Cretaceous Research (1997) 18, 249 –293 Early Cretaceous nannofossils and planktonic foraminifera from northern Gargano (Apulia, southern Italy) *Miriam Cobianchi, †Valeria Luciani and †Alfonso Bosellini *Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra , Universita ` degli Studi di Pavia, via Abbiategrasso, 209, 27100 Pavia, Italy †Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche e Paleontologiche, Universita ` degli Studi di Ferrara , Corso Ercole 1 d’Este, 32, 44100 Ferrara, Italy Revised manuscript accepted 4 November 1996 The study of two Lower Cretaceous stratigraphic sections from northern Gargano, Apulia, southern Italy, has shown that the classic succession of the Umbria-Marche Basin, central Italy, can be extended to the south as far as the Gargano Promontory. Here, the Cretaceous basinal succession consists of three formations: the Maiolica, the Scisti a Fucoidi and the Scaglia. Near the margin of the platform, the Mattinata Formation with frequent gravity-displaced deposits, laterally substitutes the Maiolica Formation. According to our integrated biostratigraphic data, and in agreement with the classic chronostratigraphic schemes proposed from the Umbria-Marche Basin, the Scisti a Fucoidi of northern Gargano correlates with the late part of the early Aptian (C. litterarius Zone p. p. , L. cabri Zone) to the late Albian (lower part of the P. achlyostaurion Zone and B. breggiensis Zone, T. praeticinensis Subzone). The occurrence of two anoxic episodes, which can be correlated with the ‘Urbino level’ and ‘Amadeus segment’ of the Umbria-Marche Basin, also strongly supports the proposed correlation of the two basins. ÷ 1997 Academic Press Limited KEY WORDS: biostratigraphy; calcareous nannofossils; planktonic foraminifera; Early Cretaceous; Maiolica; Mattinata Formation; Scisti a Fucoidi; Gargano Promontory; southern Italy. 1. Introduction Modern research on the stratigraphy of the Gargano Promontory was started in the mid 1960s by AGIP geologists and the Italian Geological Survey (Pavan & Pirini, 1966; Martinis & Pavan, 1967; Cremonini et al., 1971). These workers recognized that the western half of the promontory was part of the shallow-water Apulia Platform, while the eastern half was represented by slope and basinal deposits. The general stratigraphic framework and a new stratigraphic nomencla- ture were proposed and established at this time. More recently, a series of biostratigraphic studies focused on the transitional (slope) and basinal facies of the eastern Gargano Promontory (Luperto Sinni & Masse, 1987; Coccioni & Luperto Sinni, 1989; Luciani, 1993; Luciani & Cobianchi, 1994; Luperto Sinni & Borgomano, 1994; Neri & Luciani, 1994). In this paper we present the results of a study of two Lower Cretaceous sections outcropping in the northern sector of the Gargano Promontory (Figure 1). Three formations have been recognized, the Maiolica, the Mattinata and the Scisti a Fucoidi. This last unit is equivalent to the famous Scisti a Fucoidi of the Umbria-Marche Basin (Coccioni et al., 1987, 1989 and 1990; Coccioni & Battistini, 1989; Cresta et al., 1989; Coccioni & Galeotti, 1991, 1993) and to similar Early Cretaceous units of the Southern Alps (Bersezio, 1992, 1993). The Scisti a Fucoidi forms a continuous belt from Lake Varano in the west to the town of Vieste in the east (Figure 2). The good outcrop conditions allowed a detailed and integrated study of 0195– 6671 / 97 / 020249 + 45 $25.00 / 0 / cr960058 ÷ 1997 Academic Press Limited