A late Albian ammonite assemblage from the mid- Cretaceous succession at Annopol, Poland

Abstract

Abstract A previously unrecorded ammonite assemblage, comprising Lepthoplites sp., Callihoplites tetragonus (Seeley, 1865), C. cf. tetragonus, Arrhaphoceras cf. substuderi Spath, 1923, Cantabrigites sp., Stoliczkaiella (Stoliczkaiella) sp., Hamites cf. duplicatus Pictet and Campiche, 1861, H. cf. subvirgulatus Spath, 1941, and H. cf. venetzianus Pictet, 1847, is described from the mid-Cretaceous condensed succession at Annopol, Poland. These specimens are preserved as pale phosphates or sandstone moulds in a bed of reworked phosphatic nodules near the top of the Albian. This assemblage has many species in common with the late late Albian faunas from condensed deposits of England, Switzerland, and France. The presence of Callihoplites tetragonus indicates the lowermost upper upper Albian Mortoniceras fallax Zone. The ammonites studied are the youngest elements in the phosphate bed, which also contains taxa as old as the middle Albian Hoplites dentatus Zone. This bed originated through condensation and reworking of nodules and fossils in a period of low net sedimentation rate, being probably a reflection of a sea-level drop at the boundary between the classic ammonite zones of Mortoniceras inflatum and Stoliczkaiella dispar.