Gosau Group

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Gosau Group
Stratigraphic range: Late Cretaceous-Eocene ~90–50 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Rocks of the Gosau Group exposed in the Imster Muttekopf
Type	stratigraphic group
Sub-units	Eastern realm: Upper Gosau Subgroup - Piesting & Zweiersdorf Formations Lower Gosau Subgroup - Kreuzgraben, Maiersdorf & Grünbach Formations Western realm: Upper Gosau Subgroup - Ressen, Nierental & Zwieselalm Formations Lower Gosau Subgroup - Kreuzgraben, Schönleiten, Streiteck, Noth, Grabenbach, Hochmoos & Bibereck Formations
Overlies	Unconformity with folded and faulted Permian to Lower Cretaceous rocks
Thickness	2,200–2,600 m (7,200–8,500 ft)
Location
Coordinates	47°36′N 13°30′E / 47.6°N 13.5°E / 47.6; 13.5
Approximate paleocoordinates	32°06′N 15°36′E / 32.1°N 15.6°E / 32.1; 15.6
Region	Central Europe
Country	Austria Germany Slovakia
Extent	Gosau Basin, Limestone Alps
Gosau Group (Austria)

The Gosau Group (German: Gosau-Gruppe) is a lithostratigraphic term for a geological unit found in Austria, Germany, western Slovakia and Romania. The sediments were deposited between the Late Cretaceous to Eocene and are exposed in numerous isolated basins within the Northern Calcareous Alps. The group is divided into two subgroups, the Lower Gosau Subgroup which dates from the Turonian to Campanian, approximately 90 to 75 Ma and the Upper Gosau Subgroup which dates to the Santonian to Eocene, about 83.5 to 50 Ma.

In the Gosau Basin the unit is over 2,300 m (7,500 ft) thick. The formations within each subunit vary significantly between basin. The sequence is largely marine, but the Grünbach Formation represents a terrestrial deposit and to the south-west of Vienna coal deposits have been worked in the Gosau.^(p21) There are many fossiliferous units in the group, these contain both marine fossils such as ammonites and terrestrial remains, including those of dinosaurs, in the Grünbach Formation and Schönleiten Formation.

Stratigraphic contacts between the Gosau beds and any earlier units are generally unconformable and the isolated pockets in which they occur are often fault bounded.^(p21) Because the Gosau Group is a lithostratigraphic unit the time of deposition (in Ma before present) may be vary from place to place but the younger Gosau beds can be distinguished from those which are older than lower Campanian by the assemblage of 'heavy minerals' they contain and in some basins the fossil content allows more accurate dating.

Tectonic relevance

Upper Cretaceous sediments, particularly the Gosau beds, have been of importance in interpreting the tectonic history of the Northern Calcareous Alps.^{(p19 & 21)}

Gosau beds rest unconformably on thrust contacts between sheets in the Northern Calcareous Alps. The unconformable relationship indicates that the early stages of thrusting ('pre-Gosau') had commenced before the Gosau units were deposited in the upper Cretaceous. During later 'post-Gosau' movements the Gosau beds were severely faulted. Those later events involved flexure folding and the northward movement of the Northern Calcareous Alps resulting in it overlying areas of the molasse deposits of Miocene age.

Fossil content

Fossils which have been described from the Gosau Group include:

reptiles
Genus	Species	Presence	Notes	Images
Struthiosaurus	S. austriacus	Grünbach Formation, Lower Austria
Mochlodon	M. suessi		A rhabdodontid iguanodont
Rhadinosaurus	R. alcinus		Possible indeterminate ankylosaur remains
"Crataeomus"	C. lepidophorus		Later found to be synonymous with Struthiosaurus austriacus
	C. pawlowitschii		Later found to be synonymous with Struthiosaurus austriacus in partim
"Danubiosaurus"	D. anceps		Later found to be indeterminate ankylosaurian and Struthiosaurus austriacus remains in partim "Indeterminate fragments"
"Hoplosaurus"	H. ischyrus		Later found to be synonymous with Struthiosaurus austriacus
"Leipsanosaurus"	L. noricus		Later found to be synonymous with Struthiosaurus austriacus
"Pleuropeltus"	P. suessi		Later found to be synonymous with Struthiosaurus austriacus in partim
"Megalosaurus"	M. pannoniensis		Later found to be indeterminate theropod remains
Ornithocheiridae indet.
Mollusca
Genus	Species	Presence	Notes	Images
"Trochactaeon"	T. conicus	Nördliche Kalkalpen, Niederösterreich, Austria	Very common fossil, rock forming

Notes
Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text
crossed out taxa are discredited.

See also

• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations

References

Further reading

• Stern (2011), "Stratigraphy and geochemical charaterisation [sic] of Upper Cretaceous non-marine - marine cycles (Grünbach Formation, Gosau Group, Austria", Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences, 104: 90–107, retrieved 2020-04-02
• Wagreich, Michael; Egger, Hans; Gebhardt, Holger; Mohammed, Omar; Spötl, Christoph; Koukal, Veronika; Hobiger, Gerhard (2011), "A new expanded record of the Paleocene-Eocene transition in the Gosau Group of Gams (Eastern Alps, Austria)" (PDF), Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, 113: 35–65, retrieved 2020-04-02
• Wagreich, Michael; Lukeneder, Alexander; Egger, Hans (2008), "Cretaceous History of Austria" (PDF), Berichte der Geologischen Bundesanstalt, 76: 12–30, ISSN 1017-8880, retrieved 2020-04-02
• Ortner, Hugo (2007), "Styles of soft-sediment deformation on top of a growing fold system in the Gosau Group at Muttekopf, Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria: Slumping versus tectonic deformation", Sedimentary Geology, 196 (1–4): 99–118, Bibcode:2007SedG..196...99O, doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2006.05.028, retrieved 2020-04-02
• Zagorsek, K.; Kroh, A. (2003), "Cretaceous Bryozoa from Scharrergraben (Santonian, Gosau Group, Eastern Alps)", Geologica Carpathica, 54: 395–407, retrieved 2020-04-02
• Wagreich, Michael (2003), "The Grabenbach Formation (Gosau Group, Santonian – Lower Campanian) in the Lattengebirge (Germany): lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and strontium isotope stratigraphy", Stratigraphia Austriaca, 16: 141–150, retrieved 2020-04-02
• Wagreich, Michael; Decker, Kurt (2001), "Sedimentary tectonics and subsidence modelling of the type Upper Cretaceous Gosau Basin (Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria)", International Journal of Earth Sciences, 90 (3): 714–726, Bibcode:2001IJEaS..90..714W, doi:10.1007/s005310000181, retrieved 2020-04-02