Detailed biostratigraphic and isotopic studies can now provide a major step forward to a better understanding of the depositional environment, paleogeographic evolution and climatic history of the Paratethys region. This project will form a substantial contribution to unraveling the paleogeography of the Paratethys system during its Miocene and Pliocene evolution, i.e. the time when the Mediterranean experienced its dramatic desiccation event of the Messinian Salinity Crisis. 

The combination of biostratigraphic data with the magnetostratigraphic records allows the construction (and re-evaluation) of an accurate biostratigraphic - geological time scale for the basins of the Paratethys. Such a time scale is essential to understand the tectonic history and the paleoclimatological - paleoenvironmental evolution of the entire region. This study is complementary to the PhD research of Iuliana Vasiliev.

Fieldwork in Taman Peninsula (Russia)

Reconnaissance of the Madulari section (S. Carpathians)

Detailed isotopic studied on the high-resolution biostratigraphic dataset can provide crucial information when gateways between Western (Transylvanian/ Pannonian) - Eastern Paratethys - Mediterranean were created and/or disrupted.

• Bosboom, R.E., Dupont-Nivet, G., Houben, A.J.P., Brinkhuis, H., Villa, G., Mandic, O., Stoica, M., Zachariasse, W.J., Guo, Z., Li, C. and Krijgsman, W. (2011). Late Eocene sea retreat from the Tarim Basin (west China) and concomitant Asian paleoenvironmental change, Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 299, 385-398.  
• Vasiliev I., Iosifidi A.G., Khramov A.N., Krijgsman W., Kuiper, K.F., Langereis C.G., Popov V.V., Stoica M., Tomsha V.A. and Yudin S.V. (2011). Magnetostratigraphy and radiometric dating of upper Miocene - lower Pliocene sedimentary successions of the Black Sea Basin (Taman Peninsula, Russia), Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.,  310, 163-175.   

• Krijgsman, W., Stoica, M., Vasiliev, I. and Popov, V.V. (2010). Rise and fall of the Paratethys Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 290, 183-191 
• Leever, K.A., Matenco, L., Rabagia, T., Cloetingh, S., Krijgsman, W. and Stoica, M. (2010). Messinian sea level fall in the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys): palaeogeographical implications from seismic sequence stratigraphy, Terra Nova, 22, 12-17. 
• Vasiliev, I., Reichart, G.J., Davies, G., Krijgsman, W., Stoica, M. (2010). Strontium isotope ratios of the Eastern Paratethys during the Mio-Pliocene transition; Implications for interbasinal connectivity, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 292, 123-131 
• Vasiliev, I., de Leeuw, A., Filipescu, S., Krijgsman, W., Kuiper, K., Stoica, M., Briceag, A. (2010). The age of the Sarmatian-Pannonian transition in the Transylvanian Basin (Central Paratethys), Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 297, 54-69. 

• Stoica, M., Lazar, I., Vasiliev, I. and Krijgsman, W. (2007). Mollusc assemblages of the Pontian and Dacian deposits from the Topolog-Arges area (southern Carpathian foredeep - Romania), Geobios, 40, 391-405. 

• Vasiliev, I., Krijgsman, W., Stoica, M. Langereis, C.G. (2005). Mio-Pliocene magnetostratigraphy in the southern Carpathian foredeep and Mediterranean – Paratethys correlations,Terra Nova, 17, 376–384