Latest Campanian to Early Maastrichtian (Cretaceous) nautiloids from the white chalk of Kronsmoor, northern Germany

Abstract

A well preserved and stratigraphically tightly constrained nautiloid fauna consisting of two species is described from the uppermost Campanian to Lower Maastrichtian white chalk section of Kronsmoor, northern Germany. Cymatoceras patens (KNER, 1848) occurs rather frequently in the Kronsmoor section; one specimen is from the Upper Campanian Micraster grimmensis/Cardiaster granulosus Zone, one from the upper Belemnella pseudobtusa to lowermost Belemnella obtusa Zone. The bulk of the material (nine specimens) is from the Early Maastrichtian B. obtusa and Belemnella sumensis zones. The species is known from the Upper Campanian to Lower Maastrichtian of northern Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, the Ukraine, and possibly Denmark. Cymatoceras loricatum (SCHLÜTER, 1876) occurs in Kronsmoor (four specimens) in an interval comprising the Early Maastrichtian upper B. obtusa to B. sumensis zones. The species was hitherto only recorded from the uppermost Lower and Upper Campanian of Westphalia and Lower Saxony, Germany. Both species appear to be restricted to the Central European Subprovince of the temperate North European Province (Boreal Realm).