Integrated Upper Carnian to Lower Norian biochronology and implications for the Upper Triassic magnetic polarity time scale

We summarize the ammonoid, conodont and halobiid biochronology of the Upper Carnian to Lower Norian, based on a discussion of data in the Alps, Sicily, Balkans, Turkey, Himalayas and Timor. With this integrated biostratigraphic scale, the Pizzo Mondello section (Sicily) can be recalibrated and the Carnian-Norian boundary more precisely located there. As a result, the magnetostratigraphy of this section is now in good agreement with previous results from Turkey, although the latter series are more condensed. Cross-correlation of available magnetostratigraphic data from marine Tethyan sections allow us to construct a composite Upper Carnian to Upper Norian geomagnetic polarity time scale (GPTS). This GPTS leads us to question previously proposed magnetobiostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic correlations within the Upper Triassic Newark non-marine sedimentary sequence. Π2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.