Integrated stratigraphy and clay mineralogy of the Owadów–Brzezinki section (Lower–Upper Tithonian transition, central Poland): implications for correlations between the Boreal and the Tethyan domains and palaeoclimate

Abstract

New microfossil and magnetostratigraphical data as well as geochemical and clay mineral weathering indices are documented from the uppermost Jurassic Owadów–Brzezinki palaeontological site in central Poland. The newly discovered chitinoidellid assemblage of the lowermost part of the section and the previously documented assemblage from the middle part of the section are assigned, respectively, to the uppermost Dobeni and Boneti Subzones of the Chitinoidellidae Zone. The same part of the succession is correlated to the magnetosubzone M20n.2n. The new data allow refinement of the Tithonian stratigraphical scheme including an assignment of the upper part of the Boreal Zarajskites Subzone of the Scythicus (Panderi) ammonite Zone to the Upper Tithonian and its correlation with the lowermost part of Tethyan Microcanthum ammonite Zone and the lower portion of the M20n.2n magnetosubzone. The data show that the Fittoni/Albani ammonite zone boundary should likely be placed within the Boneti Subzone. The geochemical data show decreasing chemical weathering intensity during the earliest Late Tithonian in central Poland, which is linked to aridification of the latest Jurassic climate. The same trend is observed in coeval sections of NW and NE Europe.