Ammonite faunas of the European Maastrichtian: diversity and extinction
Kennedy, W.J. (1993). Ammonite faunas of the European Maastrichtian: diversity and extinction, in: House, M.R. (Ed.) The Ammonoidea: environment, ecology, and evolutionary change. pp. 285-325
In: House, M.R. (Ed.) (1993). The Ammonoidea: Environment, ecology, and evolutionary change. The Systematics Association Special Volume, 47. Clarendon Press: Oxford. ISBN 0-19-857765-6. 353 pp., more
In: The Systematics Association Special Volume, more
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| Abstract |
Well-documented Maastrichtian ammonite faunas from Denmark, Poland, Austria, the Cotentin Peninsula (Manche, France), and the Biscay sections of south-west France (Hendaye, Bidart) and northern Spain (Zumaya, Sopelana) are reviewed. Successions in Denmark and the Biscay region show ammonites extending either to the Cretaceous-Palaeocene boundary (Stevns Klint, Denmark) or to within tens of centimetres of it (Kjølby Gård, Denmark; the Biscay sections), but it is impossible to determine the actual completeness of the boundary interval. In spite of this it is certain that 14, perhaps 15, ammonite species were present in the region in the last few tens to hundreds of thousands of years of Maastrichtian time, and may have extended to the end of the stage. Representatives of the Phylloceratina, Lytoceratina, Ammonitina, and Ancyloceratina are all present, and Baculites and Hoploscaphites of the Ancyloceratina are common in the highest Maastrichtian. It is suggested that ammonite extinction at the end of the Cretaceous may have been the result of the collapse of marine plankton, and the cut-off of food supply for newly hatched ammonitellas. |
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