Lagoonal-continental Oligocene of southern Apulia.

In the frame of investigations on the continental and transitional Oligo-Miocene mollusk assemblages of southern Apulia, evidence of a spectacularly exposed succession recording a range of distinct depositional paleoenvironments and faunas is presented. Its age is tentatively referred to the Late Oligocene. The succession records unusual taxonomic associations, as yet unrecorded from the Italian peninsula, and distinctive depositional features. This allows discussion of some features of the rarely recorded shallow-water/continental transition, commonly biased in the Miedterranean Oligocene sedimentary record. While the foraminifera testify to the existence of similarities with coeval assemblages from the Middle East and SW Spain, the malacofaunas suggest strong affinities with eastern and southeastern Europe.