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Microbial encrustations from the Middle Oxfordian-earliest Kimmeridgian lithofacies in the Prebetic Zone (Betic Cordillera, southern Spain): characterization, distribution and controlling factors

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Abstract

Two main types of microbial encrustation were identified in Middle Oxfordian to lowermost Kimmeridgian deposits in the Prebetic Zone (southern Spain), showing existing relationships between skeletal content, fabric and morphology of these organosedimentary structures. Laminated planar and concentric encrustations relate to peloidal fabrics (mainly constituted of microbes = microbial laminated fabrics s. str. and microbial oncoids s. str.), as well as to dense microbial fabrics periodically colonized by encrusting foraminifera (microbial laminated fabrics with nubeculariids and microbial oncoids with nubeculariids). Sedimentation rates, substrate stability and grain size, as well as illumination, influenced microbial growth pattern as major controlling factors in low-energy conditions, and forced palaeogeographic and stratigraphic patterns of distribution. Significant encrustation was identified in terrigenous-poor lithofacies from the middle (Transversarium-Bifurcatus zones) to the outer (Transversarium-Bimammatum zones) shelf in the Prebetic Zone. Rare-to-absent encrustation characterized terrigenous-rich deposits (Bimammatum and Planula zones) in the area.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for valuable comments made by the editor André Freiwald and the reviewers, Helmut Keupp (Berlin) and Winfried Werner (Munich). This research was carried out with the financial support of Project BTE2001-3029 (CICYT) and the EMMI group (RNM-178, Junta de Andalucía).

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  1. Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Campus Fuentenueva, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Matías Reolid, Federico Olóriz & Francisco J. Rodríguez-Tovar

  2. UMR CNRS Paléoenvironnements et Paléobiosphère, UFR des Sciences de la Terre, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I, Géode, 2 rue Raphäel Dubois, 69622 , Villeurbanne cedex, France

    Christian Gaillard

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  1. Matías Reolid
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  3. Federico Olóriz
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Correspondence to Matías Reolid.

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Reolid, M., Gaillard, C., Olóriz, F. et al. Microbial encrustations from the Middle Oxfordian-earliest Kimmeridgian lithofacies in the Prebetic Zone (Betic Cordillera, southern Spain): characterization, distribution and controlling factors. Facies 50, 529–543 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-004-0030-9

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