The Selandian is a stage in the Paleocene. It spans the time between 61.66 and59.24 Ma. It is preceded by the Danian and followed by the Thanetian.[4] Sometimes the Paleocene is subdivided in subepochs, in which the Selandian forms the "middle Paleocene".
Stratigraphic definition
The Selandian was introduced in scientific literature by Danish geologist Alfred Rosenkrantz in 1924. It is named after the Danish island of Zealand (Danish: Sjælland) given its prevalence there.[5]
The base of the Selandian is close to the boundary between biozones NP4 and NP5. It is slightly after the first appearances of many new species of the calcareous nanoplanktongenusFasciculithus (F. ulii, F. billii, F. janii, F. involutus, F. tympaniformis and F. pileatus) and close to the first appearance of calcareous nanoplankton species Neochiastozygus perfectus. At the original type location in Denmark the base of the Selandian is an unconformity. The official Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) was established in the Zumaia section (43°18′N002°16′W / 43.300°N 2.267°W / 43.300; -2.267) at the beach of Itzurun in the Basque Country, northern Spain.[6]
The start of the Selandian represents a sharp depositional change in the North Sea Basin, where there is a shift to siliciclastic deposition due to the uplift and erosion of the Scotland-Shetland area after nearly 40 million years of calcium carbonate deposition.[7] This change occurs at the same time as the onset of a foreland basin formation in Spitsbergen due to compression between Greenland and Svalbard,[8] suggesting a common tectonic cause that altered the relative motions of the Greenland Plate and the Eurasian Plate. This plate reorganisation event is also manifest as a change in seafloor spreading direction in the Labrador Sea around this time.[9]
The flora was composed of cacti, ferns, and palm trees. Sets of fossils dating to this age collected in a 2023 study by scientists show a contrast of fossil richness with fossil-poor sites in North America and a fossil-rich site (two to three times more abundant) in Gelinden, Belgium. The data from Gelinden, where there were strong plant-arthropod interactions based on the wide array of associated damage to the plants, are consistent with other studies in Europe, Antarctica and South America suggesting that recovery from the End-Cretaceous mass extinction event was regionalized and that these three regions recovered faster than North America.[12]
References
↑Zachos, James C.; Kump, Lee R. (May 2005). "Carbon cycle feedbacks and the initiation of Antarctic glaciation in the earliest Oligocene". Global and Planetary Change. 47 (1): 51–66. Bibcode:2005GPC....47...51Z. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2005.01.001. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
↑See for example Arenillas et al. (2008) or Bernaola et al. (2009) for a description of the Danian-Selandidan boundary
↑Clemmensen A, Thomsen E (2005). "Palaeoenvironmental changes across the Danian–Selandian boundary in the North Sea Basin". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 219 (3–4): 351–394. Bibcode:2005PPP...219..351C. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.01.005.
↑Jones MT, Augland LE, Shephard GE, Burgess SD, Eliassen GT, Jochmann MM, Friis B, Jerram DA, Planke S, Svensen HH (July 2017). "Constraining shifts in North Atlantic plate motions during the Palaeocene by U-Pb dating of Svalbard tephra layers". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 6822. Bibcode:2017NatSR...7.6822J. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-06170-7. PMC5533774. PMID28754976.
↑Oakey GN, Chalmers JA (2012). "A new model for the Paleogene motion of Greenland relative to North America: Plate reconstructions of the Davis Strait and Nares Strait regions between Canada and Greenland". Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 117 (B10): B10. Bibcode:2012JGRB..11710401O. doi:10.1029/2011jb008942.
↑Kwok R (4 February 2009). "Scientists find world's biggest snake". Nature News. doi:10.1038/news.2009.80.
↑Koeberl C, MacLeod KG, eds. (2002). Catastrophic events and mass extinctions: Impacts and beyond. Geological Society of America. pp.303–4.
↑Zambon, Raphaël; Denayer, Julien; Prestianni, Cyrille (2023-06-01). "Plant-insect interactions in the Selandian (Early Paleocene) Gelinden Fossil Flora (Belgium) and what they mean for the ecosystems after the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 619 111524. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2023.111524. ISSN0031-0182.
Further reading
Arenillas I, Molina E, Ortiz S, Schmitz B (2008). "Foraminiferal and δ13C isotopic event-stratigraphy across the Danian-Selandian transition at Zumaya (northern Spain): chronostratigraphic implications". Terra Nova. 20 (1): 38–44. Bibcode:2008TeNov..20...38A. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3121.2007.00784.x. S2CID129044742.
Bernaola G, Martín-Rubio M, Baceta JI (2009). "New high resolution calcareous nannofossil analysis across the Danian-Selandian transition at the Zumaia section: comparisons with South Tethys and Danish sections". Geologica Acta. 7 (1–2): 79–92.
Rosenkrantz A (March 1921). "En ny københavnsk Lokalitet for forsteningsførende Paleocæn". Meddelelser Fra Dansk Geologisk Forening (in Danish). 5: 1–10.
Rosenkrantz A (1924). "De københavnske Grønsandslag og deres Placering i den danske Lagrække". Meddelelser Fra Dansk Geologisk Forening (in Danish). 6: 1–39.
External links
GeoWhen Database - Selandian
Paleogene timescale, at the website of the subcommission for stratigraphic information of the ICS
Stratigraphic chart of the Paleogene, at the website of Norges Network of offshore records of geology and stratigraphy
