A new middle to late Eocene continental chronostratigraphy from NE Spain

The calibration of the European Paleogene mammal biochronology with the international reference geochronological scale is unconstrained due to the lack of direct marine–continental correlations and insufficient robust magnetostratigraphic data for mammal fossil-bearing sequences. The currently accepted European continental biochronology argues for a correlation of the Paleogene MP14 to MP16 mammal reference levels with the Bartonian stage, and of the MP17 to MP20 levels with the Priabonian. However, new magnetostratigraphic data of the continental sediments of the south-central Pyrenees substantially challenge this chronology. Our new results from the La Pobla de Segur Basin and Sierra de Sis have been integrated into the framework of previous marine–continental stratigraphic correlations and magnetostratigraphic data of the south-central Pyrenees. In this new chronology, MP14 and MP15 reference levels correspond to the Lutetian, whereas MP16 and early MP17 correlate with the early Bartonian. This calibration represents a significant revision of currently accepted marine–continental correlations in Europe, but is not in conflict with the available biostratigraphic data of the south Pyrenean Ebro foreland basin and other western European reference basins.