Highlights—The Poop on the Cretaceous–Paleogene Boundary, OR, Did the K–Pg Event Scare the Crap Out of Echinoids?

The Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–Pg) represents a major event in earth history that impacted both terrestrial and marine realms. To explore the nature of sea-level and biologic change, Esmeray-Senletet al. explore strata straddling the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary event in the Haymana Basin, Turkey, using planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy, a comprehensive microfacies analysis, and a sequence stratigraphy. The results illustrate a catastrophic and abrupt extinction of planktonic foraminifera in the Haymana Basin at the boundary. Immediately above the boundary is an enrichment of authigenic clay minerals and an extraordinary increase in abundance of echinoid fecal pellets, interpreted to represent low sedimentation rates; this signal may provide a criteria for identifying this horizon regionally. Comparing the interpreted relative sea-level curve of the Haymana Basin with sections in Europe, North Africa, and New Jersey, suggests similar trends in sea-level change, and indicate that the K–Pg boundary occurred during a global sea-level rise.

Planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy, microfacies analysis, sequence stratigraphy, and sea-level changes across theCretaceous–Paleogene Boundary in the Haymana Basin, Central Anatolia, Turkey by Selen Esmeray-Senlet, Sevinç Özkan-Altiner, Demir Altiner, and Kenneth G. Miller