Seoca Lithiotis Limestone

In Montenegro, Lower Jurassic carbonate deposits are seen intermittently along the Adriatic Carbonate Platform extending from Herzegovina into the region and reaching northern Albania. The Toarcian paleogeography of Montenegro was characterised by two major units, mostly found in the Dinarides: the High Karst Zone, representing the Carbonate Platform, and the Budva Basin, that represented a shallow marine setting where ammonites are abundant, separated at the W of the Apulian Carbonate Platform by the "deep-water Adriatic Basin". The previous Pliensbachian platform suffered in the Toarcian a partial flooding in some sectors and simultaneous emergence in others, with the carbonate facies recovered at S of Nikšić, NE of Podgorica and in the Rumija Mt remaining as environments close to the marginal part. The Adriatic-Dinaric Carbonate Platform is well measured at the Mount Rumija where the transitional facies between the platform setting and the deeper pelagic environment is seen, recovering a lateral transition from a lagoonal environment exposed in Seoce to the platform edge, exposed in Tejani (called Tejani section), and finally the deeper water environment, called Livari section can be observed at the own Mount Rumija. == Description ==

The formation is ~450 m thick and comprises well-bedded light brown to light grey limestones organized into meter-scale shoaling-upward cycles. Typical microfacies include lumachelle beds of Plicatostylidae, bioclastic packstone/wackestone, oncoid–peloid grainstone, and fenestral pelmicrites. This particular province is characterized by fossil plants that belonged to the specific vegetation of intra-oceanic islands with the dominance of "Mangrove" type swamps were Pachypteris dominated, and drier vegetation within the island regions of "Maquis shrubland" type (probably a number of species of the genera Brachyphyllum and Pagiophylum). The nearest emgerged areas were present in the terrains of Sinjavina and Durmitor, marked by a paleorelief of Jurassic Bauxite-abundant deposits within karstified limestones and rare dolomites. ==Paleoenvironment==

Facies architecture and fossil content indicate a low-energy, protected lagoon on the inner to middle ramp, with repeated shoaling-upward parasequences from Plicatostylidae-rich subtidal packstones to fenestral supratidal mud-rich beds. Local hardgrounds, vadose cements and rare breccias record brief emersion events before progradation of oolitic shoals during the Middle Jurassic. Local Budos flora developed on an island setting in the Dinaric Carbonate Platform, likely linked with the exposed layers of Seoce. This setting would be made of the emerged Budoshi High, representing an island flora; a humid belt would have existed along the shore, while coniferous vegetation would have prevailed in the drier interior. The Budoš flora, as well Rumija and Seoce lithiotis facies were made after the Livari supersequence created a massive lagoon in the inner ramp. These types of layers have been vinculated with the early evolution of crabs. == Fossil content ==

Foranimifera Brachiopoda Mollusks Accumulations of Nerineidae gastropods are common. Large, thick-walled gastropods common in the middle and upper parts of the section. High-spired lagoonal gastropods (non-marine tolerant taxa) are found. Echinodermata Common crinoid ossicles and sea urchin fragments mark brief open-marine incursions into the lagoons. "Algae" Unspecified stromatolitic laminae (Cyanophyceae?) is found in multiple levels. Bryophyta Lycophytes Polypodiophyta Spermatophyta == See also ==