Developments in the Cretaceous Stratigraphy of Crimea. Part 1. Introduction and the Lower Cretaceous

This paper summarizes the state of knowledge of the Cretaceous stratigraphy of the Mountainous Crimea and selected biostratigraphic groups and magnetostratigraphy. The first part of the paper discusses the Early Cretaceous, its stratigraphy, selected fossil groups and magnetostratigraphy of the Mountainous Crimea. The data on the figured reference sections were updated in terms of biostratigraphic zonation. Selected fossil groups represented in the paper include ammonites, organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts, ostracods, calpionellids and nannoplankton. The description of each group contains an information on the main publications, types of biostratigraphic units and their distribution, fossil assemplages, images of the most important fossils, and brief discussion on the correlation. Some of the ammonite index fossils are figured for the first time. The magnetostratigraphy summarizes latest data published mostly in Russian for the whole Early Cretaceous succession of the Mountainous Crimea.