Recycled Cretaceous Belemnites in lower Miocene glacio-marine Sediments (Cape Melville Formation) of King George Island, West Antarctica

• Main Authors: Birkenmajer, K., Gazdicki, A., Pugaczewska, H., Wrona, R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 1987
• Subjects: Alexander Island; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Bransfield Strait; Cape Melville; Hector; King George Island; The Antarctic; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Iceberg*
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/35798/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/35798/1/Birkenmajer.pdf

Fossiliferous glacio-marine strata of the Cape Melville Formation (Lower Miocene) yielded recycled Cretaceous fossils — coccoliths and belemnites in addition to Tertiary biota. The belemnites here described belong to the family Dimitobelidae Whitehouse, 1924, and are represented by three taxa: Dimitobelus aff. macgregori (Glaessner, 1945), D. cf. superstes (Hector, 1886) and Peralobelus sp. These Cretaceous fossils were brought to King George Island by drifting icebergs during the Lower Miocene Melville Glaciation and redeposited together with other dropstones in outer shelf deposits of the Cape Melville Formation. The provenance of these recycled Cretaceous fossils is unknown: they could have been brought by drifting icebergs either from the area of Alexander Island where Cretaceous strata with analogous belemnites are known, or from another site (or sites) o f the Antarctic Peninsula sector. Relative abundance of recycled belemnites and Cretaceous calcareous nannoplankton suggests rather a source situated at a distance less than that between King George Island and Alexander Island (some 1200 km), either under ice-sheet or Within the shelf area of the Bransfield Strait.