kieselerde Member of the Wellheim Formation (Bavaria, southern Germany) is probably the most diverse fossil assemblage of the Danubian Cretaceous Group. Occurring as erosional relicts in post-depositional karst depressions, both the Cretaceous sediments and fossils have been silicified during diagenesis. The Neuburg Kieselerde Member, safely dated as Early Cenomanian to Early Turonian based on inoceramid bivalve biostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy, preserves a predominantly soft-bottom community, which, however, is biased due to near-complete early diagenetic loss of aragonitic shells. The community is dominated by epifaunal and semi-infaunal bivalves as well as sponges that settled on various (bio-) clasts, and may widely be split into an early bivalve-echinoid assemblage and a succeeding sponge-brachiopod assemblage. In addition to these groups we document ichnofauna, polychaete tubes, nautilids and bryozoans. The fauna provides evidence of a shallow to moderately deep, calm, fully marine environment, which is interpreted as a largescale embayment herein. The fauna of the Neuburg Kieselerde Member is regarded as an important archive of lower Upper Cretaceous sea-life in the surroundings of the Mid-European Island.

Guettardiscyphia zitti sp. n. – a remarkable hexactinellid sponge from the Lower Turonian of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin

“…This is in con for mity with nu mer ous mod ern stud ies re porting Late Cre ta ceous hexactinellid fau nas typ i cally linked to transgressive cy cles, low sed i men ta tion rates, and depths below the storm-wave base (see e.g., Schnei der et al, 2011Schnei der et al, , 2013Vodrážka and Crame, 2011 and ref er ences therein).…”

Trace fossils and depositional environments of the middle Turonian sandstones in the Upper Nysa Kłodzka Graben (Sudetes, Poland) revisited

“…Thus, exogyrine oys ters are a very use ful tool for palaeobiogeographic re con struc tions (Ayoub-Hannaa et al, 2014). The oys ter Rhynchostreon is abun dant in the Up per Cre ta ceous of Ger many (Sax ony, Bavaria) and is also wide spread in the Bo he mian Cre ta ceous Basin (Tröger, 2003(Tröger, , 2017Schnei der et al, 2013;Janetschke and Wilmsen, 2014).…”

Stratigraphic succession (Albian to lower? Cenomanian) and upper Albian ammonites and biozones from the Talerhza Basin (South Riffian Ridges, northern Morocco)

“…According to Videt (2003), Videt and N eraudeau (2003) and Videt and Platel (2005), though Rhynchostreon suborbiculatum is widely present in the Upper Cretaceous, its abundance is mostly recorded in the Cenomanian in most Cretaceous epicontinental basins of the Tethyan Realm. The acme of the species is documented in the Cenomanian of the Tarfaya Basin, South Morocco (Freneix, 1972), the Bechar area, Algeria (Benyoucef et al, 2012), in Tunisia (Pervinqui ere, 1912), Sinai, Egypt (Kora et al, 2001; Ayoub-Hannaa, 2011), Jordan (Berndt, 2002), France (Videt, 2003;Videt and N eraudeau, 2003;Videt and Platel, 2005), Germany (Schneider et al, 2013), Spain (Berrocal-Casero et al, 2013), Brazil (Seeling and Bengtson, 1999), Central African Republic, Madagascar and Mexico.…”