LETHAIA REVIEWS
Lethaia, Vol. 14, p. 165. Oslo, 1981 07 01
Cretaceous of considerable weight
PETER BENGTSON
Wiedmann, J. (ed.) 1979: Aspekte der Kreide Europas. 680
pp.. 33 pls., 182 figs., 42 tables. ZUGS A 6 . E. Schweizerbart-
’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-510-56004-3.
Price: DM 198.00.
Aspekte der Kreide Europas is a book that deserves careful
attention, not only because it is an important documentation of
the Cretaceous of north central Europe and neighbouring
areas, but also because its 1.5 kg and nearly 700 pages con-
tained in paperback covers (!) definitely do not permit careless
handling. The book is a collection of papers presented at the
1st Symposium on the German Cretaceous (Miinster, 1978),
having as its main theme ‘correlation between the Boreal and
Tethyan realms’. Of the 60 papers on the symposium program-
me, more than half are reproduced in the volume, which also
contains a few papers not presented at the meeting but that fall
well within its theme.
The 39 published papers are grouped under five headings in
the table of contents: ‘Ubersichtsreferate BRD’, ‘Biostratig-
raphie, Faunen, Palokologie’, ‘Nord-Siid-Korrelation’, ‘Re-
gionale Beitrage’, and ‘Mid-Cretaceous Events’. However,
most of the papers span several of the topics under these
headings. The last six papers are identified as contributions to
the IGCP project ‘Mid-Cretaceous Events’: in addition, 17
other papers by project participants present results of direct
relevance to the problems studied by the project.
Ammonite taxonomy andlor biostratigraphy forms the sub-
ject of roughly a third of the papers in the volume. Five deal
with belemnites, six with foraminifers, two with nannofossils,
and one each with bryozoans, brachiopods, bivalves, red
algae, and shark teeth. Four papers are reviews of the Cre-
taceous of different parts of the German Federal Republic and
twelve deal essentially with the stratigraphy and palaeogeogra-
phy of specific regions (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the USSR).
Aspekte der Kreide Europas is primarily an important and
welcome contribution to our knowledge of the Cretaceous of
the German Federal Republic (unfortunately, the German
Democratic Republic is not represented). Cretaceous macro-
biostratigraphy in particular has been relatively little studied
during this century, in keeping with the situation in many other
‘classical’ areas in central Europe and southern Scandinavia.
There are geologists who seem to believe that the scarcity of
fresh exposures today a s compared with a century ago is an
absolute obstacle to further improvement and refinement of
the existing biostratigraphy. This volume is proof enough that
there are no grounds for such a defeatist way of thinking: older
collections need to be revised continuously and new material
can certainly be acquired by alert and persistent workers.
The paper by Ernst, Schmid & Klischies on ‘multistrati-
graphical’ studies in the Upper Cretaceous of Lower Saxony
attempts an integrated biostratigraphy and correlation with
other stratigraphical methods such as litho-, tephro-, chemo-,
radiochrono-, and ecostratigraphy. The attempt is commend-
able provided that the authors and readers are fully aware of
the limitations and potential errors inherent in each of these
methods, involving factors that commonly prevent direct com-
parisons from being made. Immel discusses the origin of the
Boreal crioceratid ammonites and concludes that they immi-
grated from the Tethys, having evolved from Mediterranean
forms. Kakabadze, in a palaeoecological study of the locally
abundant ancyloceratid faunas of the Caucasus, notes the res-
tricted distribution of most of the species. This, in combination
with observations on the mode of shell burial, is interpreted as
evidence against the hypothesis of post-mortem transport of
shells by water currents. Bailey and Hart are the co-authors of
two papers, one of which presents a foraminifera1 zonation of
the Coniacian-Santonian of southeastern England, and the
authors use this for correlation with successions in the rest of
Europe. Despite a wealth of good exposures and appropriate
lithologies, only two studies had been published previously on
the Coniacian-Santonian Foraminifera of southern England.
The other paper deals with the distribution of middle Cre-
taceous planktic Foraminifera; this is controlled by a variety of
factors, of which temperature, water depth, and surface water
currents may be analysed in the fossil record. The paper by
Perch-Nielsen is a demonstration of the impressive biostratig-
raphical progress made in the use of calcareous nannofossils
(coccoliths, for practical purposes) in only the last decade or
S O . Her synthesis is enhanced by the inclusion of a good
amount of data retrieved from unpublished British Ph.D.
theses and oil-company reports.
Aspekte der Kreide Europos is another nail in the coffin of
the traditional German subdivision of the Cretaceous. The
Turonian-Coniacian boundary now seems to be adjusted
almost universally to its ‘international’ position, i.e. the Ger-
man Upper Turonian (and possibly also upper Middle Turo-
nian) is now better referred to the Coniacian.
The papers singled out in this short review give a taste of
some of the important topics discussed, with an inevitable bias
towards my own field of interest. The volume is likely to
become a standard reference in future publications on Cre-
taceous biostratigraphy, although the choice of language may
limit its scientific impact (there are 23 papers in German, 13 in
English and 3 in French). The volume would also have benefit-
ed from the use of a more consistent terminology. Readers
may be bothered by varying expressions such as ‘planktonic
foraminifera and , . , benthic forams’, and ‘Tethyan/tropical
realm’, ‘Tethyan province’, and ‘Boreal region’. ‘Middle Cre-
taceous’ means Aptian-Cenomanian to Middlemiss but
Albian-Santonian to Hart & Bailey (to pick only two of the
versions). The names ‘Neocomian’, ‘Vraconian’, and ‘Seno-
nian’ persistently appear in several papers, although they have
no place in modern stratigraphical nomenclature.
The price of DM 198.00 reflects today’s exorbitant produc-
tion costs for books of this kind and is a serious hindrance to
the efficient dissemination of the scientific results contained in
the volume. It is only to be hoped that the authors of the
individual papers have realized this and armed themselves
with a good number of offprints for distribution to their im-
pecunious colleagues, and also that library savings have not
gone so far as to impede the purchase of this important pub-
lication.
Peter Bengtson, Paleontologiska museet, Box 558, S-75122
Uppsala, Sweden; 15th March, 1981.