The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) of the Toarcian-Aalenian Boundary (Lower-Middle Jurassic)

Abstract

The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Aalenian Stage, formally defined at the base of bed FZ107 in the Fuentelsaz section, Castilian Branch of the Iberian Range (Spain), has been ratified by the IUGS. Multidisciplinary biostratigraphical data, based on ammonites, brachiopods, ostracods, bivalves, foraminifera, calcareous nannofossils assemblages and palynomorphs, assure worldwide correlations; magnetostratigraphic data increase this correlation power. The position of the boundary coincides with the first occurrence of the ammonite assemblage characterized by Leioceras opalinum and Leioceras lineatum and corresponds with a normal polarity interval correlated with the up-to-date Jurassic magnetic polarity time scale (Gradstein and others, 1994; Ogg, 1995).