Objective
This networking project is focused on the study of the evolution of faunas and their environment during the Campanian-Palaeocene interval, with special attention for bio-events at the Cretaceous-Tertiary transition such as faunal turnover/mass extinctions.
Three areas situated on the southern margin of the Upper Cretaceous White Chalk Sea well known for their geological, stratigraphical and palaeontological importance will be compared: Mangyshlak (Kazakhstan); Upper Crimea (Ukraine); and the Maastricht area (Belgium - The Netherlands). These areas have in common many good and easily accessible rock outcrops (chalks and calcarenites, and in some of them a marly layer at the K/T boundary) which were deposited in shallow marine environments near and at the moment of the Cretaceous / Tertiary transition.
Scientists such as palaeontologists, biostratigraphers, geochemists, geochronologists, working in these areas will bring their recently published and unpublished data together.
A detailed comparison requires the following points: a calibration and correlation of the biostratigraphical units in the study areas, including detailed geochronological and extensive geochemical data such as trace-elements and stable isotopes, and a study and comparison of micro- and macro-fauna from samples taken at short intervals. A quantitative as well as a qualitative interpretation of the bio-events can then be obtained.
The network will continue research on the three sections but at a somewhat more sophisticated level than attained so far. Using research partly already done and subject to refinement by new sample analysis, the research activities will construct a detailed biostratigraphical framework; assemble all existing data on fauna; carry out a geochemical analysis of biostratigraphically well located samples; and integrate the data.
The following results are expected: completion of faunal distribution, updated taxonomically and biostratigraphically, for shallow deposits along the southern margin of the White Chalk Sea; geochronological dating of the biostratigraphic units used; palaeobiogeographical distribution of faunas along the southern margin of the White Chalk Sea; interpretation of the Campanian-Palaeocene interval for sequence stratigraphy; and the comparison between the K/T boundary faunal changes in the Eurasian province of the Temperate Realm and the Tehyan Realm in Spain and northern Africa.
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
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1040 Bruxelles
Belgium