Borings and etchings in the Upper Bathonian-Lower Callovian oolite of the Paris Basin (France)

Abstract

The oolite of the Dalle Nacree Formation in the Paris Basin is made of marine calcareous ooids with, from base to top, radial (and therefore likely to have been calcite), concentric and micritic fabrics, each corresponding to a discrete stratigraphic unit. Several hardgrounds and oolitic pebble-cobble layers in the succession are encrusted and bored. Three main types of boring have been identified ranging in sizes from some tens of µm (sponge borings) to centimeters (bivalve borings), with an intermediate category (worm borings). Some worm borings have rough walls, where early marine fibrous cement is less corroded than the cortices of cemented ooids. The key to understanding this differential dissolution could be related to organic matter, present within the ooid cortices but lacking in the fibrous cement. Polychaete worms that use chemical means (enzymes or acids) to bore are probably responsible for these peculiar borings. A secondary conclusion is that partly or fully leached ooid cortices do not necessarily indicate an original aragonitic mineralogy of the dissolved parts.