Keywords
pollen and spores
sandstones
Jurassic
Greater Caucasus
How to Cite
Abstract
Information on Jurassic palynomorphs from the Greater Caucasus is potentially of great importance, but its availability to the international research community is severely limited. New palynological data for Toarcian deposits of the Western Caucasus are recorded in the present paper. Particularly, dinoflagellate cysts are described for the first time from the Bagovskaja Formation; palynomorphs are found in sandstone levels within this unit. The most representative assemblage includes pollen (with predominant bisaccate pollen), spores (Cyathidites being commonest), and dinoflagellate cysts amongst which the predominant taxon is Nannoceratopsis spiculata. The dinocyst assemblage implies a late Toarcian age for the upper part of the Bagovskaja Formation. On the basis of these new palynostratigraphical results, the range of the formation is extended; previously, only the lower part had been dated on ammonite evidence.
References
Adamia, S., Alania, V., Chabukiani, A., Kutelia, Z. & Sadradze, N., 2011. Great Caucasus (Cavcasioni): A Long-lived North-Tethyan Back-Arc Basin. Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences 20, 611–628.
Barrón, E., Ureta S., Goy A., Lassaletta L. 2010. Palynology of the Toarcian-Aalenian Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) at Fuentelsaz (Lower-Middle Jurassic, Iberian Range, Spain). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 162, 11–28.
Beznosov, N.V., Burshtar, M.S., Vakhrameev, V.A., Krymgol’ts, G.Ya., Kutuzova, V.V., Rostovtsev, K.O., Snegireva, O.V. (Eds.), 1973. Ob’jasnitel’naja zapiska k stratigrafitcheskoj skheme jurskikh otlozhenij Severnogo Kavkaza (Explanatory note to the stratigraphical scheme of the Jurassic deposits of the Northern Caucasus). Moskva (Nedra), 194 pp. (in Russian)
Bjaerke, T., 1980. Mesozoic palynology of Svalbard IV. Toarcian dinoflagellates from Spitsbergen. Palynology 4, 57–77.
Feist-Burkhardt, S. & Pross, J., 2010. Dinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphy of the Opalinuston Formation (Middle Jurassic) in the Aalenian type area in southwest Germany and north Switzerland. Lethaia 43, 10–31.
Golonka, J., 2004. Plate tectonic evolution of the southern margin of Eurasia in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Tectonophysics 381, 235–273.
Goryacheva, A.A., 2017. Lower Jurassic palynostratigraphy of Eastern Siberia. Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation 25, 265–295.
Grinenko, V.S., Goryacheva, A.A., Devyatov, V.P., Knyazev, V.G. & Mikhailova, T.E., 2015. Novyj tip razreza nizhnej jury Viljujskoj sineklizy i ego paleontologitcheskaja kharakteristika [A new type of succession of the Lower Jurassic of the Viljuj Syneclise and its palaeontological characteristics]. [In:] Jurskaja sistema Rossii: problemy stratigrafii i paleogeografii. Makhatchkala (ALEF), pp. 72–77. (in Russian)
Jaroshenko, O.P., 1965. Sporovo-pyl’tsevye kompleksy jurskikh i nizhnemelovykh otlozhenij Severnogo Kavkaza i ikh stratigrafitcheskoe znatchenie (Spore-pollen assemblages of the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous deposits of the Northern Caucasus and their stratigraphical importance). Moskva (Nauka), 131 pp. (in Russian)
Mitta, V.V., Alekseev, A.S., Shik, S.M. (eds.), 2012. Unificirovannaya regional`naya stratigraficheskaya sxema jurskikh otlogeniy Bostochno-Evropeiskoi platformy (Unified regional stratigraphic scheme of the Jurassic of East European Platform. Explanatory note). Moscow (PIN RAS – VNIGNI). 64 pp. (in Russian)
Palliani, B. 1997. Toarcian sporomorph assemblages from the Umbria-Marche Basin, central Italy. Palynology 21, 105–123.
Palliani, B. & Riding, J.B., 1997. The influence of palaeoenvironmental change on dinoflagellate cyst distribution. An example from the Lower and Middle Jurassic of Quercy, southwest France. Bulletin des Centres de Recherches Exploration-Production Elf-Aquitaine 21, 107–123.
Palliani, B. & Riding, J.B., 2000. A palynological investigation of the Lower and lowermost Middle Jurassic strata (Sinemurian to Aalenian) from North Yorkshire, UK. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 53, 1–16.
Palliani, B. & Riding, J.B., 2003. The effects of global oceanographic changes on early dinoflagellate evolution. The Annals of the Marie Curie Fellowships 2, 39–44.
Poulsen, N.E. & Riding, J.B., 2003. The Jurassic dinoflagellate cyst zonation of Subboreal Northwest Europe. Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 1, 115–144.
Riding, J.B., Fedorova, V.A. & Ilyina, V.I., 1999. Jurassic and lowermost Cretaceous dinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphy of the Russian Platform and northern Siberia, Russia. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Contributions Series 36, 1–179.
Riding, J.B. & Thomas, J.E., 1992. Dinoflagellate cysts of the Jurassic System. [In]: Powell A.J. (Ed.). A stratigraphic index of dinoflagellate cysts. British Micropalaeontological Society Publications Series. London (Chapman and Hall), pp. 7–97.
Rostovtsev, K.O., Agaev, V.B., Azarian, N.R., Babaev, R.G., Besnosov, N.V., Hassanov, N.A., Zesashvili, V.I., Lomize, M.G., Paitschadze, T.A., Panov, D.I., Prosorovskaya, E.L., Sakharov, A.S., Thodria, V.A., Topchishvili, M.V., Abdulkasumzade, M.R., Avanesian, A.S., Belenkova, V.S., Bendukidze, N.S., Vuks, V.Ya., Doludenko, M.P., Kiritchkova, A.I., Klikushin, V.G., Krimholz, G.Ya., Romanovskaya, G.M. & Schevchenko, T.V., 1992. Yura Kavkaza (Jurassic of the Caucasus). St. Petersburg (Nauka), 192 pp. (in Russian)
Rolland, Y., 2017. Caucasus collisional history: Review of data from East Anatolia to West Iran. Gondwana Research 49, 130–136.
Ruban, D.A., 2007. Jurassic transgressions and regressions in the Caucasus (northern Neotethys Ocean) and their influences on the marine biodiversity. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 251, 422–436.
Ruban, D.A., 2008. The Jurassic events in the Greater Caucasus basin (central Northern Neotethys) and the Neuquén basin (West Gondwana): A comparison. Revista de Asociacióón Geológica Argentina 63, 766–775.
Ruban, D.A., 2012. Diversity dynamics of Toarcian-Aalenian (Jurassic) ammonites and transgressions/regressions in the Greater Caucasus Basin (Caucasian Sea, northern Neo-Tethys Ocean): an evidence of partial dependence. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 315–316, 124–133.
Ruban, D.A., 2013a. The Greater Caucasus – A Galatian or Hanseatic terrane? Comment on “The formation of Pangea” by G.M. Stampfli, C. Hochard, C. Vérard, C. Wilhem and J. von Raumer [Tectonophysics 593 (2013) 1–19]. Tectonophysics 608, 1442–1444.
Ruban, D.A., 2013b. Spatial heterogeneity of the Early-Middle Toarcian (Jurassic) ammonite diversity and basin geometry in the Northwestern Caucasus (southwestern Russia; northern Neo-Tethys). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 386, 225–232.
Ruban, D.A., 2018. Episodic events in long-term geological processes: A new classification and its applications. Geoscience Frontiers 9, 377–389.
Ruban, D.A., Nielsen, J.K., Mikhailenko, A.V., Nazarenko, O.V. & Zayats, P.P., 2017. Ichnogeneric diversity in the Jurassic deposits of the Western Caucasus: A brief summary. Stratigraphy and sedimentology of oil-gas basins no. 1, 3–10.
Saintot, A., Brunet, M.-F., Yakovlev, F., Sébrier, M., Stephenson, R., Ershov, A., Chalot-Prat, F. & McCann, T., 2006. The Mesozoic-Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Greater Caucasus. [In:] Gee, D.G. & Stephenson, R.A. (Eds): European Lithosphere Dynamics. Geological Society, London, Memoirs 32, 277–289.
Teodorovitch, G.I. & Pokhvisneva, E.A., 1964. Litologija i diagenez jurskikh otlozhenij Severo-Zapadnogo Kavkaza (Lithology and diagenesis of the Jurassic deposits of the North-Western Caucasus). Moskva (Nauka), 104 pp. (in Russian)
Varsimashvili, E. & Meparishvili, S., 2017. Flysch character of the upper Jurassic-Cretaceous formation of the Caucasus marginal sea eastern basin and some issues of its origin. Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences 11, 90–95.
Williams, G.L., Fensome, R.A. & MacRae, R.A., 2017. The Lentin and Williams index of fossil dinoflagellates. American Association of Stratigraphic palynologists Contributions Series 48, 1–1097.
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Anna A. Goryacheva, Svetlana O. Zorina, Dmitry A. Ruban, Alexei A. Eskin, Konstantin I. Nikashin, Bulat M. Galiullin, Vladimir P. Morozov, Anna V. Mikhailenko, Olesya V. Nazarenko, Pavel P. Zayats
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.