Arkell.1956.Jurassic..

I IO WESTERN GERMANY
Zone which are probably all missing in England, as already suggested by
Roll (1932). Finally, the German succession ends with a fauna (Lower
Tithonian, Neuburg Beds) which has no parallel anywhere but in the
French Alps, except for a faint and doubtful echo in Somaliland. In part,
at least, this fauna may be of the age of the Pectinatus Zone and in that case
still Upper Kimeridgian, but as a whole its ammonites are something
altogether original. There is no sign of Upper Tithonian (Ardescian)
or Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian, Valanginian); during these periods the
Alb probably stood at or above sea-level.
LOWER TITHONIAN—UPPER AND MIDDLE KIMERIDGIAN
Zone of Berriasella ciliata and Anavirgatites palmatus. Neuburg Beds,
40 m. Present at Neuburg on the Danube, in Franconia, where quarries
yield an extensive and unique fauna of Perisphinctids (Schneid, 1915).
Schneid's identifications with Uhlig's Spiti genera have not been accepted,
and despite many difficulties in individual cases it seems best to use new
genera created for Schneid's figures by Spath (1925). Some of the outstanding
species are Sublithacoceras dicratus, S. penicillatus, S. caesposus, S. callodiscus,
Subplanites schlosseri, S. echidneus, S. serpens, Anavirgatites palmatus,
A.franconicus, Pseudovirgatites silvescens, P. diffusus, Berriasella ('Parapallasiceras'—not
accepted by Mazenot) ciliata, Simaspidoceras rafaeli, S.
neoburgense, Simoceras schwertschlageri, Virgatosimoceras rothpletzi.
In addition there are some forms, P. racemosus Schneid, P. serotinus
Schneid (1915, pi. ix, figs. 1, 2; pi. x, figs. 1, 2) which seem indistinguishable
generically from Wheatleyites of the Pectinatus Zone (Upper Kimeridgian)
in England. The resemblance of other forms figured by Schneid,
and in particular of the genus Pseudovirgatites Vetters, to Pectinatites
and its allies has already been pointed out (Arkell, 1946, pp. 22-3). Donze
(1948, p. 183) is right in assigning some of Schneid's forms to the Austrian
genus Pseudovirgatites Vetters, although all the species for which Schneid
used this name are different (Anavirgatites). (Vetters' fragment 'aff.
sosia', however, is probably an Anavirgatites: cf. Schneid, pi. xi). According
to Roll (1933, p. 557; 1934^, p. 151) it is to be inferred that the Neuburg
Beds are represented in the Swabian Alb by the upper part of the Hangende
Bankkalke, which are at least 150 m. thick and hardly susceptible of
subdivision, but according to Geyer (1953, p. 132) the Neuburg Beds are
restricted to the Franconian Alb.
Zone of Subplanites vimineus. Rennertshofen Beds, with Brenztal
Oolite 60 m.; upper part of the Reisberg Beds of Schneid; passing laterally
into Diceras and coral limestones. Subplanites vimineus, S. reisi, S.
vicinus Schneid (1914). Schneid included in this zone a lower fauna with
Schlosser's species of the Kelheim Diceras Limestone, but according to
Roll this belongs much lower (see below), and the Rennertshofen Beds are
in reality discordant on underlying beds (Roll in Dorn & others, 1935,
p. 664). Spath in 1925 correlated this zone with the Subplanites Zone of
the Middle Kimeridge Clay of Dorset; but it seems doubtful whether it
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