ON NEW LOCALITIES OF MARINE MICROFOSSILSIN UPPER CENOZOIC DEPOSITS OF BELARUS

Abstract

New data on microfossils from the Upper Cenozoic strata from the territory of Belarus are reported in the article.
In the Radashkovichy Upland (Central Belarus), in sands, silts and clays, which are currently mapped as Middle
Pleistocene, a mixed association of Upper Cretaceous and Cenozoic Foraminifera was revealed. It is suggested that the
Upper Cretaceous foraminifers were reworked in the process of erosion of loose Coniacian — Maastrichtian sediments
previously deposited in that region, whereas Cenozoic ones can occur in reworked sediments as well as in situ, as
inhabitants of a Late Cenozoic marine basin which supposedly spread over this territory. In the judgment of the authors,
any possibilities of preservation of delicate tests of Foraminifera during hypothetical glacial destruction of their host
rocks seem very problematic. Another result of the present study is the discovery of an in situ association of agglutinated
and calcareous tubular microscopic structures, which may belong to cold-water Foraminifers, in a site located in the
eastern part of the Polesian Lowland (Dnieper river bank) in boulder clay. Their host sedimentary unit is regarded in the
regional geological literature as the moraine of the Middle Pleistocene Dnieper glaciation. Perhaps this paleontological
finding provides evidence of the supposed Late Cenozoic marine transgression to this region. On the basis of the studied
material preliminary assumptions about paleogeographical setting and on conditions of sedimentation are suggested.

Fig. 8. Ref.: 20 titles.