Jurassic–Cretaceous controversies in the Western Carpathian Flysch: the “black flysch” case study

The age of the “black flysch” deposits in the Polish sector of the Pieniny Klippen Belt (Western Carpathians) has been a subject of a long lasting controversy. References to both the Middle Jurassic and the mid-Cretaceous have been made. The “black flysch” as well as overlying deposits, exposed in two sections located in the Slovakian and Polish segments of the Pieniny Klippen Belt (Western Carpathians), are the subject of this paper. A detailed examination of their foraminiferal and calcareous nannofossil content, carried out on 59 samples, has revealed in most samples the presence of redeposited Jurassic and Cretaceous microfossils. Analyses of our results and other published data have proved an Albian–Cenomanian age for the “black flysch” deposits and brought to light new information on the reworking processes of the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous sediments and fossils whose presence has led to previous misinterpretations of the biostratigraphic record.