The Alan-Kyr Coniacian–Campanian section (Crimean Mountains): Biostratigraphy and paleobiogeography aspects

Abstract

This investigation continues the study of the Alan-Kyr reference section (Central Crimea, Belogorsk Region). The zoned age difference in the stratigraphic scheme of the Upper Cretaceous in the Eastern European Platform is considered according to benthic and planktonic foraminifers, as well as radiolarians in the Alan-Kyr section. This fact can be explained based on the suggestion that stratigraphically important taxa could have appeared in Crimea several million years earlier than on the platform, where they could migrate under the great global eustatic transgression in the Early Campanian. We also considered the influence of paleobiogeographic conditions on the taxonomic composition of the zoned foraminifer complexes, both benthic and planktonic.