Marco Balini

University of Milan | UNIMI · Department of Earth Sciences "Ardito Desio"

The Norian Stage is the longest stage in the Phanerozoic, and some members of the boundary working group have been evaluating suitable Carnian-Norian boundary sections for roughly two decades. This has identified two possible candidate boundary sections, at Black Bear Ridge (British Columbia, Canada) and Pizzo Mondello (Sicily, Italy). After a form...

Most geological handbooks attribute the birth of stratigraphy to William Smith in the 18th century, after a brief mention of the pioneering contribution of Niels Stensen (Nicholaus Stenonis) who, almost a century before, had introduced in his Dissertationis prodromus of 1669 the principles of geometric relationships between strata. On the contrary,...

The structural setting and the stratigraphy of the Lower to Middle Triassic sedimentary succession exposed in the western part of the Aghdarband window (Kopeh-Dag, NE Iran) is described. Six stratigraphic sections in the Sefid-Kuh Limestone, Nazar-Kardeh Formation and Sina Formation have been studied in the tectonic units 1a and 2. The lithostratig...

A Middle Norian (Alaunian 2) ammonoid assemblage from north of Esfahan (Central Iran) is described and chronostratigraphically evaluated. Formerly known as Distichites fauna, it represents a geographically widely distributed and stratigraphically important fossil level in the lower part of the Upper Triassic Nayband Formation. The new distichitid a...

The potential of the integrated study of historical type specimens and newly collected (bed-bybed) topotypes towards a much improved definition of modern, population-based and phylogeny-oriented taxonomy is here demonstrated by our case study of Kocaelia FANTINI SESTINI, 1990 and Semibeyrichites KRYSTYN & TATZREITER, 1991. The systematic relationsh...

The brachiopod fauna from the Middle Triassic beds of the Socotra Island, collected along the Ras Momi log, consists basically of four species, here described: Nudirostralina mutabilis (Stoliczka, 1866), Lepismatina lilangensis (Stoliczka, 1866), Spirigerellina stoliczkai (Bittner, 1899), Adygella socotrana sp. nov. Additional, very rare, species a...

The 150th anniversary of the death of Albert Oppel (1831–65) provided the opportunity to celebrate this outstanding stratigrapher with a Thematic Issue dedicated to the importance of fossils for dating and correlating of sedimentary rocks. In this issue, we analyse Oppel’s significant contribution to modern chronostratigraphy, before exploring the...

The Lower-Middle Triassic Aghdarband Basin, NE Iran, consists of a strongly deformed arc-related marine succession deposited along the southern margin of Eurasia in a highly mobile tectonic context. This basin is a key-area for the study of the Cimmerian events, as the Triassic units show severe deformations, which occurred short time after the col...

The Triassic is a turning point in the evolutionary history of ammonoids, characterized by the flourishing Ceratitida and the appearance of the first heteromorphs. Following the end-Permian mass extinction, ammonoids were among the first groups to rediversify by producing many new taxa. Already in the late nineteenth century, the still currently re...

In this contribution we provide the sistematic description, the biostratigraphic classification and the correlation of the ammonoid faunas collected between 2010 and 2013 at Nimaigu (Wusha) near Xingyi (Guizhou, South China) from the Falang Formation. The sampled interval includes the Zhuganpo Member, which provided the worldwide known Xingyi Fossi...

In this contribution we provide the sistematic description, the biostratigraphic classification and the correlation of the ammonoid faunas collected between 2010 and 2013 at Nimaigu (Wusha) near Xingyi (Guizhou, South China) from the Falang Formation. The sampled interval includes the Zhuganpo Member, which provided the worldwide known Xingyi Fossi...

The Upper Carnian-Lower Norian (Upper Triassic) Luning Formation at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park (BISP) in central NV (USA) has been sampled using for the first time the bed-by-bed approach for ammonoids, pelagic bivalves, and conodonts, more than 60 years after its first description by Silberling (U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 322: 1–...

In the last 3 years the late Paleozoic history of Central Iran has been investigated with the aim of restoring a critical phase in the geological evolution of this Cimmerian block, that is its late pre-rift and the following early drift sedimentary history. This project was developed as the ideal continuation of a former project on the Triassic col...

Il Bivalve Daonella Mojsisovic è uno dei generi della famiglia Halobiidae Kittl, 1912 di maggior successo, sia in termini di ampiezza di distribuzione paleogeografica e velocità di dispersione, che di adattamento a condizioni paleoclimatiche (=paleolatitudinali) diverse. Il tasso evolutivo è in alcune linee evolutive piuttosto alto, per cui diverse...

The Anisian succession of Nakhlak (in Central Iran) is characterized by a siliciclastic succession with minor carbonate units, with massive carbonate mounds up to 50 m thick in its upper part. The mounds, constrained in age to the late Bithynian (Ismidicus Zone) by ammonoids and conodonts, are characterized by a flat top and a lateral pinch-out mar...

New intensive bed-by-bed ammonoid collecting efforts conducted in 2010 and 2011 at South Canyon, the type locality of the lowest Carnian Desatoyense Zone of the North American chronostratigraphic scale, have lead to the recognition of a new species of Trachyceras that is herein described The new species is dedicated to Norman J. Silberling (1928-20...

The biostratigraphic study of the Pizzo Lupo section was conducted as part of the doctoral thesis “ La collezione di ammonoidi triassici G.G. Gemmellaro. Revisione sistematica ed importanza Paleobiogeografica” (Tripodo, 2010) and further developed in the project PRIN2008 “Stratigrafia integrata del Triassico Superiore: GSSP e sezioni ausiliarie in...

A small collection of ammonoids from the Upper Triassic Scillato Formation at Pizzo Mondello (Agrigento, Sicily) is studied. These specimens were collected within the framework of a project intended to provide integrated high-resolution bio-chronostratigraphic support for the Upper Carnian-Norian magnetostratigraphic scale defined at this site, whi...

Four vertebral centra from the well known fossil-bearing Prezzo Limestone (Upper Anisian, Middle Triassic) at the newly discovered locality Piazza Brembana (Bergamo) are described. The four bones were found exposed on the bed surface in an articulated position. Despite the incompleteness of three centra due to erosion, their otherwise fairly good p...

A well preserved section of Halobia limestones has been recently studied near Castronovo di Sicilia in central Sicily in the framework of a project aimed at the identification of the historical localities where G.G. Gemmellaro (1904) has collected the Triassic ammonoids described in his outstanding monograph “I cefalopodi del Trias Superiore della...

The Triassic chronostratigraphic scale was built on two centuries of research on ammonoid biostratigraphy and biochronology. Two Triassic stage bases and all of the Triassic substages are currently defined by ammonoid bioevents. The study of Triassic ammonoids began during the late 1700s, and in 1895, Edmund von Mojsisovics, Wilhelm Waagen and Carl...

The Aghdarband Basin, consisting of a strongly deformed arc-related Triassic marine succession, is a key-area for the study of the Cimmerian events, as it is unconformably covered by mid-Jurassic gently folded sediments entirely sealing the Cimmerian compressive structures. The basin developed during part of the Triassic in a highly mobile tectonic...

Pizzo Mondello (Sicani Mountains, western Sicily, Italy) is one of the best localities in the world for the definition of the Carnian/ Norian (C/N) boundary. This boundary is recorded within a suc- cession of about 400 m thick Late Carnian-Late Norian “Calcari con selce”, well known for the good primary magnetostrati- graphic record and stable carb...

New structural, sedimentological, petrological and palaeomagnetic data collected in the region of Nakhlak–Anarak provide important constraints on the Cimmerian evolution of Central Iran. The Olenekian–Upper Ladinian succession of Nakhlak was deposited in a forearc setting, and records the exhumation and erosion of an orogenic wedge, possibly locate...

An important, 2.4 km-thick Triassic succession is exposed at Nakhlak (central Iran). This succession was deformed during the Cimmerian orogeny and truncated by an angular unconformity with undeformed Upper Cretaceous sediments. This integrated stratigraphic study of the Triassic included bed-by-bed sampling for ammonoids, conodonts and bivalves, as...

New Late Ordovician, Permian, and Triassic paleomagnetic data from Iran are presented. These data, in conjunction with data from the literature, provide insights on the drift history of Iran as part of Cimmeria during the Ordovician-Triassic. A robust agreement of paleomagnetic poles of Iran and West Gondwana is observed for the Late Ordovician-ear...

In this PhD Thesis the brachiopod fauna from the Mobarak Formation of Tournaisian (Early Carboniferous) age from the eastern Alborz Mountains, North Iran has been analyzed. Seven hundred fourty-five specimens of brachiopods has been sampled in the Abrendan section, located north of the town of Damghan. After the field activity the collected materi...

S outh Canyon, located in the New Pass Range in central Nevada (Fig. 1), is one of the most important localities for Upper Triassic marine invertebrates in North America. This site yields very rich ammonoid faunas, as well as cnidarians (Muller, 1936; Stanley, 1979; Roniewicz and Stanley, 1998), foraminifers (Gazdzicki and Stanley, 1983), bivalves...

In the last 10 years the Subcommission on Triassic Stratigraphy increased speed in the definition of the GSSP of the Triassic Standard Global Chronostratigraphic Scale. In 2001 the base of the Induan has been defined in China and few years later in 2005 the base of the Ladinian has been defined in Italy. Among the GSSP candidate sections which are...

South Canyon, type locality of the Lower Carnian Trachyceras desatoyense Zone of the North American Standard Scale, has been extensively sampled utilizing a bed-by-bed approach. The ammonoid rich Middle Member of the Augusta Mountain Formation (Star Peak Group) has been sampled at five sites, and preliminary data are presented. Suture line analysis...

During the past few years, an extensive bed-by-bed sampling program for ammonoids, pelagic bivalves and conodonts was conducted at the classic South Canyon (central Nevada) locality. This area, recognized as the best site for the study of the earliest Carnian in North America, has never before been examined with such an approach. Preliminary data,...

Conodonts from the Augusta Mountain Formation in the New Pass Range area of Nevada are documented and compared with those recently described from Ladinian-Carnian boundary strata in British Columbia. Budurovignathus mungoensis dominated faunas from the Lower Member of the formation correlate with conodont faunas known from the lower Sutherlandi Zon...

At the McCoy Mine in the Wildhorse district (Stop 1), today’s trip continues with the Anisian stratigraphy and biostratigraphy seen in the first-day trip. The route then proceeds to South Canyon in the New Pass Range where we examine the classic Triassic (Anisian-Ladinian-Carnian) section and its paleontology. The Triassic stratigraphic sections at...

GEOLOGICAL SETTING The Pizzo Mondello section is located in western Sicily (Sicani Mountains) and is one of the most continuous and well-preserved Up-per Triassic hemipelagic successions of the Mediterranean domain. The Sicani Mountains are composed of pelagic sediments of Permian to Ceno-zoic age and derive from the Neogene deformation of the Sica...

The first record of Late Ordovician ostracods from Iran comes from the lowermost part of the Shirgesht Formation east of Anarak, central Iran. The fauna comprises more than 40 species of beyrichiocopes and podocopes with a total of 17 new species and one new subspecies. Among the beyrichiocopes the Binodicopa are represented with 10 species, the Pa...

A small collection of Ladinian ammonoids from Mt. Svilaja (External Dinarides) is here described for the first time. The ammonoids were collected from a thick succession, which yielded in its lower part the classic Lower Triassic ammonoid faunas of Muć, known since the XIX century. The collection comes from an interval yielding conodonts of the hun...

The bivalve Daonella Mojsisovics, 1874 is very common in the Middle Triassic pelagic facies, whereas the record of this genus from shallow water limestones is rare. In the present paper a new species of Daonella, named D. pseudograbensis, is described from the Esino Limestone, a Ladinian (Middle Triassic) carbonate platform in the central Southern...

New stratigraphic, petrographic and paleontological data from the Lower Permian of southeastern Arabia help to elucidate the still debated timing of Neotethys rifting and the climatic evolution following the Gondwanan glaciation. The transition from the Al Khlata to the Saiwan Formation, here described in detail, is interpreted to record continenta...

Detailed stratigraphic, paleontologic, and petrographic data from the Middle Permian Khuff Formation exposed in the Haushi–Huqf area of Interior Oman provide new insight into the Permian climatic evolution of the northern Gondwana margin, and on the still debated timing of Neotethys opening between Gondwana and the Cimmerian blocks. The Khuff Forma...

The aim of this paper is to revise the ammonoid and conodont biostratigraphy of the Middle Triassic basinal formations in the classic area between Scalve and Camonica Valleys (Southern Alps). This area played a key role in the history of Middle Triassic stratigraphy. In the XIX century the study of several ammonoids collected in the Wengen Formatio...

Magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic data for the Middle Triassic (Anisian) were obtained from the Han-Bulog facies in the Nderlysaj section from the Albanian Alps and the Dont and Bivera formations in the Dont–Monte Rite composite section from the Dolomites region of northern Italy. The Nderlysaj section is biochronologically bracketed betwee...

For the first time a population analysis of compressed Ptychitidae (Ammonoidea) bed-by-bed collected irorr' Prezzo Limestone (Upper Anisian, Southern Alps) is performed. The analysis allows to demonstrate that within some populations of compressed ptychitids during the growth the venter may become subacute/fastigate and the section lanceolate. This...

The “Fenestella shales” are a mid-Carboniferous marker unit which has long been described from classic localities of the NW Himalaya (Kashmir, Spiti). Correlative shaly units have recently been traced in central Nepal and as far as South Tibet, where they yielded varied brachiopod assemblages indicative of Bashkirian age.A second distinct interval...

Magnetostratigrapic and biostratigraphic data across the Anisian/Ladinian (Middle Triassic) boundary were obtained from the Frötschbach/Seceda section from the Dolomites region of northern Italy, and the Vlichos section from the Greek island of Hydra, where the Aghia Triada published section was also resampled. The Frötschbach/Seceda section includ...

Magnetobiostratigraphic data are presented from three Early/Middle Triassic Han-Bulog Limestone successions from Kçira, northern Albania. A total of 206 standard palaeomagnetic samples were obtained for thermal demagnetization and statistical analysis from the 42, 10 and 5 m thick sections. The reversal-bearing characteristic component, carried by...

This paper is focused on the description of an assemblage of ceratitids collected more than 50 years ago by C. Renz from the Han-Bulog Limestone of Hydra (Greece), undescribed until now. The identified forms are Asseretoceras camunum (Assereto, 1963), Megaceratites aff. fallax Balini, 1992b, Ronconites sp. n. A, "Kellnerites' sp. ind., Nevadites sp...

A preliminary analysis of the cephalopods bed-by-bed sampled in the late 60s is developed. In this classical locality the fossils were found not only in two beds, as reported in the literature, but in 20 layers. The collection consists of about 390 specimens which have been classified at the rank of genus. The most significant data resulting from t...