Upper Cretaceous

Terminal layers of carbonate rocks of Maastrichtian and lower intervals of Paleocene aleurite-pelitic formations are accessible for investigation in Krasny Oktyabr and Bolshevik quarries (Volsk Depression). In the bottom of the Paleocene accumulation of skeletons of calcareous and siliceous sponges has been confirmed, mollusk and elasmobranch assemblage has been determined.

Measurements of mass magnetic susceptibility of 2 232 samples, collected in Takma and Chakhmakhly sections (SW Crimea, Bodrak river) through every 20 cm of thickness were conducted. The cycles, supposedly corresponding to the periods of long and short eccentricities of Earth orbit and its axis obliquity were detected by Fourier transform and wavelet analysis of obtained data. The average sedimentation rate (11.7 cm/kyr) was calculated.

The features of areal distribution and stratigraphic confinement of calcareous spicular sponge forms in the southeast of East European Platform are considered. The skeletons of calcareous sponges essentially representatives of the genus Porosphaera are found in the carbonates of Turonian, Coniacian, Campanian and Maastrichtian, as well as at the base of siliceous formations of the Paleocene. The Maastrichtian calcareous sponges are characterized by the highest species diversity and a wide lateral extension.

The horizon enriched in glauconite and phosphorite was revealed at the carbonatic outcrops near Volsk in the Coniacian and Campanian stage deposits. The short descriptions of studying sections are presented. The spread of synchronous deposits within Khvalynsky district was traced. The Lower and Upper Santonian and the Campanian age deposits are proved by the presence of the inoceramids, belemnites and echinoides. Its vertical distribution was traced.

The paper presents the results of petro- and paleomagnetic studies of two sections of Turonian – Santonian on the Samara Right Bank – near Novodevichye, Podval’e villages and detailed geological description of the Novodevichye section. The magnetostratigraphic subdivision and detailed correlation of the sections were carried out. Unknown unconformity in the Podval’e section was recognized.

Tremabolites sponges known among the Middle-Late Cretaceous beds in Europe are reliably identifiable due to the numerous openings against the background of the skeleton smooth upper surface. The ideas of the level of organization in these sponges and of the species characteristics are far from being univocal. The paper deals with the species diversity of Tremabolites common in the Coniacian – Santonian rocks from the Volga Region. Examples of regeneration and budding in the representatives of the group are presented.

The morphological diversity of diosculumic sponges, known as Paracraticularia cylindrical, results from the fact that many fossils assigned to this species prove to be fragments of the apical segments of internodes (branches) from major colonies that are rarely encountered as totally preserved fossils. The structures of the branch apical segments and the oscula outlines reflect various manifestations of hexactinellida synchronous division conductive to morphological diversity of the descendants, the succeeding complicatedly structured colonial sponges.

The paper presents biostratinomical characteristics of the Cenomanian and the Turonian fossil complexes found in the Middle Turonian phosphorite horizon from the Senomanskaya Stenka section (Volgograd region, Zhirnovsk district) constituting the basis of the benthic colonies and nekton communities. Probable interpretations for the settings contributory to generation of the phosphorite inclusion clusters are provided.

The paper analyzes the taxonomic composition and the habitat of the representatives of the Middle – Late Cenomanian and the Middle Turonian marine biota. The examined fossils have been isolated from the bulk sample obtained from the phosphorite horizon lying in the bottom of the Middle Turonian carbonate rocks in the Senomanskaya Stenka section (Volgograd Region, Zhirnovsk district).