28 
1991la—c) and Malaeva & Kulikov (1991). 
Other locally stratigraphically useful fossil groups include 
otoliths (Brzobohaty, 1983), Problematica (Bolboforma 
(Szezechura, 1985; Spiegler & Rogl, 1992)), siliceous 
microfossils (diatoms (Shishova, 1955; Ushakova & Ushko, 
1971; Gasanova, 1965; Rasulov, 1986), radiolarians (Slama, 
1983), silicoflagellates (Dumitrica, 1985) and sponge spicules 
(Riha, 1983)), and, in non-marine environments, vertebrate 
remains (Camelopardis, Felis, Gazella, Hipparion, Hyaena, 
Mastodon, Mesopithecus, Rhinoceros, etc.) (Kretzoi, 1985; 
Steininger, Rabeder & R6gl, 1985; Bernor et al., 1987, 1993; 
Lindsay et al., 1989; Régl et al., 1993) and charophytes (R6gl et 
al., 1993). 
Ali-Zade et al. (1994a, 1994b, 1995, in press), Reynolds et al. 
(in press) and Simmons et a/. (in press) give further details of the 
Neogene biostratigraphy of Eastern Azerbaijan. 
Palaeoenvironmental Interpretation 
Non-Marine Environments. Non-marine environments are 
characterised by fresh-water ostracods such as Aglaiocypris, 
Candona, Candonella, Cyclocypris, Cypria, Eucypris, Ilyocypris, 
Pseudostenocypria and Zonocypris, and terrestrially-derived 
pollen and spores. Pennate diatoms, fresh-water gastropods and 
terrestrial vertebrate remains may also be found. 
Palaeoclimate can be inferred from the distribution of 
vegetation types as inferred from pollen and spores. At the 
present-day, the distribution of vegetation types is determined 
chiefly by climatic factors (temperature (latitude, altitude), 
aridity). Thus, for instance, birches characterise the cold 
‘forest-tundra’ of the extreme north, diverse coniferous and 
deciduous types the ‘taiga’ of the central area, and grasses and 
shrubs the arid treeless ‘steppe’ and semi-desert to the extreme 
south (Figs 2-3). 
Quasi- Marine and Marine Environments. Deposition in oligo- to 
meso- haline (hereafter ‘quasi-marine’ (brackish, reduced 
salinity)) environments prevailed in the Paratethyan Basin 
(especially in the Caspian) throughout much of its geological 
evolution because of its restricted connection to the open ocean 
(see above). However, water depths and sedimentary regimes 
may have been similar to those of the normal marine realm, and, 
moreover, deposition under normal or near-normal marine 
conditions did take place at times (e.g., Maykopian and 
Akchagylian). Palaeosalinity can be inferred from diatoms (e.g., 
Ushakova & Ushko, 1971; Schrader, 1979) or from foraminifera 
and ostracods ranging through to the Recent (see below). 
Palaeosalinity and/or palaeotemperature curves are presented 
by Semenenko (1979), Chepalyga (1985) and Demarcq (1985). 
Quasi-marine environments in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea 
are characterised by the benthonic foraminiferal genus Florilus, 
and some species of the genera Ammobaculites, Ammoscalaria, 
Ammonia and Elphidium (salinity tolerance range 1—5 parts per 
thousand (ppt)), and Miliammina, Haynesina and Rosalina and 
some species of Nonion s.l. and Quinqueloculina (1—26ppt) 
(Macarovici & Cehan-Ionesi, 1962; Tufescu, 1968, 1973; 
Murray, 1973, 1991; Gheorghian, 1974; Yassini & Ghahreman, 
1977; Yanko, 1990b), the ostracod genera Cyprideis (2—-14ppt), 
Maetocythere (4-14ppt), Loxoconcha (5—14ppt), Bakunella, 
Caspiolla and Cytherissa (11-13/l4ppt) and Graviacypris 
(12-13ppt) (Gofman, 1966; Yassini, 1986; Boomer, 1993a), and 
the calcareous nannofossil genus Emiliania (1|ppt) (Bukry, 
1974). 
Normal or environments are 
near-normal marine 
R.W. JONES AND M.D. SIMMONS 
characterised by the benthonic foraminiferal genera Discorbis, 
Textularia, Bolivina, Bulimina, Brizalina, Cibicides, Gavelinopsis 
and Trifarina and some species of the genera Ammonia, Nonion 
s.. and Quinqueloculina (salinity tolerance range 11—26ppt) 
(Macarovici & Cehan-Ionesi, 1962; Tufescu, 1968, 1973; 
Murray, 1973, 1991; Yassini & Ghahreman, 1977; Yanko, 
1990b). 
CLIMATOSTRATIGRAPHY 
Zubakov & Borzenkova (1990) defined a _ series of 
climatostratigraphic units called ‘climathems’ (some conceptual, 
some stratotypified (and with representative pollen spectra 
documented)) which they used in the regional correlation of 
Eastern Paratethys (see also Zubakov, 1993). Of these, 
‘superclimathems’ (SCTs), with an average duration of 200,000 
years, are the most useful. SCTs are correlated with half the 
370,000-425,000-year cycle of orbital eccentricity, and reflect 
changes in climate (alternating between ‘cryo-’ and ‘thermo-’ 
meric (cool and warm respectively)). 
Zubakov & Borzenkova interpreted pollen spectra dominated 
by steppe and semi-desert vegetation as being of ‘warm’ aspect 
(whereas, in fact, they are more characteristic of aridity than 
high temperature) and those dominated by forest vegetation as 
being of ‘cool’ aspect (whereas they are in fact more 
characteristic of humidity than of low temperature). In the 
Caspian, they found the former to characterise regressions and 
the latter to characterise transgressions, and therefore correlated 
regressions with ‘warm’ phases (interglacials) and transgressions 
with ‘cool’ phases (glacials) (Fig. 4A). Regression during 
interglacials is possible if sediment supply and subsidence are in 
equilibrium but evaporation exceeds precipitation and run-off. 
Transgression during glacials is possible if sediment supply 
(reduced by rivers freezing) fails to fill the accommodation space 
created by subsidence. Note in this context that the level of the 
Caspian has fallen by some 5m since records were first taken in 
the 1760’s. However, it also appears to have been rising over the 
last fifty years (currently at a rate of 20cms/year in the South 
Caspian). Historical records are probably unreliable in a 
geological context because of the influence of man on the 
environment. This is particularly true in the case of the Aral Sea, 
whose level has fallen and whose salinity has risen drastically 
since the 1960’s owing to abstraction of the headwaters of the 
feeder rivers (the Amu Darya and Syr Darya) to irrigate the 
cotton fields of Uzbekistan (see, for instance, Boomer, 1993a—b). 
Incidentally, as a result of this catastrophic ecological change, 
eleven species of fresh-water ostracod known to have been living 
in the Aral Sea thirty years ago no longer live there. Only the 
quasi-marine species Cyprideis torosa lives there today. 
The evidence for regressions during interglacials and 
transgressions during glacials appears somewhat equivocal. An 
equally strong case, and one more in keeping with a priori 
expectation from experience in other parts of the world, can be 
made for correlating regressions with glacials and transgressions 
with interglacials (Fig. 4B). One key observation in support of 
this case is the apparent correlation of the major transgressions 
not only with warm phases (see, for instance, Skalbdyna, 1985), 
but also with global transgressions (see, for instance, Haq et al., 
1988). Pollen spectra of ‘arid’ aspect in glacial sediments and of 
‘humid’ aspect in interglacial sediments are explicable in terms 
of, respectively, contractions and expansions of the forest belt | 
