The Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous of eastern Heilongjiang, northeast China: stratigraphy and regional basin history

In eastern Heilongjiang, the Upper Jurassic is marine and restricted to the Suibin and Dong’an areas, where it is characterized faunally by Callovian–Volgian (Tithonian) bivalves and florally by dinoflagellates. The Lower Cretaceous is widely distributed in eastern Heilongjiang, and characterized faunally by Berriasian–Valanginian bivalves, Barremian–Albian ammonites and Aucellina, and florally by dinoflagellates. To the west, the marine facies grade into non-marine beds. Thus, in the east, for example in the Dong’an and Dajiashan areas, near the northwestern Palaeo-Pacific, the Lower Cretaceous is marine; westward, in the Yunshan, Longzhaogou, Peide, and Zhushan areas, marine and non-marine deposits alternate, whereas further west still, e.g. in the Jixi Basin, non-marine facies are intercalated with marine beds. This regional distribution is indicative of a large, shallow embayment opening eastwards to the Palaeo-Pacific; during the Early Cretaceous successive transgressive-regressive events influenced the climate and biota of eastern Heilongjiang and northeastern China. Many of the Lower Cretaceous sections contain abundant coals, demonstrating that in this region the Early Cretaceous was an important coal-forming period. Some non-marine bivalve species are common to the Lower Cretaceous Jixi Group of eastern Heilongjiang, the Jehol Group of western Liaoning and the Transbaikalian Group of Siberia, suggesting that these groups are of comparable Early Cretaceous age.