Life and depositional environments in the sublittoral zone of Lake Pannon, a large, brackish Paratethyan lake from the Late Miocene, were reconstructed from fossils and facies of the Szák Formation. This formation is exposed in several, roughly coeval (9.4-8.9 Ma) outcrops, located along strike of the paleo-shelf-break in northwestern Hungary. The silty argillaceous marl of the formation was deposited below storm wave base, at 20-30 to 80-90 m water depth. The abundance of benthic organisms indicates that the bottom water was usually well oxygenated. Interstitial dysoxia, however, may have occurred immediately below the sediment-water interface, as evidenced by occasional preservation of trace fossils such as Diplocraterion. The fauna comprised endemic mollusks, including brackish cockles of the subfamily Lymnocardiinae, dreissenid mussels (Congeria), and highly adapted, uniquely large-sized deep-water pulmonate snails (planorbids and lymnaeids). Ostracods were dominated by endemic species and, in some cases, endemic genera of candonids, leptocytherids, cypridids, and loxoconchids. Fish remnants include a sciaenid otolith and the oldest skeletal occurrence of Perca in Europe. The phytoplankton comprised exclusively endemic coccolithophorids, mostly endemic dinoflagellates (prevailingly Spiniferites), and cosmopolitan green algae. The Late Miocene fauna and flora of Lake Pannon were in many ways similar to the modern Caspian biota, and in particular cases can be regarded as its precursor.

Abstract:The development of the Turiec Basin and landscape evolution in its catchment has been reconstructed by methods of geological research (structural geology, sedimentology, paleoecology, and geochronological data) as well as by geophysics and geomorphology. The basin and its surrounding mountains were a subject of a mass balance study during periods of tectonic activity, accompanied by considerable altitudinal differentiation of relief and also during quiet periods, characterized by a development of planation surfaces in the mountains. The coarse clastic alluvial fans deposited beneath the offshore pelitic sediments document the rapid Middle Miocene uplift of mountains on the margin of the Turiec Basin. The Late Miocene finegrained sedimentation represents the main fill of this basin and its origin was associated with the formation of planation surfaces in the surrounding mountains. The rapid uplift of the western and northern parts of the catchment area during the latest Miocene and Early Pliocene times further generated the deposition of coarse-grained alluvial fans. The Late Pliocene basin inversion, due to uplift of the whole Western Carpathians mountain chain, was associated with the formation of the Early Quaternary pediment and ultimately with the formation of the Turiec river terrace systems.

International audienceThe Turiec Basin (TB) of Slovakia formed in the Miocene when the West Carpathians escaped from the Alpine region. The 1,250-m-thick sedimentary Neogene fill of the basin preserved fossil leaves as well as endemic bivalves, gastropods, and ostracodes. The paleolimnologic changes recorded in the TB infill were derived from the most abundant fossils, the ostracodes. Five contemporaneous ostracode assemblages within the Late Miocene lacustrine system were distinguished through statistical analysis. These assemblages have low species similarity, between 2.1 and 24.1%, and are recognized by shape differences among the Candoninae. The ostracode assemblages, mollusca fossils, and Sr-isotope ratios suggest a low-salinity environment at the beginning of the Late Miocene, during a brief connection with the Central Paratethys. When the connection ceased, the basin became an isolated freshwater lake, with five zones differentiated ecologically and bathymetrically using the ostracode assemblages. Taxonomic comparison of the faunas of the TB and the freshwater to brackish Neogene basins of Europe demonstrates the endemic character of the TB ostracode fauna. The biologic characteristics of the ostracode families, along with the geology of the lake basin, suggest that the longevity of the Late Miocene lake probably exceeded 1 Ma

The Late Miocene fine-grained deposits have been investigated in the Vienna Basin to attest oxygen availability for infauna and epifauna in the sublittoral of the long-lived Lake Pannon. A clay and fine silt of the deeper lacustrine facies of a bay passed vertically into a silty clay, silt, and fine sand rhythmic deposition reflecting successive progradation of brackish prodelta to distal delta front colonized by a dense benthic population. A fully oxygenated environment is supposed in the Congeria subglobosa Beds and prodelta accentuated by ichnofauna, ostracods, and abundant in taxa and specimens, low total organic content, and trace elements concentration. A limited anoxic event caused by temporarily worsened circulation has been detected in non-calcareous greyish-blue homogenous clay with a noticeable high concentration of Ni, Co, and Pb coupled with absence of fossils, bioturbation, and low total organic carbon content.