Late Paleozoic Foraminiferal Diversity Record In Donets Basin, Ukraine as a Proxy of Global Climate Dynamics

The Donets Basin was a part of the very active Late Paleozoic Dniepr-Donets rift system, which developed from late Devonian through early Permian time. The 12-14-km thick marine to paralic Carboniferous and Lower Permian successions there represent among the most complete fossiliferous sequences for that period, which have been studied in great detail for over 100 years. The Tournaisian and Visean parts of the succession are predominantly shallow marine limestone, whereas Serpukhovian through Asselian successions are paralic siliciclastic succession with nearly evenly distributed marine limestone and coal seams. The paralic succession in the Donbas hosts about 130 coal seams, many with dateable volcanic ash beds, and over 200 marine limestones with diverse fossils such as foraminifera, conodonts, ammonoids, brachiopods, and corals. The taxonomic occurrences from over 100 sections and wells from published and unpublished sources were compiled and analyzed in our study. The taxonomy was normalized with respect to modern concepts. In addition foraminifera from two key sections were studied in great detail. CONOP software has been used to develop a composite section and foraminifera taxonomic richness curve. Significant taxonomic changes through time have been found, which support recently proposed northern Pangaea foraminifera diversity fluctuations, and may be interpreted with respect to Late Paleozoic climatic changes.