Foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the Polish Outer Carpathians: a record of basin geohistory

Abstract

Biostratygrafia otwornicowa polskich Karpat Zewnętrznych: zapis historii geologicznej basenu A new biostratigraphical scheme based on foraminifera is established for the Polish flysch Carpathians. Within the total sedimentary sequence o f the flysch Carpathians (covering the time span from the latest Jurassic to early Miocene) 23 foraminiferal zones have been designated. Latest Jurassic-early late Eocene zones (18) are based on the most characteristic agglutinated taxa; late Eocene-early Miocene zones (5) are based on plankton species. The characteristic assemblages reflect not only the environmental diversity of the Carpathian basins but also changes that took place during its initiation, development and closure. The succession of assemblages also bear traces of events o f the geohistory o f the NW Tethys at that time. The majority of foraminiferal species characterising the designated zones has been described and illustrated in an Atlas of a guide and characteristic fossils - Cretaceous (Malinowska, 1984) and in the Tertiary volume submitted to print.