In this research, the microbiostratigraphy and depositional environmental implications related to the Surgah Formation at the northern flank of the Kuh-e Sepid anticline in the Lorestan Basin are discussed. A study of small planktonic foraminifera from the 101-m-thick Surgah Formation led to the identification of three Turonian–Santonian biozones: (1) Helvetoglobotruncana helvitica, (2) Margino...

Several transitions of Lower to Middle Turonian pelagic marl–limestone-cycles into Oceanic Red Beds were studied at high resolution to gain a better understanding of the Tethyan marine system before and during red bed initiation and development. Samples were analysed for mineralogy, geochemistry, and stable isotope composition. In particular, carbonate geochemistry of diagenetically largely una...

The Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary subsidence history of the Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA) records the effect of two independent basin formation mechanisms at the northern leading margin of the Austroalpine unit. The terrestrial to shallow-marine sediments of the Lower Gosau Subgroup were deposited mainly within small, fault-bound basins during a phase of strike-slip faulting from the late ...

The eutherian, family-level clade Zhelestidae is consistently although weakly supported in five phylogenetic analyses that we performed on all Cretaceous eutherians. Additionally in the fifth analysis, which included some placentals, Zhelestidae is placed as a stem eutherian clade rather than grouping within the crown clade Placentalia as argued in some previous studies but not others. The subf...

Over the last 15 years a striking pattern of diversification has been documented in the fossil record of benthic marine invertebrates. Higher taxa (orders) tend to originate onshore, diversify offshore, and retreat into deep-water environments. Previous studies attribute this macroevolutionary pattern to a variety of causes, foremost among them the role of nearshore disturbance in providing opp...

Temporal gaps in the stratigraphic record have important implications for the interpretation of stratigraphically rapid geochemical and paleobiologic changes, for the development of high-resolution time scales (e.g., orbital time scales), and for deciphering the response of depositional systems to climatic change and basin evolution (e.g., accommodation space vs. sediment supply). In ancient pe...

BACKGROUND Ichthyosauria is a diverse clade of marine amniotes that spanned most of the Mesozoic. Until recently, most authors interpreted the fossil record as showing that three major extinction events affected this group during its history: one during the latest Triassic, one at the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary (JCB), and one (resulting in total extinction) at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary...