The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Albian Stage, of the Cretaceous, the Col de Pré-Guittard section, Arnayon, Drôme, France

Jim W. Kennedy; Andy S. Gale; Brian T. Huber; Maria R. Petrizzo; Paul Bown; Hugh C. Jenkyns

doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2017/v40i3/017021

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Episodes 2017; 40(3): 177-188

Published online September 1, 2017

https://doi.org/10.18814/epiiugs/2017/v40i3/017021

The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Albian Stage, of the Cretaceous, the Col de Pré-Guittard section, Arnayon, Drôme, France

Jim W. Kennedy^1*, Andy S. Gale², Brian T. Huber³, Maria R. Petrizzo⁴, Paul Bown⁵, Hugh C. Jenkyns⁶

¹Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW, UK; ^*Corresponding author, E-mail: Jim.Kennedy@oum.ox.ac.uk
²Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth POI 3QL, UK
³Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 121, Washington D.C. 20013-7012, USA
⁴Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra “Desio”, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Via Mangiagalli 34, 20133 Milano, Italy
⁵Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
⁶Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3AN, UK

Correspondence to:^*E-mail: Jim.Kennedy@oum.ox.ac.uk

Received: June 3, 2016; Revised: November 29, 2016; Accepted: November 29, 2016

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Following the unanimous approval of the Executive Committee on the International Union of Geological Sciences as notified on April 8, 2016, the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the base of the Albian Stage of the Cretaceous is defined at the first occurrence datum of the planktonic foraminiferan Microhedbergella renilaevis Huber and Leckie, 2011 at a level 37.4 meters above the base of the Marnes Bleues Formation and 40 cm above the base of the Niveau Kilian marker bed in the section SSE of the Col de Pré-Guittard, Arnayon, Drôme, France. The first occurrence of Microhedbergella renilaevis is placed within a 100-m section of argillaceous sediments with 28 secondary markers including calcareous nannofossils, planktonic foraminifera, an inoceramid bivalve, ammonites, stable carbon isotopes, and local marker beds.