Integrated biostratigraphy of Upper Maastrichtian chalk at Chełm (SE Poland)

Abstract

A 40-m-thick section of chalk exposed in the Chełm quarry (SE Poland) contains a rather poor assemblage of macrofauna and a well diversified assemblage of foraminifers. The planktonic foraminifer assem- blages characterized by a considerable number of representatives of Globigerinelloides and Heterohelix and the presence of Guembelitria cretacea indicate the lowest part of the Guembelitria cretacea Zone sensu Peryt (1980). Benthic foraminifers point out that the strata of the Chełm quarry section can be attributed to the lower part of the Upper Maastrichtian: i.e., the Gavelinella danica/Brotzenella preacuta Zone of the European Boreal Province or the Anomalinoides pinguis Zone distinguished in Poland (except the Carpathians). The occurrence of ammonites, such as Hoploscaphites constrictus lviviensis Machalski, Hoploscaphites schmidi (Birkelund), and Acanthoscaphites varians blaszkiewiczi Jagt & al. indicates that the Chełm succession belongs to the lower part of the Belemnitella junior Zone, i.e., to the Belemnitella junior–Spyridoceramus tegulatus Zone sensu Schulz & Schmid (1983).
The correlation of the Chełm quarry section and the Middle Vistula River Valley section indicates that the equivalent interval of the former section is not exposed in the Middle Vistula River Valley and that it would occur between the Chotcza and Lucimia villages within the lower part of the Belemnitella junior Zone, i.e., within the Belemnitella junior-Spyridoceramus tegulatus Zone distinguished in NW Germany (Schulz & Schmid,1983).