Calcareous benthic foraminifera across the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary in the Geulhemmerberg (SE Netherlands)

Abstract

Recently, a section comprising the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary was discovered in an underground quarry at the Geulhemmerberg, South Limburg, the Netherlands. A series of samples collected from these strata were analysed for their calcareous benthic foraminiferal contents. Upper Maastrichtian and indifferent Upper Maastrichtian to Lower Paleocene species were found to be the most common elements throughout the sequence and no drastic faunal changes have been observed. Extremely rare inner-neritic Paleocene elements, however, enable a tentative identification of the position of the system boundary between samples G2A and G2B. Slightly higher in the section, an increase in palaeo-water-depth is inferred from the first occurrence of the mid-shelf species Tappanina selmensis