Foraminiferan-calcimicrobial benthic communities from Upper Cretaceous shallow-water carbonates of Albania (Kruja Zone)

From the Kruja Zone of Albania, shallow-water carbonates assigned to the lower Campanian are described and grouped into six microfacies types of shallow subtidal to intertidal depositional settings. The limestones display internal layering suggestive of microbial fabrics with abundance of nubeculariid foraminifera, incertae sedis Thaumatoporella Pia, and subordinate calcimicrobes of possible cyanobacterial origin: Gahkumella Zaninetti, Girvanella sp., and Decastronema kotori (Radoičić). The nubeculariid morphotypes with ornamented tests and microbial coatings reveal some kind of mutualistic relationship comparable to Late Palaeozoic–Mesozoic Tubiphytes Maslov and Crescentiella Senowbari-Daryan et al. The present study expands our knowledge on the micropalaeontological characteristics of the Late Cretaceous “Decastronema–Thaumatoporella association” widespread in carbonate platforms of the peri-Mediterranean region. Our findings indicate that nubeculariids may have played an important binding role in Late Cretaceous peritidal laminated limestones.