Early to Late Bajocian age of the “black flysch” (Szlachtowa Fm.) deposits: implications for the history and geological structure of the Pieniny Klippen Belt, Carpathians

Dinoflagellate cysts from the Szlachtowa Formation (Jurassic) and adjacent deposits (Jurassic-Cretaceous) of the Grajcarek Unit at Szczawnica-Zabaniszcze (Pieniny Klippen Belt, Carpathians, Poland)

“…They agree well with results of pre vi ous mi cro-and macrofossil stud ies from this unit in Pol ish (e.g., G¹siorowski, 1962;Pazdro, 1963, 1968;B³aszyk, 1968;Birkenmajer et al, 1970;Puga czewska, 1971;Birkenmajer and Myczyñski, 1977;Pazdro, 1979;G³uchowski et al, 1983;G³uchowski, 1987;Dudziak, 1986;Krawczyk et al, 1992;Birkenmajer and Tyszka, 1996;Gedl, 2004, 2007;Gedl, , 2008dBarski et al, 2012) and Slo vak (Barski et al, 2012) sec tors of the Pieniny Klippen Belt. In the light of these data, the rened sugges tions of a Cre ta ceous age for the Szlachtowa For ma tion by Oszczypko et al (2012) is un ten a ble (see also Oszczypko et al, 2004;Birkenmajer et al, 2008;Gedl, 2008a, b, c;Oszczypko et al, 2008).…”

“…Oszczypko et al (2012: p. 436) ex plain the pres ence of abun dant Mid dle Ju ras sic fos sils in the Szlachtowa For ma tion by redeposition dur ing ero sion of the Czorsztyn Ridge throughout the Aptian-Albian tran si tion. But there is no rea son able expla na tion given why these "re worked" fos sils rep re sent a rel atively nar row time in ter val (Mid dle Ju ras sic, mainly Aalenian-Bajocian: e.g., Švábenická in Oszczypko et al, 2004;Gedl, 2008d;Barski et al, 2012). More over, Oszczypko et al (2012) do not ex plain why the Szlachtowa For ma tion con tains no traces of typ i cal Up per Ju ras sic-Lower Cre ta ceous lithologies (see e.g., S³omka, 1986, 1987;; they also do not ex plain how the paper-thin shells of Bositra buchi could be re worked (pres ent in the Szlachtowa For ma tion, they form a fil a men tous microfacies in the Opaleniec For ma tion; e.g., Birkenmajer and Myczyñski, 1977;Birkenmajer et al, 2008: fig.…”

“…14). This species, known to have ap peared for the first time dur ing the ear li est Bajocian (e.g., Feist-Burkhardt, 1990;Feist-Burkhardt and Monteil, 2001), is wide spread in the mid dle part of the Szlachtowa For ma tion of the Pieniny Klippen Belt in Po land (Gedl, 2008d;Barski et al, 2012). Its pres ence in the top most part of the ex po sure stud ied points to a low er most Bajocian age.…”

“…This view was crit icized by Birkenmajer et al (2008). De spite the lat est re sults of micropalaeontological stud ies show ing an un doubted Mid dle Ju ras sic age for the de pos its in ques tion (e.g., Gedl, 2008d), Oszczypko et al (2012) pre sented their op pos ing in ter pre ta tion (see also Barski et al, 2012). Be cause the re sults of their studies are, in my opin ion, based on er ro ne ously col lected ma te rial, I sam pled the ex po sure of the Szlachtowa For ma tion and ad jacent units at Szczawnica-Zabaniszcze, which was also in ves tigated by those au thors.…”

Depositional setting of the Oligocene sequence of the Western Carpathians in the Polish Spisz region – a reinterpretation based on integrated palynofacies and sedimentological analyses

“…In view of the or i gin of the ana lysed rocks and the co-oc currence of two groups of dif fer ently pre served dinoflagellate cysts, sam ples 8Łm (Łapszanka sec tion), 557pod (Kacwinianka sec tion), 557s (Kacwinianka sec tion) and 557nad (Kacwinianka sec tion) were ex am ined by flu o res cence mi cros copy to de tect cyst re work ing (Barski et al, 2012). The anal y sis has con firmed the pres ence of vari ably pre served as sem blages.…”