Summary of a decade of research at the Owadów–Brzezinki Lagerstätte (Tithonian, central Poland): A review and perspectives for the future

Abstract

For over ten years, the Lower to Upper Tithonian boundary beds cropping out in the Owadów–Brzezinki quarry have yielded numerous fossils of ammonites, bivalves, brachiopods, xiphosurans, decapods, insects, and vertebrates – including actinopterygian fishes and various reptiles and others, all of which exhibit fine preservation of their anatomical details due to special environmental conditions during their fossilization. The Owadów–Brzezinki section is also important for stratigraphical correlations because it contains ammonite faunas indicative of the NE European and NW European Subboreal zonal schemes, as well as Tethyan calpionellids. The whole faunal assemblage, which represents taxa of many iconic groups of Mesozoic animals, has created the opportunity to establish the ‘Owadów–Brzezinki geopark’, a geoeducation area where the public, and especially the young, can learn about the beauty of the natural history of the region.