Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) shallow-marine limestones with intercalated polymictic conglomerates
were investigated with respect to their biostratigraphic age and their microfacies. They are
the younger part of the generally carbonate-siliciclastic Lower Cretaceous deep-water (max. few
hundred metres) turbiditic sequences (“Paraflysch”) of the so-called East Vardar zone in the Belgrade
area. The biostratigraphic age of the limestones was determined by orbitolinid foraminifera:
the co-occurrence of Dictyoconus? pachymarginalis SCHROEDER and Mesorbitolina
texana (ROEMER) besides various other microfossils suggest a biostratigraphic age of this shallow-
marine limestone succession as middle Aptian (Gargasian). Radiolarite components in the
conglomerates are Triassic in age and were derived from the obducted Middle Triassic to Middle
Jurassic Neo-Tethys ophiolites and/or their ophiolitic mélanges on the wider Adria plate. From
both the first precise biostratigraphic age dating as middle Aptian combined with microfacies
analysis of these shallow-marine limestones and the component spectrum in the intercalated
conglomerates, it can be concluded that the Lower Cretaceous turbiditic “Paraflysch” succession
was deposited on the eastern rim of the Dinarides. The results will allow a better comparison
of the different Lower Cretaceous sedimentary successions deposited on the eastern margin
of the Dinarides.