Vachard et al.—Eifelian–Givetian foraminifers of the Carnic Alps (Austria) Geologic setting


The Carnic Alps, which are part of the Southern Alps and form an east-west-trending mountain range along the border between southern Austria and Italy, are well known for its almost con- tinuous and well-preserved sedimentary succession ranging in age from the Late Ordovician to the Late Permian (e.g., Schönlaub, 1979, 1980, 1985a, b; Schönlaub and Heinisch, 1993; Schönlaub and Histon, 2000). The Devonian of the Carnic Alps, which is best exposed in the Plöckenpass- Wolayersee area, is developed in different facies ranging from shallow marine environments (including carbonate buildups formed by stromatoporoids and tabulate corals and lagoonal sediments) to reef slope deposits, condensed pelagic cephalopod limestones, and deep marine offshore shales and siliceous sediments (bedded chert). The shallow marine facies is up to 1200m thick, whereas the condensed pelagic limestone facies measures ~ 100m (Schönlaub, 1979, 1985a, 1985b; Schönlaub and Heinisch, 1993; Schönlaub and Histon, 2000). The Feldkogel Limestone is part of the Devonian shallow


marine facies of the Feldkogel Nappe (“northern shallow-water facies”) and is described as algal laminite with dolomite layers (Schönlaub, 1985a, 1985b; Kreutzer, 1992b). The Feldkogel Limestone is more than 330m thick and dated as Eifelian–Late Devonian (Kreutzer, 1990). The Gamskofel Limestone is developed in a similar facies


(800m thick bedded succession of algal laminites with inter- calated Amphipora limestone beds), but is older (Pragian– Givetian?) and belongs to the “southern shallow-water facies” of the Kellerwand Nappe according to Kreutzer (1992a). From the Feldkogel Limestone at Mount Polinik,


Kreutzer (1992a) described the following microfacies types: (1) MF-Type 5c—bindstone (stromatolite with rare ostracodes and parathuramminids), (2) MF-Type 12—quartz-rich dolos- parite and stromatolites, and (3) MF-Type 13—ostracode and Parathurammina-packstone (peloid-pack-/grainstone with parathuramminids of Kreutzer, 1992b). Kreutzer (1992a) assigned the monolocular foraminifers to Parathurammina dagmarae Suleimanov and cf. Cribrosphaeroides sp. Recently, Pohler et al. (2015) introduced the term Polinik


Formation, in which they included the Gamskofel Limestone and Feldkogel Limestone. These authors described the Polinik Formation as a bedded, cyclic, shallow marine succession of dominantly algal laminites and Amphipora limestone. The type locality is at Mount Polinik. The Polinik Formation is of Pragian to Frasnian, probably of younger, age; its estimated thickness is 700–800 m.


Materials and methods


The studied samples are derived from bedded limestones of the Devonian “Feldkogel-Kalk” (Feldkogel Limestone) of the Polinik Formation exposed at the summit of Mount Polinik (2332 m) in the Carnic Alps (Figs. 1, 2), ~5km SSW of Köt- schach in the Gail Valley (Carinthia, southern Austria) (see geologic map of Schönlaub, 1985a). At the summit of Mount Polinik, we measured two short sections that characterize the facies of the Feldkogel Limestone (Figs. 2, 3). Section A is


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Figure 1. Geographical map of the studied area with location of Mount Polinik.


Figure 2. Top of Mount Polinik with locations of the two sections (Fig. 3) and the fossiliferous samples. Contour lines (2200, 2300) in meters.


located ~10m north of the summit cross of Mount Polinik and is 2mthick. Section B was measured ~50msouth of the summit cross and measures ~4 m. Four samples were collected from section A and four samples from section B. Additionally, samples were collected from bedded limestones of the summit area of Mount Polinik (Fig. 2). From all samples, 16 thin sections were prepared, which were studied under the micro- scope in terms of microfacies and paleontology.


Repositories and institutional abbreviations.—All thin sections used in this study are stored in the collection of the Institute of Geology (POL 1–POL 15), University of Innsbruck, Austria.


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