Relationships among tectonic setting, substratum and benthonic communities in the Upper Cretaceous of northeastern Matese ( Molise, Italy).

The Cretaceous of Matese is represented by a group of facies testifying to the existence of a carbonate platform, the main environments of which are clearly discernable. Fossil communities, Aptian-Albian in age, consist of benthonic associations where requienids and nerineids prevail. From Cenomanian upwards rudists gradually colonize the platform environments, ranging from the sheltered bottoms of the lagoon to the upper edge of the slope, through shelf margins showing different tectonic-sedimentary characters. Radiolitids retain their ecological role until the end of Cretaceous and characterize the inner platform environments, however, for the edge association, hippuritids of Turonian-Maastrichtian take the place of Cenomanian caprinids. Sandy facies showing different texture characters single out both the lagoon or back-reef environments and the edge-slope environments. The grain fraction of the lagoon sediments is mostly represented by in situ material (pellets, intraclasts, benthonic foraminifers and algae). This kind of sediment gives support to radiolitid communities and sometimes to hippuritids. -from Authors